When it comes down to the construction of a house, there are many different aspects to keep in mind. It can often feel overwhelming, especially if you’re taking a more hands-on approach to certain aspects of your home’s construction. If you’re looking for answers regarding insulation and your home’s wiring, then look no further!
Electrical wires, outlets, and fixtures can be covered with insulation subject to certain criteria and the type of insulation used. The wires and fixtures must have an appropriate IC rating, which is an Insulation Cover rating. In certain areas, you may need to use fire-blocking caulk around wiring and fixtures to allow them to be covered with insulation.
Insulation isn’t a must when it comes to homes, so you might think it’s simply easier not to insulate your home because you don’t want to deal with the wiring. When you consider the many benefits of home insulation, you’ll surely change your mind. In this article, we’ll tell you what you need to know about covering wires with insulation.
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Do I Need to Insulate My Home?
Insulation is a crucial component when it comes to your home – even if not every home has insulation. However, once you know about the benefits of insulating your home, you’ll see that it’s the right decision to make. If your home isn’t insulated – or it hasn’t been done properly – you’ll know.
If your home is poorly insulated, there are certain signs you can look out for the confirm this. In fact, you can likely determine this by simply strolling through your house. When you do this, do you observe an even temperature throughout your house? Or do you notice that the temperature changes in different areas of the house?
The temperature in your home should be reasonably stable, even with variables such as open windows and doors. That’s the hallmark of a well-insulated home. After all, one of the biggest selling points of insulation is that it traps heat in the winter and in the summer will prevent heat from moving through your walls. That way, you have an optimal temperature indoors year-round.
If you walk through your home and you notice that the temperature appears to fluctuate as you move through it, it’s not because your home is haunted! You likely don’t have the proper insulation in your home. This is, at least, fixable – even if your home’s construction has already been completed.
If you thought insulating your home would involve tearing down your drywall to insulate it, then think again! While many homes are insulated while the house is under construction, typically with fiberglass, there are other ways to insulate post-construction.
The most popular way to insulate walls after they have been constructed is by using cellulose, which is blown into the wall through carefully cut-out holes. After cutting holes between studs in your wall, the cellulose material is blown into these holes until the walls are adequately insulated.
Cellulose is an insulation material that has many benefits of its own, on top of the typical perks of home insulation. Cellulose insulation has been estimated to save roughly 26% more energy than fiberglass insulation. This is because cellulose fiber is a projected 36% more airtight than fiberglass insulation.
This above percentage means that cellulose insulation will allow you to experience the advantages of home insulation more fully – and there are quite a few! When you insulate your home, you do a lot more than simply ensure efficient cooling and heating year-round.
That efficient heating and cooling can save you more than 40% on your home’s energy bill! You’ll even improve your carbon footprint by insulating your home, as this will directly reduce the amount of non-renewable energy sources you use. This helps global efforts in conserving these finite resources.
The advantages don’t end there! Insulating does more than moderate your home’s temperature, it helps control sound in your home. You don’t want to watch your favorite TV program while being interrupted by traveling noises in your home. Insulation will prevent this! It can even help lessen the noise you hear from home appliances such as washing machines.
Not only does insulation help you save money on your energy bill, but it could save you money spent on rot damage repairs down the line. Insulation is known to reduce moisture-related issues in-home, which include mildew, mold, and rot. This is very common in areas of the house like the basement and garage but can affect any room. Luckily, insulation can safeguard you from this.
If you acquire the proper equipment and follow the correct instructions, you could do the insulation process yourself. However, you could also hire a professional to do this. Regardless of which route you take, you’re sure to reap the advantages of insulation. However, you should be cautious when insulating due to your home’s wiring.
Wiring and Insulation: Which Comes First?
Don’t worry, this isn’t going to turn into a chicken-or-egg debate, the answer to this question is clear cut! So, when you’re working with wiring and insulation: which comes first? One of these is always done first – and you want to ensure you do it the right way.
When it comes down to your home, you want to ensure that all the different elements of your home are constructed and installed correctly. That way, you can live in a home that works the way it should! Wiring and insulation are two important aspects to consider in terms of your home.
The wiring, of course, is crucial as it powers your whole home! From your lighting and general power distribution to the many different appliances that the wiring extends to, this is an essential aspect you want to get right from the get-go. If you don’t, the consequences could be extreme.
Poor wiring in your home can increase the risk of power surges and outages. However, it can even lead to more life-threatening consequences. Fires have been known to be caused by faulty wiring. When you ensure that your home’s wiring is done correctly – ideally by a qualified electrician – you guarantee that your home conforms to basic safety standards.
Another important aspect to consider for your home is insulation. While this one isn’t a must, it would almost be foolish not to have insulation in your home. There are many advantages that a home with insulation boasts, as discussed earlier in this article. Not only will insulation save you money, but it will also pay for itself!
Professionals estimate that – based on the amount of money you’ll save due to insulating your home and the benefits that provides – your insulation will pay for itself within six years. After that, well, there will be more money for the things that matter to you!
When you truly consider the many benefits of insulation, you’ll see that it makes sense to insulate your home. It’s the logical thing to do! However, you should still proceed with caution. The wiring in your home is often located in your walls and ceiling, which are often insulated, so you need to be careful of your home’s wiring when insulating it.
Above, we inadvertently answered the question about which comes first in terms of wiring and insulation. Wiring is always done first! Therefore, you need to ensure your house’s wiring is up to scratch before you insulate – whether you insulate during the construction process with fiberglass or afterward with cellulose.
There’s a perfectly good reason for this! The need to complete wiring before insulating comes down to the holes that need to be drilled into your house’s frame. The purpose of these drilled holes is for your home’s wiring, which runs through your home.
Once your home’s wiring has been completed, subject to the local code requirements, you’ll be ready to insulate your home. However, depending on the state of your home’s construction and the insulation, how you insulate with your wiring in mind will differ!
How to Safely Insulate around Electrical Wiring
To adequately answer this question, we will look at insulating your home during and post-construction. In both of these instances, your home’s wiring will already be complete when you begin the insulation process. If you follow the safety guidelines detailed below, your home’s insulation will be completely safe with the present wiring.
Insulating During Construction
If your home is still under construction and the wiring has been completed, you’ll likely use fiberglass to insulate your home. Below, we’ll break down everything you need to know about insulating safely with fiberglass in relation to your home’s wiring!
To start off with, all wires and fixtures in areas that might be insulated in your home should have an IC rating noted on them. An IC rating is an Insulation Cover rating which denotes the ability for you to safely insulate over wires and fixtures with a suitable rating.
With this method of insulation, the cheapest and easiest way to insulate your home’s new walls would be to use fiberglass batts. However, care must be taken when installing these as small gaps in the insulation can actually reduce the effectiveness thereof. To avoid this, you need to cut your fiberglass to fit certain areas – especially around electrical cables and outlets.
It would be a mistake to try and squeeze fiberglass batts to fit into certain areas or around various obstacles, such as electrical outlets. By doing this, you’re essentially wasting money by reducing the efficiency of fiberglass.
When you purchase insulation material, the product will have what is known as an R-value. When buying the material that you plan to use for insulating your home, you should pay special attention to this value. The material’s R-value is a measure of how well the barrier resists the flow of heat.
As a general rule of thumb, the higher the R-value, the better the performance of your insulation will be. This is an especially important consideration to make for those who live in regions with extreme winters as you want to sure your insulation does its job when it matters most!
Rather than compressing the fiberglass batts to fit into certain spaces, rather split it in half. By doing this, you can fit batts around electrical cables by placing a part under it and the other half over it. If you encounter an electrical outlet, you can cut a hole in the insulation so that it fits perfectly around the outlet.
This fiberglass batt splitting and/or cutting technique should be used around any obstacles you encounter while insulating. Using this method will prevent there from being any unfilled cavities or compressed batts that reduce the effectiveness of your insulation. When insulation is incorrectly installed, you won’t be able to utilize the benefits it offers to its full extent.
If you decide to insulate your home yourself, you should take precautions so that your insulation does not touch any exposed or bare wires. If your electrical wiring was done by a professional electrician, as recommended earlier, this shouldn’t be a concern!
When insulating your attic, caution should be taken when using fiberglass batts on top of recessed lighting fixtures that have been installed. These can become very hot, which could pose a threat when exposed to the insulation material. Around wiring and pipes, you should use fire-blocking caulk.
One last precaution to keep in mind in terms of insulation and wiring is to keep any fibers from your insulation fibers out of your electrical outlet boxes. This extends to using cellulose insulation, as we’re about to discuss!
Insulating Post-Construction
If you’re insulating your home after the construction and wiring have been completed, you’ll need to use a blow-in method to insulate your walls. That is if you want to insulate your home without tearing down the drywall! Due to this method being used after construction has been completed, it can be a bit tricker in terms of insulating with your wiring in mind.
When insulating walls using cellulose, you or a professional contractor you’ve hired will need to cut holes in your walls between studs. These holes are used to thread the hose through, which is attached to a machine that’s used to blow the insulation material into your walls.
Despite the differences between fiberglass batts and cellulose material, much of the same regulations in terms of insulation and wiring apply. Like with fiberglass insulation, all wires and fixtured covered with cellulose insulation should be IC rated.
You may want to contract a professional for this job to ensure you’re insulating areas that can be insulated with your existing wiring. This is because the wiring was done before the construction on your home was completed while the insulation was not.
In general, low voltage wires (including phone, intercom, and computer network cables as well as television coaxial cables) can be covered safely with insulation material. However, if areas in your home utilize knob-and-tube wiring, you cannot cover this with insulation material and will need to consult a professional.
Insulation can be highly beneficial to the functioning of your home when installed correctly. Unless you know you’re an expert DIYer, it’s always better to hire a professional to complete the insulation process following the correct procedures. That way, you can truly ensure your wiring and insulation do not pose any safety threats.
Final Thoughts
When it comes down to insulating over the wiring in your home, this is completely possible! While insulation can be installed in your home before or after construction has been completed, the wiring should always be done before you insulate.
No matter which type of insulation you use, this material can safely cover electrical wiring and outlets when the correct procedures are followed. In this article, we looked at these procedures and how to safely cover wires with insulation.
