Preventing Heat Loss in the Winter

The average homeowner spends a significant amount of money heating and cooling their homes: especially in southwestern Ontario, where we experience a huge range of temperatures.  It can be challenging to keep a home comfortable while managing the expense to do so.

If your home has an unfinished and uninsulated basement, this is a fantastic opportunity to be proactive and save money on your future heating and cooling costs.

Your unfinished basement may have uninsulated areas including:

• Walls
• Rim joists
• Windows
• Floors

Wherever the cold air comes in, warm air is lost! Even if you avoid your unfinished basement, close doors and switch off the heating ducts down there, that cold air is affecting the entire home and impacting the efficiency of your heating efforts.

 So, how can an unfinished basement be improved for comfort and efficiency? 

Find air leaks

A blower door test indicates where leaks are happening, such as a failed seal around an outside duct. Determining the location of the air leaks and fixing them is the important first step to insulating an unfinished basement.

Seal the rim joist

The rim joist is the outer edge of the home’s framing and is a common source of heat loss. Rigid foam and a special closed-cell spray foam insulation, POLARFOAM 7300, are good choices, as they have a high R-Value and are not affected by moisture.

Insulate the foundation walls

Drywall, fibreglass insulation, and many other products often used in basements are vulnerable to damage from mould and rot. Our ThermalDry® Wall System has the ability to make your home more comfortable and an energy-efficient space. Its heat-reflective surface will bounce an astounding 97% of the heat back into your home!

Help for cold basement floors

Can you feel the cold radiating up from your basement floor in the winter? ThermalDry® Floor Tiles are an excellent way to create a warm, comfortable, and dry basement floor. Each tile is designed to sit on raised plastic pegs, creating an airspace below.

This airspace allows water vapour to circulate underneath while creating a thermal break which makes the floor's surface several degrees warmer than the cold concrete below.

Many basements have too little insulation and too much air leakage. Get started on making your home more comfortable and efficient. Contact the experts at Advanced Basement Systems to schedule your free inspection and estimate: 1-866-277-1277 or online by clicking here.