Can Home Insulation Get Wet?

Your home is a place where you spend most of your time, and hence it needs to have a comfortable temperature all the time. This is when proper home insulation comes into the picture. It can fix a lot of heating and cooling issues in your home. 

A sound insulation system can help decrease your electricity bills to a great extent and make your home an excellent place to live. Insulation is a process that can reduce heat gain or loss and protects your house from the unusual rise or fall in the temperature outside.

Home insulation can get wet if you have a problem with roof leaks. A roof leak is just one of the several reasons due to which your home insulation gets wet. Wet insulators cause severe damage to your home as well as it has high risks to your health. It leads to severe mold growth in your home indoors and decreases the air quality. 

This article will explain everything you need to know about home insulation, how your home insulation can get wet, what to do if it gets wet, and why home insulation is the best eco-friendly way to go. Read further to find out more about home insulation.

How Can Your Home Insulation Get Wet?

There are many reasons for home insulation getting wet. It also depends on the region where you are residing. In places like Houston, people experience humid climate conditions although the summers.

Be it any region. You must make sure that your home insulation is dry and in good condition at all times. 

One of the biggest causes of wet home insulation is roof seepage or leaks. It can cause massive damage to your insulation even before you notice it. Here are a few more causes of wet home insulation:

• Air seepage through doors, cracks on the wall, and through windows
• Moisture from the ground or basement can crawl into the space of insulation
• Plumbing Seepage
• Snow is also another reason for wet insulation.
• Dry or damp mold formation as spores might enter the air filters. 

If your home is built in the right way, then there should be no issue. Ensure to have dry insulation at all times. If you ever see that the home insulation is getting wet, consult a professional and get it repaired instantly.  

What Happens When the Home Insulation Gets Wet?

Once your home insulation gets wet, it will lose its operational capability of being a bad conductor of heat. Wet insulation loses up to 40 % of the insulating power. 

For example, you might have fiberglass insulation in your home. If a fiberglass insulator gets wet, then it slowly and gradually loses its thermal resistance. It can also end up absorbing a lot of water, and hence it will lose the factors that make it an excellent home insulator.

Mold formation is another thing that might happen when your insulator gets wet. Mostly, cellulose insulation is repaired with fire-retardants. The fire-retardants are mold-resistant. The mold can grow at a rapid rate and spread even more, and decay the home insulator.

What to Do When Home Insulation Gets Wet?

Should you replace your home insulation? Or is it too ruined that you have to throw it out? These are the questions that may usually arise in a human brain after home insulation is ruined. In some way, the answer to this depends on the insulation variant that your house has.

1. Fiberglass: It is a type of insulation made up of recycled glass as well as water. And due to this reason, fiberglass doesn’t suck in water as much as other materials do. But the capability of the fiberglass insulation can decrease drastically once it gets wet.

So, to dry the fiberglass insulator, place a fan in that particular area. Once the insulator is dried out, please put it back in its cavity. But, keep checking the insulator frequently for the next few weeks for any sign of wetting.  

If you suspect any such condition, then immediately replace the humidifier to avoid any severe damage.

2. Spray Foam Insulation: having hard white foam at home attached to your wall or fall cavity, then it can be said that your home has spray foam insulation. 

Yes, the spray foam usually doubles up to protect from moisture and form a tight seal. But still, the leak can be problematic for the wood that surrounds the insulation. 

If you want to avoid this, then cover and seal the hole to protect the home insulation from severe damage.

3. Cellulose Insulation: The loose gray-colored fibers in the wall cavities are cellulose insulation. This is made of newspapers (recycled). It is basically a plant-based product. And hence, they can be complicated to restore if they get wet.

If the insulation is wet only at a small specific area, you can very well remove it easily. But if the leak is extensive, then the formation of mold can happen in a few days. Hence, you need to remove or replace the insulation totally. 

But, we would also advise you not to do it all on your own and consult an expert to get the insulation repaired or removed effectively and safely.

Why is Home Insulation an Eco-friendly Way to Go?

When it comes to home insulation, the various resources and installation methods used can lead to huge damage to the environment. But, if sustainable and eco-friendly materials are used to make home insulation, this can help boost the energy rates of your building.

Eco-friendly home insulation helps save energy as it naturally cools down your place during summers and keeps the indoors warm during the winters. Installing eco-friendly home insulation also enables you to go green as you will burn less or no fuel to run the insulator. 

Home insulation is the best eco-friendly way to choose because it is made from highly sustainable materials such as:

• Glasswool
• Cellulose
• Fiberglass
• Sheep Wool 
• Earth wool
• Spray Foam

Plus, these are all cost-effective options. The eco-friendly home insulators are made up of fire retardant materials (resistant to the damage caused due to fire) and are easily recyclable.

Naturally-made home insulators also possess no risk to human health. Materials like Polyester are great for asthma patients as they will attract no dust or dirt. On the other hand, Glasswool is great as it doesn’t attract vermin and has no risk of rotting. 

Cellulose insulation is the one that we would recommend you the most. It is made up of recycled newspapers. It is also pocket-friendly and resistant to leaks. If treated with a good fire retardant, then it would make excellent home insulation for every home. 

Conclusion

Overall, eco-friendly insulation is the cheapest, environment-friendly as well as good for human health. All in all, it is a great initiative to take in order to maintain your home temperature.

But, do keep in mind that installing home insulation has to be done correctly and with utmost care. There is no hard and fast rule for choosing a home insulator. 

You can pick any eco-friendly home insulation and get the best results from each one of them. Choose an insulator that best fits your needs. And protect the insulator at all times from water or moisture.