In the very word "insulation" lies its direct purpose. This material is needed to insulate the house, to create a comfortable temperature inside the room. Everything here is as clear as possible, even at an intuitive level. There is a misconception that the insulation should warm up! But this is not the case. Let's figure out how home insulation works and what mistakes should not be made.
Why does the insulation not heat, if it was created precisely for this? I propose to conduct a simple test. Take a mercury thermometer and wrap it in a layer of insulation. After a few hours, make sure that the thermometer has not moved up, the readings remain the same.
Insulation is not a heater, it does not emit heat like a stove or a radiator. Its main function is to keep the already existing heat. Yes, if you touch the insulation, it will be warm. But the material does not produce this heat, it only reflects your own heat. This fact is unknown to many, so people are used to sewing up with foam, expanded polystyrene and other materials everything that comes to hand.
Remember: if the house does not have a heat source that heats the premises sufficiently, no insulation will help you. In any case, the dwelling will freeze through if it is not heated from the inside.
Try pouring boiling water into a thermos and set it out in the cold. After a few hours, the water will cool down, and after a while it will turn into ice! The thermos also does not produce heat, it only helps to keep it.
This rule must be understood and learned: if the house does not have a heater, radiators, stove, etc., there is no point in insulating it from the outside!
Some people believe so much in the "miraculous properties" of insulation that they sheathe everything with it. Blunders to Avoid:
1. No insulation inside the premises
If you think that by sheathing the walls from the inside, you will make your home warmer, then you are deeply mistaken. On the contrary, in this way you will shorten the "life" of the walls, because they will begin to freeze faster. Moisture will begin to accumulate under the insulation, heat will evaporate from the house, and the rooms will become cold and damp. You can say goodbye to interior decoration right away!
2. The house needs to be sheathed with insulation from all sides
It is not enough to cover one of the walls with insulation, it will not lead to anything. The material should evenly "wrap" the house, adhering well to the walls. Partially sheathing a house is an empty work that does not give results.
3. We approach the insulation of the foundation wisely
First, decide what goal you are pursuing. If your house has a basement, then the foundation should lie below the level of freezing of the soil. If there is insulation on the foundation, in the future you will spend less money and effort on heating the basement.
If the "zero" floor is not provided, you can build a foundation of several types. If the foundation is laid shallowly, then the support unit will be at the level of freezing of the soil, which means that not only the foundation, but even the soil needs to be insulated.
To minimize the possibility of soil heaving, it is necessary to lay insulation before filling the blind area (blind area insulation - picture below). And an additional layer of insulation will double the result.
If the foundation runs deep, then the soil does not need insulation. When choosing insulation, you need to take into account what the climate is in the region where you live. When the number of warm days exceeds the number of frosty days, the stage with the insulation of the foundation can be skipped. In this case, it is advisable to perform waterproofing.
In the northern regions, one cannot do without foundation insulation, otherwise, due to freezing of the subfloor, the walls inside the building will be covered with mold.
4. Keep pipes and wires warm
Unfortunately, many do not pay attention to this moment. They lay pipes in the ground, forgetting that they freeze in winter too. It is advisable to hide all communications in a heater. Some people simply line the pipes with Styrofoam to save time and money. But this does not help, since communications are still freezing.
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