Welcome again to the Home Services Home Show, where you’ll learn a lot that you need to know and a whole lot you don’t. Um, so July… hot. It’s really, really, really hot. And as anybody who listens to this or follows us — or just makes fun of us on TikTok, it’s totally fine —
Um… I was told that getting haters is a good thing on social media. Yeah, but I have a complex. Yeah, no — and Shane told me, he’s like, “You got haters?” I’m like, “Oh man, that sucks.” I’m doing… I’m too hard, right? Like I want to tell the truth. He told me that that’s good. So that’s — we’re definitely old school. Yeah, not everybody, correct.
Insulation vs. Home Performance Work
Anyway — we do insulation. Correct. We do more than insulation, but we change people’s lives. Yeah. We do their homes — we give them square footage back. We make their homes more comfortable. Correct. We can fix a lot of bad work. When we get work for insulation — I like to call people asking, “What do you do? I don’t see insulation.” I say, “We do home performance work.” Correct. What does that mean? That’s insulation, that’s air sealing, that’s spray foaming, that’s really knowing the science on how a home works. Right. And fixing it if it’s wrong. Right. Sometimes we go to homes, there’s really nothing we can do — they’re done right. People just want to know. But it’s home performance work. Right. When people call us for an estimate, they call for insulation. Right. “We need more insulation,” because that’s what they were trained by.
Pink Panther Detour
Remember the Pink Panther? Yeah. You know, “If it’s not pink, it stinks.” And you know, they just keep on adding pink insulation, and the more pink insulation you have, the better. You used to say that. Yeah, I used to. That was way… that was like years ago — PC. “If it’s not pink, it stinks” — that’s what I said. Remember? Yes — the Pink Panther. Shane, fact check that, would you? Positive — “If it’s not pink, it stinks.” Pink Panther — Larson. Shoot. I do remember the Pink Panther was up there — you could kick the roll and roll in the animation. Yeah. What color is insulation? It’s pink. There you go.
Importance of Insulation in Summer
When do people really call for insulation? Well, it’s funny — the real answer… or the people think… People — when do they call? When they’re uncomfortable. And typically it’s cold. Cold — you think of insulation, you think of a blanket, a North Face jacket. Right. But what we really train our guys on is knowing the different types of heat transfer and how that all actually works. You’ve got conduction, you’ve got convection, and you’ve got radiant heat transfer. Wow, nice work. Yeah. Well, I can’t define them, but I know what they’re called. I’m kidding.
But in the winter, I would say that air sealing is almost more important in the winter than attic insulation, honestly. Right. Because it’s draftier — when you have heat, when you have air stack effect and you lose air out of your house, it gets… it pulls more cold air in. You get draftier. You get convective loops. It’s colder. The nice thing about wintertime though is you can always add clothes. Yeah. You know, if you’re cold, you can add a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt, grab a blanket, and you’re good.
The problem with July — we’re going through right now — is… You can only take off so many clothes. No neighbors start getting — As much as you want, but the neighbors start getting weird. Houses, right? Correct. But that’s a problem. So the problems people see in the wintertime are the same problems they see in the summertime — but worse. Come on, man. Stay with me. Trying to hold it together here.
So — but think about when it’s summertime, and your attic is — let’s say — 150 degrees right above your head. You literally have, most people, a couple inches of insulation and a piece of 5/8″ drywall and some paint on it separating you from 150 degrees. Yep. And 70. Most people don’t think of that — until you pop that attic hatch and stick your head up there. It takes the breath right out. I mean you’re just — you know, it’s so hot. 150 degrees. 150 degrees.
Attics as Radiant Ovens
So what ends up happening is it turns — Shane, to that point — can you grab a picture from our installer this week? Open up in the attics before they leave in the afternoon — it’ll be 150 degrees in the attic. Yeah. It’s crazy. Well — I guess our point is really this: attic insulation is actually more important in the summer, because it turns your attic — it turns your ceiling — into a radiant oven. Correct. And we’re trying to blow — typically what, air-conditioned air is what — about 55? 55 degrees. 55 degrees, and you’re shooting it in the attic. Or the ceiling could be 90 degrees, it could be 100 degrees, depending on what your insulation is like. Correct.
So really, it’s actually quite a bit more important in the summertime — the summer: air sealing. Wintertime: insulation. Nobody thinks of it in the summer. Correct. Until they’re miserably hot. And no matter how hard your air conditioner works — if your air conditioner only delivers you 80-degree air… Correct. You’re never gonna get your thermostat.
Well, that’s a whole — I mean that’s a whole other issue. You’ve got ducts going through the attic like that — That’s correct.
Dealing with an AC Unit in the Attic
I think back to an estimate that I went on with one of our reps. These people — I mean, it was a million-dollar home. It was beautiful. It was huge. And they’re — I don’t know why — but their AC unit was in their… My DIY — This is in Wisconsin, right? This makes no sense. For frustration — Oh no, no — I do remember. They wanted — I do remember. Because when they showed it to me, I was like… “Why would you do that?” Why would you put the AC unit in the attic and then run the ducts through the attic?
It was an excavating mistake when they started building the homes. They wanted nine-foot ceilings in the basement. They screwed up — didn’t dig it deep enough. And they were like — the builder said, “If you’re going to run your ducts in the floor system… you cannot have nine-foot ceilings down here.” So they flip-flopped it and ran all the ducts in the attic. Oh no.
So they’re like, “These two bedrooms down on the end of the home — we cannot keep them cool. They will not stay cool. They’re super hot all the time. We had the HVAC people out here — they’re like, ‘You just need a bigger system.’ We had a bigger system put in — it doesn’t make any difference.” I go up, look in the attic — immediately I’m like… There’s literally 500 feet of duct running through this attic. None of it’s under insulation. And from where the system was to where these bedrooms were they were talking about was 120 feet away. Because it was actually like house and then garage — and it was like over here. So I took the thermal imaging camera, went into that bedroom with the AC on — It was blowing 82-degree air. They’re trying to get it to 70. This is actually blowing 82-degree air — because as it went through that attic, it warmed up. It warmed up. Right. We fixed it. We did fix it.
Commonalities Between Cape Cods, Poorly Insulated Attics & Ducts in Attics
I think people in the — sometimes… I mean, wintertime people love us, but summertime people are just amazed at the work we do. If you have a Cape Cod, or a poorly insulated attic, or a situation like that — it was very abnormal for Wisconsin — or ducts in attics… those three things in summertime are super painful.
So if you have a Cape Cod, poorly insulated attic, or ducts in attic — You give us a call, we come out to see it, and you will be amazed how you feel when it’s done. We know how to fix it. And you’re never going to see ducts in the attic in Wisconsin, typically — Unless… Well, that was kind of a mistake — or it was on a slab with no basement. Right.
Wrapping Up: Insulation Done Right, One Time
So — insulation in the summer. I know people don’t think about it, but if you are having issues keeping your house cool, you’ve had your AC system checked, it’s sized properly, it’s got enough Freon in it — There’s a really, really, really good possibility that we can help. Nope. If you’ve got attic insulation that is not the correct R-value, or you’ve got that rolled pink stuff up there but it’s not complete — it’s not touching, it’s been moved — all the time we see it. It’s been disturbed. Shuffled around. It’s been disturbed — or the mice used it as a nice cottage. Oh man, that’s bad.
I actually just took a wall out of my shed. It was insulated — full of the pink stuff — and it was like a mouse playground. WWF Royal Cage Match with Larson. It was really disgusting. It was nasty. And of course, my wife in all her infinite wisdom — because she’s honestly smarter than I — she’s like, “You should probably be wearing eye protection and a mask.” And I’m like… “Come on…” I should. But that would… you know, That would — I’d have to be smart, right? What’s that — “Say not as I do”? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course, if our workers were doing it — They would have been wearing all that stuff. Me? Nah, just tear it down real quick. It’s disgusting.
Anyway, I’m still alive though. We can fix it — for now. But we can fix it. So if you’re having those issues — can’t keep it cool — July and August are the two hardest months. We come out there with a thermal imaging camera — It’s going to take us two seconds to do. Yeah — your ceiling is 90 degrees. It’s baking your room. Yep. And now your air conditioner cannot keep up.
So now — when you insulate — you’ve got to make sure you insulate and air seal. Do it the right way. One time. Yeah. Now your shirt’s done. And summer — you’re good for the summer. So, if that’s something that you think you got a problem with, want to get it checked out — let us know. Check us out at Keeney Home Services or Larson Home Services. And thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. We’ll catch you next time.
