There are many different types of insulation for custom homes in Florida. What’s important is the area of the home that you’re insulating and the R-Value.
The way that all insulation is measured is with a rating called R-Value. You may have heard people talking about R-30 or R-19 insulation. R-value is simply insulation’s resistance to heat flow. R-Value tells us how effective each type of insulation is at slowing down heat. So the higher the R-Value, the more effective the insulation is.
Custom homes in Florida require insulation for Exterior Masonry Walls, as well as Attics & Frame Walls. Here are the options for each and our recommendation.
Exterior Block Walls
There are really three options for insulating a masonry block wall: 1) Filling the wall with loose fill; 2) Applying a foam board to the interior block wall; or 3) Filling the wall with insulating foam. We’ve used all three and based on the performance and value, our recommendation is to fill the block wall with an insulating foam like a Polymaster product (Video Below). Additionally, once you add a radiant barrier, the combination provides an impressive R-15 insulation system a reasonable price.
Attics & Exterior Frame Walls
The attic and frame walls have three primary insulating methods: 1) Loose fill, like cellulose; 2) Fiberglass batts; and 3) Spay foam, like Icynene. Again we have a lot of experience with all three. We even provided some detail information about spray foam insulation in a recent post (Problems With Spray Foam Insulation), but our recommendation is to use a Cellulose blown fill in the attic and fiberglass batts for exterior frame walls. Combine both with a radiant barrier sheathing, like LG Techshield (Video Below).
In addition to these recommendations, it’s critical to use foam to fill in any cracks around outlets, switches, windows and doors that have been created in the exterior walls. I'm sure there will be new insulating products to consider in the future and some of today's products may become more affordable over time, but if you’re looking for the best value in insulation for a custom home today, you can’t go wrong with the above recommendations.
Jon Solomon
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