When it comes to making your home energy efficient, you need to attend to the details as part of regular home maintenance. Weatherstripping a home is a process that requires time, but it is well worth the effort. When you completed weatherstripping your home, you will feel a difference in the way your home retains heat, and the way in which your home does not allow the outside air to affect the temperature inside.
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What Is Weatherstripping?
Weatherstripping is the process of replacing the old felt insulation around your doors and windows, adding insulation to the areas that need it, and replacing caulk and other weatherproofing materials on the interior and exterior of your home.
How Does A Home Get Weatherstripped?
The first step in weatherstripping a home is to identify all of the areas that need to be addressed and start doing some cleanup and removal work. Some of the old paint will need to scraped from the window frames and the old caulk removed to prepare to put new caulk in. You will have to remove the old weatherstripping from around the doorways and windows to prepare for new weatherstripping. Make sure that you use the proper cleaning materials to get rid of all of the old adhesive and debris and create a clean surface for the new.
What Kinds Of Materials Should Be Used When Weatherstripping A Home?
The standard felt weatherstripping for windows and doors is always a reliable way to keep the weather out of your home. When it comes to caulk, a latex caulk with some acrylic in it works very well because it creates a good barrier and is easy to paint. If you have a more sizable gap to fill, then insulation strips with vinyl inserts can expand to the size of the opening.
How Often Should I Have my Home Weatherstripped?
Ideally, you want to have a professional contractor look your weatherstripping every year to make sure everything is in good order. You may only need to do actual replacement work once every two years, but weatherstripping is not something that you want to neglect. You want to stay on top of it every year and make sure that you home is as energy efficient as possible.
Why You Need A Contractor
Weatherstripping a home is a long and complicated process. Even for a professional contractor it can take the better part of an entire day to get the job done. For larger homes, it will take much longer. You do not want to do all of that work only to find out that you used the wrong material or left something undone.
A professional weatherstripping contractor has experience in analyzing homes and finding the areas that need attention. The contractor will know the best materials to use and they will also know the best process to use as well. Replacing caulk around your doors and windows is not nearly as easy as it sounds. If it is done improperly, you could be losing money every month on your energy bill. A professional contractor will make sure that all of the weatherstripping in your home gets done quickly and efficiently.
Finding A Contractor
You should collect quotes from a number of reliable weatherstripping before making your choice. Ask each contractor to submit an itemized quote to make it easier for you to compare them side by side. With a weatherstripping job, an itemized quote will be quite comprehensive, which makes it easier for you to see exactly what will be done.
It is important to get references from each contractor and to call on those references as well. You want to find out how thorough and professional each contractor was with previous customers, and how happy those customers were with the results. There are many different things that can go wrong with a weatherstripping project and you want to make sure that you are not hiring a contractor who has made mistakes in the past.
Weatherstripping your home is something that should be considered and important part of regular maintenance. It is a process that will make your home more energy efficient and save you money all year round. It is a process that will also keep your home comfortable, even in the cold months of winter. Get in touch with a reliable contractor and have your home weatherstripped today.