Insulation is your home’s protection against heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer. Unfortunately, many older homes throughout Central Maine don’t have enough coverage. When they were first constructed, heating and cooling were much cheaper, so homeowners weren’t as concerned about energy loss. With rising energy costs today, many families are trying to lower their utility bills by upgrading insulation.
Lakewood Home Energy is a trusted, family-owned insulation company in Madison that offers insulation installation services. As BPI-certified contractors, we understand the “why” behind our work and use our knowledge to better improve the comfort and energy efficiency of your home.
Benefits of Upgraded Insulation
Insulation is a thermal barrier that stops heat transfer. During the winter, it helps keep heat inside your home for longer. In the summer, it keeps hot outdoor temperatures out of your home. When insulation is lacking, it affects the performance of the entire home. Your heating and cooling system has to run more, your family is less comfortable, and your utility bills run high. By making insulation upgrades throughout the residence, you’ll benefit from:
- More Comfortable Living Spaces – Consistent temperatures throughout the home and no more hot upstairs bedrooms.
- Lower Heating and Cooling Costs – The better insulated your home is, the less heating and cooling you need to use.
- Fewer Ice Dams – Attic insulation prevents your home’s heat from melting rooftop snow, helping to prevent ice dams.
Types of Insulation We Offer
At Lakewood Home Energy, we primarily offer two types of insulation: spray foam and blown-in cellulose. Each has its own benefits and best use cases.
Spray Foam
Spray foam is excellent for hard-to-reach areas in the attic, crawlspace, and basement. Spray foam also offers the highest R-value, making it an excellent choice for code-compliant new construction. Unlike other insulation types, it doesn’t compress over time, meaning your home will benefit from the same level of insulation value for decades.
Spray foam can also be used to fill air gaps. This allows you to accomplish both insulation and air sealing. The less drafty your home is, the easier it is to heat and cool and the more comfortable you’ll feel.
In addition, spray foam is practical for unique applications like under concrete slabs, serving as a powerful radon barrier. It can also be used to seal the outside of foundations during construction.
Cellulose/Wood Fiber
Blown-in cellulose/wood fiber is better for residential retrofit applications where there is inadequate insulation inside the walls. Our insulation contractors can create a small access hole in your drywall and fill the cavity with insulation. Afterwards, the hole is sealed, sanded, and refinished.
For walls, we use dense-pack cellulose/wood fiber insulation. This type of insulation settles, ensuring that the entire wall cavity can be filled with insulation. We also provide loose-fill cellulose insulation for attic spaces.
We recommend an energy audit to help you understand where you need insulation the most and which material would be best suited for it. During this assessment, our team will use an infrared camera to identify the specific areas in your home that could benefit.
Batt Insulation
Batt insulation is an affordable option for large cavities between framing. It’s useful in the attic rafters and is an excellent option for walls during new construction or remodeling projects. It comes in pre-cut panels, sized to fit perfectly between standard-spaced wall studs, ceiling joists, and floor joists. At Lakewood Home Energy, we offer three options:
- Rockwool: Also called mineral wool, rock wool has fire-resistant and moisture-resistant properties.
- Fiberglass: Fiberglass is one of the most common batt insulation types and has a lower upfront cost.
- Wood Fiber: Wood fiber is an eco-friendly option that is vapor-open, which is helpful for managing moisture in attics and basements.
The Importance of Air Sealing
Air sealing and insulation go hand-in-hand. Together, they can reduce your home’s heating and cooling costs by 15%. If your home has significant air gaps, exterior air can enter your home directly and indoor climate-controlled air can escape. Air sealing is used to fill the cracks, gaps, and openings that you have in your building structure. Spray foam can be used for both insulation and air sealing.
The best way to identify air leaks in your home is with a blower door test. This diagnostic measures the overall air tightness of your home. The home is pressurized, and smoke pencils are used to find the specific areas where air may be penetrating. From there, our team will know exactly where to seal.
About Blower Door TestsGet Up to $8,000 in Efficiency Maine Insulation Rebates
As a resident of Maine, your home is eligible to receive up to $8,000 (or 80% of project costs) in rebates for insulation from Efficiency Maine. Rebate amounts are calculated based on a percentage of the project cost, with higher amounts available for low and moderate-income households.
To qualify, you must work with an official Efficiency Maine vendor, which Lakewood Home Energy proudly is. We follow the program’s strict code of conduct and are committed to making homes as efficient and comfortable as possible. Our professional expertise has helped homeowners everywhere from Carrabassett Valley to Bangor, so reach out to us today to get started.
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