What does “weatherization” mean?
Weatherization means improving the ability of your home to control the indoor environment and keep the weather out. In most cases this means upgrading the insulation and air-sealing of the home’s “envelope”. It often includes replacing old and inefficient windows, furnaces, and other equipment too.
The end result for the homeowner is improved energy efficiency, lower utility bills, better indoor air quality, and lower maintenance and operating costs.
Can anyone be a weatherization contractor?
Anyone can call themselves a weatherization contractor but it takes a great deal of experience to do weatherization really well. Our team has a combined total of well over 100 years in the energy efficient building field. This means that we have the experience to do weatherization properly without creating indoor air quality, health, and/or durability problems in your home.
What is the process of weatherizing a home?
We begin with an Energy Audit during which we perform a Blower Door Test and an Infrared Camera analysis on your building to determine the exact state of the insulation and air-sealing in the envelope. Then we develop a list of priorities for how best to improve your home’s energy efficiency, comfort, and durability. Then, starting with the items that will give you the best return on investment, we go through the building and fix the problems one by one until your home is significantly better performing.
How much does it cost to weatherize a home?
Naturally it depends on the age and condition of the home. In most cases the attic requires air sealing and added insulation. This typically costs $2 – 3,000. In many homes the crawl space also requires significant improvement in the form of sealing and insulating the rim joist, adding a sealed vapor barrier on the ground, insulating the foundation walls, and sealing ductwork. This typically costs $2 – 4,000. If the windows need to be replaced this can get very expensive especially if you want truly high-performance triple-glazed or thin-film windows. For a typical house this could range from $10 – 20,000 to replace all of the windows.
In every case it’s important to remember that the benefits of improving the insulation, air-sealing, and energy efficiency of you home are many. Lower heating and cooling bills, better indoor air quality, improved durability, fewer maintenance problems, and a smaller environmental impact.