The Importance of Insulating your Foundation

If there’s one thing that just about every homeowner in Minneapolis and Saint Cloud can agree upon, it’s that it’d be nice to save money on energy bills. A lot of people don’t realize how high energy bills come about in the first place, yet there are a number of different things that can factor into this. Often overlooked is whether or not your foundation is properly insulated.

The Thermal Envelope

A home’s thermal envelope has a dramatic impact on energy efficiency. This can essentially be viewed as any aspect of the home which separates what’s happening inside from what’s happening outside—air sealing and insulation come to mind. The foundation of your home plays a major role in thermal envelope quality. If it’s not well-insulated, the chances you might run into real home performance problems will grow exponentially.

Areas to Focus On

There are a few key areas that need to be focused on when attempting to improve how well-insulated your foundation is. Crawlspaces can be addressed via a fiberglass-reinforced barrier, which gets surrounded by spray foam to help lock-in the vapor barrier. From there, block cavities must be dealt with and can be handled via block injections with RetroFoam, which will improve R-Value and thermal performance by a marked extent. Finally, rim joists — borders between the first floor and basement of a home — should be properly insulated and air-sealed to finish tightening the thermal envelope.

The Benefits of Foundation Insulation

Insulating your foundation comes along with a number of benefits. For one, you can prevent moisture issues, which can lead to mold and poor indoor air quality. Insulation also reduces the risk of insect infestation and limits the chances of radon affecting the health of your family. Finally, it’s a highly effective tool for saving you money on your energy bills. The sooner you get the work done, the sooner you’ll see extra money back in your pocket.

As a fully certified BPI contractor, RetroGreen Energy is your best choice for wall and foundation insulation. We apply the principles of building science to every job we tackle, no matter how simple or complex it may be, and we’ll walk you through the entire process from start to finish.