A Home Visions customer from Arlington, Virginia is very happy with the insulation job they had done in their home!

"These gentlemen did an outstanding job, my husband and I were very impressed. They do excellent teamwork, were considerate and respected our home as if it were their own! All of my questions were answered and explained well. We would be happy to have these young men do work on our home anytime.” New Insulation Customer in Arlington, Virginia

For more information on replacement roof, new siding and replacement windows and Home Visions please visit www.homevisionsinc.com.  To get an estimate, following this link.

Attic insulation and replacement windows are a great combination to making a home more comfortable, elegant and energy efficient.  Often times when a homeowner replaces all of the windows in their home, this forces the warm or cold air generated by air conditioning units to rise up and find exit points through the ceiling and out of the attic.


By increasing the R-value of a home's insulation in the attic to the recommended level in our region which is R-49 immediate results are sure to be achieved.

Below are a few photos from a job that Home Visions Inc. completed in Hughesville - Charles County MD.  The family reports that their home is far more comfortable, they don't hear as many sounds from the street and they love the fact that they can clean their new windows from the inside.

A few helpful links

Attic Insulation Benefits
Recommended R-Value
Basic Insulation Information

Shingles are designed for water to run down and off the shingle into the gutter.  When conditions are right during the winter months ice damming can occur at the gutter line and in valleys on your roof.  Ice damming occurs on your roof when snow slowly melts due to the warmth escaping from under insulated attics as well as warmth from the sun.  When the show hits the gutter and begins to refreeze it creates a dam and water from above begins to sit on the shingles behind the ice dam.

Homes with the orginal builder grade roof in many cases do not have the proper protection needed against ice damming.  Ice and water shield is a thick membrane specifically designed to prevent water from penetrating down to the sheating or roof decking and ultimately keeping it from entering the attic and home.  Please click here for more information on proper roofing underlayment systems.

Home Visions Inc. through training and certification properly applies ice and water shield on all roof edges as well as in all valleys.  Additionally, we use ice and water shield over the entire area on low pitched roofs, around skylights and around windows on mansard style roofs (as seen below).

Classic example of ice damming:



Installation of ice and water shield around windows in a mansard roof:

Now is the time to consider upgrading your current attic insulation before the cold weather sets in.  Here are a few facts to consider before you get an estimate:

• Heat lost in the winter must be replaced by your heating system and heat gained in the summer must be removed by your cooling system.
• Properly insulating your home will decrease heat flow by providing an effective resistance to the flow of heat.
• Insulation reduces the flow of heat and heat flows from warm to cold (excaping a heated home in the windoter and entering a cool home in the summer).  Insulation is measured by its resistance to heat flow by an R Value; the greater the R Value the greater the insulating value.

These are the reccommended R-Values for the Maryland, Virginia and DC Region with an objective of achieving R49:

Uninsulated Attic - R30-R60 (R49 acceptable)
Existing 3-4 Inches of Insulation (R11) - Need R38 to achieve R49

HVI successfully installed attic insulation for our customer living in Alexandria VA.  What made this job unique is that we successfully installed an attic tent to provide additional insulation for the attic opening so that the entire area is now insulated rather than leaving one large opening (access panel) exposed for air to leak.

Here is a question and answer session regarding the attic tent installation:

Q: Is it secured down or just sitting in place?
A: There is a flange that comes out a couple of inches and you staple it down every two inches or so to the plywood.  It is secure and seems to insulate well.  Q: What if you need to access the attic for any reason?
A:  It has an flap that is easy to open for access.  It uses two zippers on each side to allow it to open.

Q: Can the attic tent be used on every job?
A: The attic tent works well with spaces where there are stairs because we pull the stairs or the attic plywood cover to the inside of the home allowing open space.  Attic spaces without stairs only have a plywood cover that usually gets pushed to the inside.  This will present challenges for installation, however we can always work with the customer to find solutions.