April 30, 2025 • 31 mins
Feeling the pinch of high utility bills? Your home might be quietly leaking money through unsealed windows, inadequate insulation, and other weatherization weak points. General contractor Donnie Blanchard breaks down the surprising difference between weatherization and insulation – and why you need both for maximum comfort and savings…
We dive into a fascinating case study of a young couple whose home had zero wall insulation, leaving them shivering in 50-degree indoor temperatures despite running their heat pump constantly. For just $2,000, a simple "drill and fill" insulation solution transformed their comfort and slashed their energy bills. This perfect example demonstrates how weatherization investments pay for themselves quickly and continue generating savings for decades.
Donnie explains that weatherization addresses convective heat transfer (air movement) while insulation tackles conductive heat transfer (heat moving through materials). Understanding this distinction helps homeowners make smarter upgrade decisions. Whether you're feeling drafts from outlets, discovering your floors aren't insulated, or considering window replacements, this episode provides practical guidance on where to start.
The financial benefits of weatherization can be staggering. Using real data from utility company projections, Donnie reveals how proper weatherization can save homeowners up to six figures over a 30-year mortgage period. Unlike many home improvements that only provide value at resale, weatherization starts paying you back immediately through reduced monthly bills.
We also discuss the value of professional energy audits, including blower door tests and duct blaster assessments that pinpoint exactly where your home is losing energy. Often, the solutions are simpler and less expensive than homeowners expect – sometimes fixing disconnected ductwork can solve problems that might otherwise prompt considering a complete HVAC replacement.
Ready to stop wasting money on inefficient heating and cooling? Visit thecarolinacontractor.com to submit your questions about weatherization, insulation, or any other home improvement topic!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with
your host, general ContractorDonnie Blanchard.
Now I know it's only spring,donnie, but summer means big
summer movie blockbusters.
My son, zach, when he's not incollege, tends to work at a
movie theater.
Are you looking forward toanything coming out this spring
and summer in the theater?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Oh, for sure, All the new Marvel movies are coming
out.
Well, maybe not necessarilythis summer, but they get kicked
off this summer.
So it's been a big secret as towhat they were going to do and
the next phase in the wholeseries, and so I'm looking
forward to it.
It kind of brings out the kidin me and you know, when you get
a little older, you grow upwatching that stuff and then you
get married and you have kidsand then they get into it.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
You get to go back to the theater and watch all that
stuff.
Then you just have to be kindof a creeper and go because you
enjoy it and, like I said, myson's very excited about it.
So I kind of get to go back tothe theaters and watch the
expansion of the Marvel Universe.
That's going to happen, of theMarvel universe.
That's going to happen,especially with the Fantastic
Four.
You seen that trailer, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah, it's kind of odd that they went that route
where it's almost like they livein this utopia of a perfect
world, and I'm interested to seehow they're going to spin it.
All right, is your car thiscolor anymore, lord?
No, thank God that we got a fewgood strong rains, because I
don't know if the pollen justbothers me more because I'm
older every year, but it seemslike this year it was extra
(01:25):
heavy and a lot of porchmaintenance.
I always think about the showthat you talked about.
You wrapped your porch inplastic and I always thought how
weird the neighbors must thinkyou are.
But it was a heck of an idea,man.
It worked.
It did the trick.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah, the first year we did it was COVID, so they
definitely thought something wasweird.
First year we did, it was COVID, so they definitely thought
something was weird.
We didn't do it this pastspring because we're going to
really be cleaning it outanyways, because we're going to
be doing some projects over thenext year or so.
But I want to start off theshow by letting everybody who's
never heard it before knowwhat's going on, because whoever
is listening for the first timeis completely lost.
(02:00):
This is the Carolina ContractorShow and my name is Eric Smith.
I do inside sales for homebuilders in Wilson, Greenville.
Donnie here is a generalcontractor.
He owns Blanchard BuildingCompany.
Also owns Sure Top Roofing.
We just like to talk aboutbuilding and construction and
DIY projects and if you own ahouse, you're going to dig this
(02:20):
show.
If you sit in your garage onthe weekends and want to do some
projects or you want to dorepairs, or maybe you're going
to dig this show If you sit inyour garage on the weekends and
want to do some projects or youwant to do repairs or maybe
you're going to be doing arenovation of some sort, this is
what we do, but we're not thoseboring engineer types.
We talk about sports and moviesand things like that too.
The website you can start at toget more information
(02:41):
thecarolinacontractorcom Verypopular feature Ask the
Contractor.
That's your chance to pickDonnie's brain.
Click on the button.
Anything about your house theinside or the outside,
construction, diy we love to getthose questions.
Also, links to the YouTube page.
Be sure to go there and give usa like.
You can join on to get notifiedwhen we put up shows.
(03:01):
We've got social media.
Find us there on IG andFacebook and, again, give us
likes, ideas, follow us there.
If there's something you wantto talk about, we're open to it.
We love doing that.
And again, donnie, you are acontractor, general contractor.
You do a lot of stuff withhouses.
I'm just the pretty boy here.
(03:22):
But what's going on in yourworld?
Because I know in winter thingsslow down, maybe on both sides
roofing and general construction.
But now that we're kind ofcoming out with we're in spring,
weather's getting warmer,pollen's going away.
Are you getting busy?
You got projects going on.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, I thought I was going to catch my breath in
January.
So I did a few things that havebeen on the back burner for a
while and, man, I just don'tknow if catching my breath is in
the cards for the next decade.
You know, you think about withchildren.
You got cars, colleges andweddings to pay for, so you
really can't take your foot offthe gas for a lot of reasons.
(04:00):
But January I got a few thingsdone.
It was probably the only timeI've had two or three weeks
where people weren't pulling atme, and then I'm pleased to say
that that it started back inFebruary and so it seems like
the economy's booming where weare and people aren't afraid to
spend money anymore.
You know, it's kind of one ofthose things where consumer
confidence controls and drivesthe workload in my world and and
it's not easy, but but like Imentioned before, when you have
(04:23):
children to pay for and, youknow, want to live a decent life
you got to go to work every dayand I'm just thankful that
there's work there to do.
So we did get a few projectsout of the ground recently and
we got some really interestingadditions and you know, normally
I take on a lot of newconstruction.
So we, you know, start fromscratch, build from the ground
(04:43):
up, and an addition or a remodelis just a different animal
because the folks are usuallyliving there.
So both of these most recentprojects happen to be additions.
And we got one that was built,I don't know, 50, 60 years ago
Very cute house, young coupleand we got into the project and
everything super smooth,everybody's super happy.
And when we went to do thebreakthrough into the house from
(05:05):
the new addition to theexisting, we realized that they
didn't have any insulation intheir house.
So of course you know me, I gobuilding science nerd and try to
ask all the right questions.
And it turns out that they arebasically on a heat pump, which
means they have electric heat.
And we were still in the coldermonths when we got going and
they revealed to me that atnighttime that their system
(05:27):
couldn't really keep up and thatthey would get down in the
sixties or even high fiftiesinside the house.
So that's not.
I like to sleep in the cold,but that's not for everybody,
especially when you have youngchildren like they do.
So, um, of course that turnedinto what can we do about it?
We realized there was noinsulation in the exterior walls
and we've talked about this onseveral shows over the last what
(05:49):
five, six years?
But they did have overheadinsulation.
They did have insulation in thecrawl space under the house but
they didn't have anything inthe walls.
So there's a process calleddrill and fill and basically the
insulation company comes andpumps cellulose insulation into
the walls.
So we were responsible forgoing around and making access
in every stud bay and it soundslike a lot but it's really, when
(06:10):
you find the 16 inch on centerpattern, it's just a matter of
following that inch incrementand, you know, giving access to
the insulation company.
And the even more surprisingthing is it's not that expensive
to do.
This was a smaller house, but Iwant to say that they were able
to insulate the walls for about$2,000.
And you know, I mean that's ared insulate.
(06:32):
From an insulating standpoint,two grand is pretty cheap, but
from a retrofit insulation Ifelt like that was a very fair
price.
And just today we talked aboutit and of course it got cold the
last couple of and temperaturestarting to bounce back to to
cooler weather and which Iexpected, but they told me that
it didn't get below mid 60s orso, and that really solved a big
(06:54):
problem that they didn't evenknow they had or why they had it
, and it was all because theydidn't have, you know, the gas
heat would have given them a ahotter punch when the the heat
kicked, but they had thatelectric heat and no insulation,
so that was the perfect recipefor not very comfortable inside
the house.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
And you know, if your house is cold in the winter,
it's going to be hot in thesummer because weatherization
and insulation the whole pointis when you want to be cool
inside, keep that heat out, andvice versa.
So they weren't.
They were maybe going to have amonth of good weather and then
all of a sudden it would be.
Now it's too hot.
At night it's getting up to 78,80 degrees and the AC is going
(07:31):
to be running full-time nonstopand never catching up.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yep, agreed, they do have a lot of mature shade trees
, so maybe that helped out.
I think their bigger problemwas in the winter, but either
way, I think that they just madea big improvement for not very
much money.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Yeah, fantastic.
It just shows you how importantweatherization is.
And in the future we'll talkabout some upgrades you can do
to your house.
I'm going to be doing somerenovations.
Well, my wife and I we're goingto start doing some renovations
to our house and there's lotsof little things that you find
out as you go through theprocess.
And have someone like Donnie,who's a contractor who knows
(08:07):
what to look for, that smallchanges, sometimes inexpensive,
like you said, to weatherizetheir house for that amount of
money is a pretty good deal, andthat I guess when you're out
working on a house and you see aweatherization issue, it
reminds you how important it isto take care of your house and
get it weatherized.
And that's kind of like thetopic of the show today that
we're going to focus on.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yep, exactly An important point to mention that
weatherization and insulation gohand in hand, but they are not
the same.
Weatherization is more likesealing all the cracks, and I
say that because there's twotypes of heat transfer.
Well, two types that we'll talkabout today, and that's
conductive and convective.
And you always hear about aconvection oven.
(08:49):
Same concept with convective.
Basically, the convective isheat transfer from air pressure.
So your house, whether it's amild breeze or a strong wind, it
always has a pressure on it andthat pressure is going to push
air out, either into your houseor, you know, if it has a clear
path, it's going to push theconditioned air out of your
house at a much faster rate.
(09:11):
And you know insulation doesthe opposite.
Insulation is more of aconvective, I'm sorry,
conductive.
So that is like insulationhelps with.
If the south face of your househas a lot of sun on it for six,
eight, ten hours a day, youknow that that hot surface is
going to heat up.
It's going to transfer from thebrick or the siding to the
(09:32):
plywood, that to the studs, thatto the drywall, and that heats
your house up at a much slowerrate than the convective.
But uh, the difference betweenthe two is weatherization
controls, and we'll talk abouthow, why and the details.
But weatherization controls theconvective heat transfer and
insulation controls theconductive.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
All right, so you can say to somebody you need to
weatherize your house, butthere's things you have to
recognize first.
I guess the big why you want todo it First of all it's an
investment into your house.
Weatherizing it and having itdone properly is something I
guess you could get an ROI on it.
We've had shows about ROIs.
But weatherization is going tosave utility bills like your
(10:14):
appliances, not your appliances.
Things like your AC unit oryour heat pump be more effective
because you have goodinsulation.
And what do you?
Does the first thing ahomeowner look for or think
about on whether or not theyneed weatherization?
Why would you consider?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
it.
I would say the first thing,without even having an obvious
indicator, is that if you livein an old house, it probably
needs it.
If you have old windows, theyprobably aren't insulated or
sealed around the window frames,and certainly if you have high
power bills, that's a deadringer.
So if you live, I want to saythe rule of thumb is around 12
cents per square foot for theutility bill so you can do the
(10:52):
math there and a very wellinsulated and weatherized house.
You can get down as low asanywhere from three to six or
seven cents per square foot, soyou can literally cut your
monthly utility bills down by75%.
And I've seen in some cases Imean I do it on every house when
I build with a, with newconstruction and and the, the
(11:13):
challenge is trying to retrofitan old house because you're
going behind.
You know the outdatedconstruction methods You're
you're trying to fix uhconstruction materials that were
thought of and installed, youknow, 20, 30 years ago in some
circumstances.
But yeah, yeah, the power bill,I would say it would be the
best indicator on that one.
(11:33):
If you have a 2000 square foothouse and a $600 utility bill,
you've got a problem.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah, I guess we might think we're going to put
in a new HVAC system.
But even if you put in a brandnew system and you do all the
duct work, if your house isn'tweatherized you're not getting
the full benefit from the HVACunit.
So weatherization helpsmultiple things work better and
together they save you a lot ofmoney and give you a good ROI.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, agreed, 1000%, because folks just throw more
BTUs at a problem.
So you've got an old, leakyhouse and you say I want gas
heat because my grandfatheralways believed in gas and all
this.
Then I'm not anti-gas.
In some circumstances, like thetankless water heaters, they
(12:21):
work much better with gasbecause you want to give a
bigger punch of heat as thatwater passes through the line.
But things like heat pumps orthe electric heat, rather, that
has come so far that as long asyou're insulated and, like you
say, weatherized right, it worksso much more efficiently.
It operates at a lot lessexpense than what a gas pack
(12:43):
would do.
And another thing that peopledon't consider is that it
contributes to your indoor airquality.
It contributes to your comfort,and you know people don't
consider is that it contributesto your indoor air quality?
It contributes to your comfort,and people don't think about
comfort.
Am I comfortable, or does theheat turn on and give me a blast
of heat and then it gets kindof cold and it doesn't deal with
the humidity, which probablymeans you have an oversized unit
.
There's several things thatneed to be taken into that
(13:06):
account for that equation towork perfectly.
You got efficiency, comfort,indoor air quality and just a
lot of factors to think about ifyou got a whole family living
there.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
It could be that if you put in a new HVAC unit, just
blowing in $1,000 or $2,000 ofa little bit of extra insulation
in your attic could be thething that really makes that
unit hum along and become superefficient.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Oh, for sure and more importantly than that is, it
will probably extend the life ofit, because you've got to think
those things wear out on cycletime and of course they make
monitors that will tell youexactly how often, and even
thermostats that do that.
Now the cycle time on and off,how many hours it ran this week
versus last week, and maybe evenmine doesn't do this, but I'm
(13:50):
sure they make them where theytrack back to see, almost like
you check your power bill fromthis year to last, and and
basically that cycle time willcontribute to the lifespan of
the unit.
So if it cycles on and off wayfewer times because you have
better insulation, and that'stotally worth it because we
preach all the time the heatingand air unit, that's the biggest
ticket item on the house andit's guaranteed to wear out.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, now I've dropped insulation several times
, so help me out here.
There is a distinct differencebetween weatherization and
insulation.
Is insulation part of theweatherization process, right?
Speaker 2 (14:25):
It would be the second part.
So if you were going to do themin order, you would want to
weatherize and then insulate andbasically we can go on a little
deeper dive.
But weatherization iscontrolling where air comes from
outside to inside or vice versa.
And I've been in older homeswhere I could hold my hand down
by an outlet and I could feel abreeze coming out from around
(14:47):
the outlet.
And that was all because theoutside was so leaky.
You know they just didn'tcontrol any type of airflow from
outside to inside.
So convective, like aconvection oven, moves air
around.
That convective is air movingfrom the outside to the inside
of your house and the first stepwould be sealing around all
kind of light penetrations.
You know any.
(15:07):
Anywhere there's a window inyour house having a spray foam,
low expansion spray foam,insulation around that window or
that door.
So a lot of those are alwaysempty cavities and and you know
that door, I'm sorry that thatempty cavity holds the air that
you don't want getting into yourhouse.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Real quick explain on the low expansion foam, because
people see great stuff and theysee a red can and a blue can
and what can happen if you usethe wrong foam.
Insulation from the spray can.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
If you use the wrong one, it expands super aggressive
and you'll never be able toopen your windows again unless
you dig all that stuff out andstart all over, and I don't
recommend that.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Hey, it can pop casing, Like if you got 445
around a window.
If it's not nailed in tight, itcan pop casing and cause it to
bow and stuff.
You don't realize how importantit is to recognize what is low
expansion foam versus the highexpansion.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Funny story.
This has been 10 years ago andI built a house for a guy and
basically under the soaker tubin his master it was this giant
soaker tub and you can imagineyou fill that thing up with 30
gallons of water and what wateris?
8.6 pounds per gallon, so thatthat's a lot of weight in that
fiberglass soaker tub.
So the manufacturer recommendsthat you put, um, something
(16:19):
under that tub to support thedistance between the bottom of
the tub and the sub floorunderneath.
And most of the time peoplejust mix up a bag of saccharite
and they are a couple of bags ofsaccharite and most of the time
people just mix up a bag ofsacrete and they are a couple of
bags of sacrete and they putthat in there because you know,
it hardens to the shape, itworks.
And this guy said look, dude, Idon't want concrete under my tub
and it just rubs me wrong.
Well, we're still in sort ofthe first days when great stuff
(16:42):
became readily available to bigbox stores.
And I'm thinking for a coupleof days and I said, well, what
about?
We just use, you know, sprayfoam, and I knew it would expand
aggressively, like I mentionedearlier.
But we actually put itunderneath the tub.
We set the tub, rather, and weput the low expansion spray foam
and I was banking on the factthat it would just go out the
(17:05):
sides.
You know, it would just expandout around the sides.
We even took, I think we took abundle or two of shingles and
weighted down the top and wouldyou believe that spray foam
floated that tub up out of thehole.
We had to, and it wasn't a realbig cleanup, but we actually had
to go in there, take it out,start all over.
But we actually had to go inthere, take it out, start all
over.
And after he saw the end result, he was okay with the concrete,
(17:25):
cool new spray foam that theyhave.
They have an insect deterrentspray foam, so I think that's
really neat.
And if you live in an olderhome, I want to say it's the one
with the green lid, of course,but they have one that has, it's
, an insect blocker and aninsect deterrent.
So it actually has something inthere that I guess gives off a
smell that they don't like, butit also hardens to the point
where they can't burrow throughit.
(17:46):
So use that in several places.
Not that I monitor it veryclosely, but it seemed to work
well.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
All right, Donnie, someone isn't sure if they need
their house weatherized.
Let's do some steps they cantake.
Where do you go?
Or maybe they feel draftscoming through and they know
they need to do something.
Where do they start?
What do they need to do?
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Well, a lot of insulation companies have gotten
wise to the fact that this is abig need now.
So a lot of the insulationcompanies, instead of just
putting bad insulation in thefloors you know, walls and in
the ceiling, they have expandedtheir services to include things
like where they weatherizearound the window, so they'll
actually come in.
They include things like wherethey weatherize around the
window, so they'll actually comein.
(18:27):
They'll take off all of yourcasing around the window and
basically they'll do thelow-expansion spray foam around
your windows and put your casingback.
If you're handy I feel likethat's very much a DIY thing you
can order bigger cans of sprayfoam online than you can get in
the big-box store, and theyactually have a cool wand.
So if you have a big house anda lot of time on your hands,
(18:48):
that may be a cheaper route thanhiring an insulation company.
Another thing that we did a lotof weatherization back 15, 20
years ago for a localmunicipality, and a big thing
that they did was add radiantbarrier.
That's another weatherizationtactic, and what that is is
something that resembles almostlike a uh tinfoil with a woven
fiber.
A heavy duty tinfoil with awoven fiber in there comes in a
(19:10):
three foot roll and youbasically put that on the bottom
side of your rafters in theattic and, uh, that is the first
step before you blow more atticinsulation.
And when I say it works, wewould be on one side of an attic
doing the radiant barrier.
We'd go from the bottom of therafter up to the ridge, so the
uppermost, and with one sidedone of the attic and the other
(19:31):
side not, it would be as much asa 10 to 15 degree swing from
one side to the otherimmediately.
And what that does is basicallythe intake and the soffit that
we always preach about when wedo roofing shows.
The intake and the soffit ventfrom the outside that travels
along the backside of yourplywood, which keeps the
shingles technically a fewdegrees cooler for the lifespan
(19:53):
of the shingles and it exhaustsout the ridge vent.
It keeps all that heat intakeor all that air intake in that
cavity between the rafters, soit makes that ridge vent and
soffit intake work that muchbetter.
So several things I mean itjust depends on the house.
So it's a case-by-case scenario, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
DIY.
So it sounds like you need apro.
But you need a pro to do anaudit to really figure out where
to make your weatherization.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
That's a better answer than what I gave.
Yeah, if you've got the moneyfor an energy auditor.
I was thinking DIY, becausethat's all the questions we get
from the listeners, but anenergy auditor would really help
you tell the tale of where youneed it.
You know what's the mostimportant and you know where
your money needs to go first.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Well, what I was saying by that is there are DIY
things you can do.
Well, what I was saying by thatis there are DIY things you can
do, but you got to make sureyou know this is the issue, or
one of the issues.
You could be fixing something.
That's fine, or you could popoff some casing and make the
situation worse so you couldcrack casing, have to get that
replaced, or make sure yourwindows or something need to be
(21:00):
treated.
But there are energy auditorsyou can hire and they could come
through your house.
I don't know the pricing, Idon't know if you have a
connection with one that wecould get on the show in the
future, but somebody who couldgo through your house and say
you need to do these five, sixthings to weatherize your house.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
So I do have a connection for an energy auditor
and I've been meaning to gethim on for a while because this
seems to be a hot topic everytime the seasons change.
But basically they do what'scalled a blower door test.
So they depressurize the houseand they cover all the vents, so
anywhere that you might havefree airflow into the house.
So your supply lines from yourHVAC they seal all those tight
(21:41):
and they basically open one ofyour doors front door, back door
.
They seal all those tight andthey basically open one of your
doors front door, back door andthey leave it on and it tells
them how leaky your house is.
And they have a I can'tremember the number, I used to
(22:17):
be a little better versed onthis stuff but it'll tell them
if your house is really leaky,then we need to go around and
check things out.
And when they depressurize ahouse dude, you can walk around,
hold your hand by any window,by any outlet, any vulnerable
place, and you can just feel thewind rushing in from the
outside.
So that tells the tale there.
They do another thing called aduct blaster test, meaning your
HVAC ducts.
So a lot of times people don't,you don't ever get under your
house or you really don't get inthe attic and do a duct work
(22:38):
inspection, but it's notuncommon for your duct work to
have a tear or, you know, bepoorly insulated or just not
connected at the air handler.
There's several things that canhappen there, but that test
works for that.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Let me interrupt real quick.
My AC guy one time.
He says he'll measure the flowof your airflow through the
ducts.
Just by reading the airflow heusually can tell you if it's a
leak or just compressed ductwork, which is amazing of an ability
to without looking at it going.
You got a problem here based onthe airflow.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Well, I think that the order of operations is kind
of cool right here because that,yeah, if somebody's like your
guy, he's a heating and air guybut he did a semi energy audit
on your house and an energyauditor could tell you here you
are thinking you've got to spenda ton of money on a brand new
system and the whole nine yards,and an energy auditor can tell
you, maybe you just have acouple of loose duct runs from
(23:31):
the air handler and you can goin the attic and tighten those
up and seal those off andproblem solved and you're not
spending $15,000 on a new system.
So super important, and I thinkthat's a good place to start.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
So I'm going to put you on the job of finding your
energy auditor guy and have himcome on the show, because we
could probably talk about youmore than I, of course, the
basic steps and what the processwould be, but it would probably
be better to have a pro come onand tell us.
Here's what I'm going to do ifI come to your house, do an
energy audit.
No doubt.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Yeah, he's, he's man, this guy.
He'll talk circles around usbecause he lives it and breathes
it every single day and um morethan anything.
We kind of described theprocess that he goes through,
but I bet he has some reallygood stories.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Um, anything else you want to add.
So the energy auditor we'repretending here time to role
play has gone through a house.
He's made these recommendations.
What do you see?
You mentioned windows.
Any other thing you see as acommon place in a house that
needs to?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
be addressed.
I would say that just lookunder your house and over your
house, because you'd be amazedat how many older homes just
don't have insulation in thefloor and people just crank the
heat up instead of saying, hey,why are my floors cold every day
.
Just kind of floating throughlife.
And I would say that thewindows are probably the most
(24:51):
important place to check and ifthey're older windows we preach
about the best window that theymade 15 years ago is still worse
than the worst window you canbuy today, because the energy
codes are so much more strictnow that they dictate that even
the cheapest window you can buyis going to be really good.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
I word it this way the cheapest window today is
just as good as the best window15 years ago.
If you want to have a prettywindow, go ahead with it.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But it's mainly aesthetic.
The hardware might be nicer.
It might actually, over theyears, open and close just as
good as it did new.
But for the efficiency and theweatherization there's no need
(25:34):
to spend thousands and thousandsof dollars per window when you
could get your whole house donewith a set of new windows at a
lower price.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
it will still be super energy efficient,
absolutely when people get intothe triple pain and I won't call
the manufacturers by name, butthere's some manufacturers out
there that you know pretty darnpricey you know more about that
than I do.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
But um, yeah, and again, that's your decision If
you want to go that route.
I've we've seen houses wherethey've put in 50, 60, 70,
a100,000 in windows.
Great, I love capitalism,Fantastic for you.
I'll stick with some maybebasic silver line fiberglass
windows that will still do apretty dang good job of keeping
me comfortable and keep myenergy bill lower.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
I think one of the most important things that I
want to stress before we wrap upis that sort of like insulation
upgrades, weatherizationupgrades are permanent, so once
you do these, they don't wearout, they don't have a lifespan,
they're just in place, and,especially with how far the
installations come these days,that you put all that stuff in
there and it's made to last and,and the cool thing is, it pays
you back immediately.
(26:37):
So you're going to see thereturns on your utility bills
and once you make back what youspent on the insulation, which
payback period is shorter thanmost of the things in your house
you're making money.
So your house is actuallymaking you money, not like
another.
When we talk about ROI on allthese upgrades, you have to
actually sell the house to getthat money back, and so this is
something that pays you backimmediately, and to me it's a no
(27:00):
brainer.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yeah, that beautiful new front door might inspire a
buyer, but it doesn't give youany money when you put it on the
house and stay there for 15years.
But upgrading insulation,weatherization I want to remind
people that if you do do someweatherization, we're not CPAs I
know it's a shock.
We're not public accountants ortax advisors.
(27:21):
There are tax credits for doingweatherization.
You don't have to get it donebefore this tax season, but keep
your receipts because there'splenty of resources that you can
check out and find out whereyou can save money.
As a matter of fact, if I'mcorrect, aren't some like HELOCs
and loans?
Not that you're a banker either?
Can you take some of that offtaxes like the interest on that
(27:45):
if you're doing it for home?
Speaker 2 (27:45):
improvements.
Yes, sir, you're supposed to beable to do that, but I don't
want to speak out of turn, soI'm going to follow suit with
what you just said and refereverybody to a CPA.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
All right.
So near future we're going tohave an energy auditor on who
can tell people what the processis, what to expect, and maybe
he'll have details about squarefootage and savings per square
foot when you do simple thingslike weatherize your house.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Hey, and one thing I want to add before we go is just
to talk dollars and cents onthis thing.
I did a spreadsheet goshforever ago.
But Duke Energy had a price perkilowatt hour projection page
on their website.
I don't know if it's stillthere, but this is back before I
had a bunch of kids and hadmore time on my hands.
But I made a spreadsheetshowing that if you built a 1000
(28:30):
square foot house and you wereable to build it to code minimum
or you were able to build itefficiently, like we're talking
about, and save $100 a month.
And then I did another sectionof the spreadsheet where those
same calculations were figuredin on a 2,000 square foot house,
saving $200 a month.
And I did $3,000 at three and$4,000 at $400 a month when I
(28:51):
projected those price perkilowatt hour increases in there
.
And I did it conservativelyjust to make sure the numbers
would be okay, because, nosecret, that price per kilowatt
hour is always going to go up.
The power company is nevergoing to charge less.
When you got to the end of a30-year mortgage, the way I
would word it to people whenthey were this is before
everybody was on the efficiencytrain I would word it to people
that at the end of 30 years thenumbers were so big it was maybe
(29:15):
$100,000.
And this is back beforeconstruction shot up.
$100,000 saved on a1,000-square-foot house and the
bigger the house, the biggerthat in number multiplied out to
be.
So on a 3,000-square-foot house, if you built it efficiently,
the savings in the end wereexponentially more than that
1,000-square-foot house.
And the way that I would wordit to people that were looking
(29:37):
to build is you build itefficiently and you either pay.
If you don't build itefficiently, you either pay for
your house once or you pay forit twice.
The numbers were that big and Ihighly recommend it when I
haven't had anybody really buckme on it, because they know I've
been down this road over andover but I really think that
that's a way to save the verymost money possible on a house
(30:00):
is to go ahead and put a littlebit up front in a better heating
and air unit and insulating theproper way and maybe even going
the extra mile with theinsulation and the windows,
making sure that your systemsjive and that everything works
together, and it's going to payyou back.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
We even did a whole show talking about that very
thing, donnie, and I want toremind people they can go to the
website and download thepodcast.
We've got hundreds, literallyhundreds of episodes of the
Carolina Contractor Show online.
So find your favorite servicethat you'd like to listen to and
download podcasts from, andthey're labeled by a topic and
you can easily find subjectsthat are going to relate to you
(30:34):
more.
And weatherization we've kindof talked about before.
We've done insulation shows andthe one you talked about again
on the house was, uh, saving Imean six figures on a house over
the loan period in the time youown that house because you've
insulated and done thingscorrectly during the build and
you can still save tens ofthousands retrofitting or
(30:57):
putting stuff in on an existinghouse.
Yes, sir, well put.
Go to the websitethecarolinacontractorcom.
Donnie, you've got homework todo.
You're going to get us anenergy auditor on the show and
we'll save people even moremoney, and we just thank you all
for tuning in Again.
Hit the websitethecarolinacontractorcom and
give us a like there.
You got a question commentrecipes for something for spring
(31:20):
and summer.
Please submit it there and wehope to see and hear you next
week on the Carolina ContractorShow have a great day everybody
Thanks for listening to theCarolina Contractor Show.
Visit thecarolinacontractorcom.
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with
your host, general ContractorDonnie Blanchard.
Now I know it's only spring,donnie, but summer means big
summer movie blockbusters.
My son, zach, when he's not incollege, tends to work at a
movie theater.
Are you looking forward toanything coming out this spring
and summer in the theater?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Oh, for sure, All the new Marvel movies are coming
out.
Well, maybe not necessarilythis summer, but they get kicked
off this summer.
So it's been a big secret as towhat they were going to do and
the next phase in the wholeseries, and so I'm looking
forward to it.
It kind of brings out the kidin me and you know, when you get
a little older, you grow upwatching that stuff and then you
get married and you have kidsand then they get into it.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
You get to go back to the theater and watch all that
stuff.
Then you just have to be kindof a creeper and go because you
enjoy it and, like I said, myson's very excited about it.
So I kind of get to go back tothe theaters and watch the
expansion of the Marvel Universe.
That's going to happen, of theMarvel universe.
That's going to happen,especially with the Fantastic
Four.
You seen that trailer, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah, it's kind of odd that they went that route
where it's almost like they livein this utopia of a perfect
world, and I'm interested to seehow they're going to spin it.
All right, is your car thiscolor anymore, lord?
No, thank God that we got a fewgood strong rains, because I
don't know if the pollen justbothers me more because I'm
older every year, but it seemslike this year it was extra
(01:25):
heavy and a lot of porchmaintenance.
I always think about the showthat you talked about.
You wrapped your porch inplastic and I always thought how
weird the neighbors must thinkyou are.
But it was a heck of an idea,man.
It worked.
It did the trick.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah, the first year we did it was COVID, so they
definitely thought something wasweird.
First year we did, it was COVID, so they definitely thought
something was weird.
We didn't do it this pastspring because we're going to
really be cleaning it outanyways, because we're going to
be doing some projects over thenext year or so.
But I want to start off theshow by letting everybody who's
never heard it before knowwhat's going on, because whoever
is listening for the first timeis completely lost.
(02:00):
This is the Carolina ContractorShow and my name is Eric Smith.
I do inside sales for homebuilders in Wilson, Greenville.
Donnie here is a generalcontractor.
He owns Blanchard BuildingCompany.
Also owns Sure Top Roofing.
We just like to talk aboutbuilding and construction and
DIY projects and if you own ahouse, you're going to dig this
(02:20):
show.
If you sit in your garage onthe weekends and want to do some
projects or you want to dorepairs, or maybe you're going
to dig this show If you sit inyour garage on the weekends and
want to do some projects or youwant to do repairs or maybe
you're going to be doing arenovation of some sort, this is
what we do, but we're not thoseboring engineer types.
We talk about sports and moviesand things like that too.
The website you can start at toget more information
(02:41):
thecarolinacontractorcom Verypopular feature Ask the
Contractor.
That's your chance to pickDonnie's brain.
Click on the button.
Anything about your house theinside or the outside,
construction, diy we love to getthose questions.
Also, links to the YouTube page.
Be sure to go there and give usa like.
You can join on to get notifiedwhen we put up shows.
(03:01):
We've got social media.
Find us there on IG andFacebook and, again, give us
likes, ideas, follow us there.
If there's something you wantto talk about, we're open to it.
We love doing that.
And again, donnie, you are acontractor, general contractor.
You do a lot of stuff withhouses.
I'm just the pretty boy here.
(03:22):
But what's going on in yourworld?
Because I know in winter thingsslow down, maybe on both sides
roofing and general construction.
But now that we're kind ofcoming out with we're in spring,
weather's getting warmer,pollen's going away.
Are you getting busy?
You got projects going on.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, I thought I was going to catch my breath in
January.
So I did a few things that havebeen on the back burner for a
while and, man, I just don'tknow if catching my breath is in
the cards for the next decade.
You know, you think about withchildren.
You got cars, colleges andweddings to pay for, so you
really can't take your foot offthe gas for a lot of reasons.
(04:00):
But January I got a few thingsdone.
It was probably the only timeI've had two or three weeks
where people weren't pulling atme, and then I'm pleased to say
that that it started back inFebruary and so it seems like
the economy's booming where weare and people aren't afraid to
spend money anymore.
You know, it's kind of one ofthose things where consumer
confidence controls and drivesthe workload in my world and and
it's not easy, but but like Imentioned before, when you have
(04:23):
children to pay for and, youknow, want to live a decent life
you got to go to work every dayand I'm just thankful that
there's work there to do.
So we did get a few projectsout of the ground recently and
we got some really interestingadditions and you know, normally
I take on a lot of newconstruction.
So we, you know, start fromscratch, build from the ground
(04:43):
up, and an addition or a remodelis just a different animal
because the folks are usuallyliving there.
So both of these most recentprojects happen to be additions.
And we got one that was built,I don't know, 50, 60 years ago
Very cute house, young coupleand we got into the project and
everything super smooth,everybody's super happy.
And when we went to do thebreakthrough into the house from
(05:05):
the new addition to theexisting, we realized that they
didn't have any insulation intheir house.
So of course you know me, I gobuilding science nerd and try to
ask all the right questions.
And it turns out that they arebasically on a heat pump, which
means they have electric heat.
And we were still in the coldermonths when we got going and
they revealed to me that atnighttime that their system
(05:27):
couldn't really keep up and thatthey would get down in the
sixties or even high fiftiesinside the house.
So that's not.
I like to sleep in the cold,but that's not for everybody,
especially when you have youngchildren like they do.
So, um, of course that turnedinto what can we do about it?
We realized there was noinsulation in the exterior walls
and we've talked about this onseveral shows over the last what
(05:49):
five, six years?
But they did have overheadinsulation.
They did have insulation in thecrawl space under the house but
they didn't have anything inthe walls.
So there's a process calleddrill and fill and basically the
insulation company comes andpumps cellulose insulation into
the walls.
So we were responsible forgoing around and making access
in every stud bay and it soundslike a lot but it's really, when
(06:10):
you find the 16 inch on centerpattern, it's just a matter of
following that inch incrementand, you know, giving access to
the insulation company.
And the even more surprisingthing is it's not that expensive
to do.
This was a smaller house, but Iwant to say that they were able
to insulate the walls for about$2,000.
And you know, I mean that's ared insulate.
(06:32):
From an insulating standpoint,two grand is pretty cheap, but
from a retrofit insulation Ifelt like that was a very fair
price.
And just today we talked aboutit and of course it got cold the
last couple of and temperaturestarting to bounce back to to
cooler weather and which Iexpected, but they told me that
it didn't get below mid 60s orso, and that really solved a big
(06:54):
problem that they didn't evenknow they had or why they had it
, and it was all because theydidn't have, you know, the gas
heat would have given them a ahotter punch when the the heat
kicked, but they had thatelectric heat and no insulation,
so that was the perfect recipefor not very comfortable inside
the house.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
And you know, if your house is cold in the winter,
it's going to be hot in thesummer because weatherization
and insulation the whole pointis when you want to be cool
inside, keep that heat out, andvice versa.
So they weren't.
They were maybe going to have amonth of good weather and then
all of a sudden it would be.
Now it's too hot.
At night it's getting up to 78,80 degrees and the AC is going
(07:31):
to be running full-time nonstopand never catching up.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yep, agreed, they do have a lot of mature shade trees
, so maybe that helped out.
I think their bigger problemwas in the winter, but either
way, I think that they just madea big improvement for not very
much money.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Yeah, fantastic.
It just shows you how importantweatherization is.
And in the future we'll talkabout some upgrades you can do
to your house.
I'm going to be doing somerenovations.
Well, my wife and I we're goingto start doing some renovations
to our house and there's lotsof little things that you find
out as you go through theprocess.
And have someone like Donnie,who's a contractor who knows
(08:07):
what to look for, that smallchanges, sometimes inexpensive,
like you said, to weatherizetheir house for that amount of
money is a pretty good deal, andthat I guess when you're out
working on a house and you see aweatherization issue, it
reminds you how important it isto take care of your house and
get it weatherized.
And that's kind of like thetopic of the show today that
we're going to focus on.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yep, exactly An important point to mention that
weatherization and insulation gohand in hand, but they are not
the same.
Weatherization is more likesealing all the cracks, and I
say that because there's twotypes of heat transfer.
Well, two types that we'll talkabout today, and that's
conductive and convective.
And you always hear about aconvection oven.
(08:49):
Same concept with convective.
Basically, the convective isheat transfer from air pressure.
So your house, whether it's amild breeze or a strong wind, it
always has a pressure on it andthat pressure is going to push
air out, either into your houseor, you know, if it has a clear
path, it's going to push theconditioned air out of your
house at a much faster rate.
(09:11):
And you know insulation doesthe opposite.
Insulation is more of aconvective, I'm sorry,
conductive.
So that is like insulationhelps with.
If the south face of your househas a lot of sun on it for six,
eight, ten hours a day, youknow that that hot surface is
going to heat up.
It's going to transfer from thebrick or the siding to the
(09:32):
plywood, that to the studs, thatto the drywall, and that heats
your house up at a much slowerrate than the convective.
But uh, the difference betweenthe two is weatherization
controls, and we'll talk abouthow, why and the details.
But weatherization controls theconvective heat transfer and
insulation controls theconductive.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
All right, so you can say to somebody you need to
weatherize your house, butthere's things you have to
recognize first.
I guess the big why you want todo it First of all it's an
investment into your house.
Weatherizing it and having itdone properly is something I
guess you could get an ROI on it.
We've had shows about ROIs.
But weatherization is going tosave utility bills like your
(10:14):
appliances, not your appliances.
Things like your AC unit oryour heat pump be more effective
because you have goodinsulation.
And what do you?
Does the first thing ahomeowner look for or think
about on whether or not theyneed weatherization?
Why would you consider?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
it.
I would say the first thing,without even having an obvious
indicator, is that if you livein an old house, it probably
needs it.
If you have old windows, theyprobably aren't insulated or
sealed around the window frames,and certainly if you have high
power bills, that's a deadringer.
So if you live, I want to saythe rule of thumb is around 12
cents per square foot for theutility bill so you can do the
(10:52):
math there and a very wellinsulated and weatherized house.
You can get down as low asanywhere from three to six or
seven cents per square foot, soyou can literally cut your
monthly utility bills down by75%.
And I've seen in some cases Imean I do it on every house when
I build with a, with newconstruction and and the, the
(11:13):
challenge is trying to retrofitan old house because you're
going behind.
You know the outdatedconstruction methods You're
you're trying to fix uhconstruction materials that were
thought of and installed, youknow, 20, 30 years ago in some
circumstances.
But yeah, yeah, the power bill,I would say it would be the
best indicator on that one.
(11:33):
If you have a 2000 square foothouse and a $600 utility bill,
you've got a problem.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah, I guess we might think we're going to put
in a new HVAC system.
But even if you put in a brandnew system and you do all the
duct work, if your house isn'tweatherized you're not getting
the full benefit from the HVACunit.
So weatherization helpsmultiple things work better and
together they save you a lot ofmoney and give you a good ROI.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, agreed, 1000%, because folks just throw more
BTUs at a problem.
So you've got an old, leakyhouse and you say I want gas
heat because my grandfatheralways believed in gas and all
this.
Then I'm not anti-gas.
In some circumstances, like thetankless water heaters, they
(12:21):
work much better with gasbecause you want to give a
bigger punch of heat as thatwater passes through the line.
But things like heat pumps orthe electric heat, rather, that
has come so far that as long asyou're insulated and, like you
say, weatherized right, it worksso much more efficiently.
It operates at a lot lessexpense than what a gas pack
(12:43):
would do.
And another thing that peopledon't consider is that it
contributes to your indoor airquality.
It contributes to your comfort,and you know people don't
consider is that it contributesto your indoor air quality?
It contributes to your comfort,and people don't think about
comfort.
Am I comfortable, or does theheat turn on and give me a blast
of heat and then it gets kindof cold and it doesn't deal with
the humidity, which probablymeans you have an oversized unit
.
There's several things thatneed to be taken into that
(13:06):
account for that equation towork perfectly.
You got efficiency, comfort,indoor air quality and just a
lot of factors to think about ifyou got a whole family living
there.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
It could be that if you put in a new HVAC unit, just
blowing in $1,000 or $2,000 ofa little bit of extra insulation
in your attic could be thething that really makes that
unit hum along and become superefficient.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Oh, for sure and more importantly than that is, it
will probably extend the life ofit, because you've got to think
those things wear out on cycletime and of course they make
monitors that will tell youexactly how often, and even
thermostats that do that.
Now the cycle time on and off,how many hours it ran this week
versus last week, and maybe evenmine doesn't do this, but I'm
(13:50):
sure they make them where theytrack back to see, almost like
you check your power bill fromthis year to last, and and
basically that cycle time willcontribute to the lifespan of
the unit.
So if it cycles on and off wayfewer times because you have
better insulation, and that'stotally worth it because we
preach all the time the heatingand air unit, that's the biggest
ticket item on the house andit's guaranteed to wear out.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, now I've dropped insulation several times
, so help me out here.
There is a distinct differencebetween weatherization and
insulation.
Is insulation part of theweatherization process, right?
Speaker 2 (14:25):
It would be the second part.
So if you were going to do themin order, you would want to
weatherize and then insulate andbasically we can go on a little
deeper dive.
But weatherization iscontrolling where air comes from
outside to inside or vice versa.
And I've been in older homeswhere I could hold my hand down
by an outlet and I could feel abreeze coming out from around
(14:47):
the outlet.
And that was all because theoutside was so leaky.
You know they just didn'tcontrol any type of airflow from
outside to inside.
So convective, like aconvection oven, moves air
around.
That convective is air movingfrom the outside to the inside
of your house and the first stepwould be sealing around all
kind of light penetrations.
You know any.
(15:07):
Anywhere there's a window inyour house having a spray foam,
low expansion spray foam,insulation around that window or
that door.
So a lot of those are alwaysempty cavities and and you know
that door, I'm sorry that thatempty cavity holds the air that
you don't want getting into yourhouse.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Real quick explain on the low expansion foam, because
people see great stuff and theysee a red can and a blue can
and what can happen if you usethe wrong foam.
Insulation from the spray can.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
If you use the wrong one, it expands super aggressive
and you'll never be able toopen your windows again unless
you dig all that stuff out andstart all over, and I don't
recommend that.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Hey, it can pop casing, Like if you got 445
around a window.
If it's not nailed in tight, itcan pop casing and cause it to
bow and stuff.
You don't realize how importantit is to recognize what is low
expansion foam versus the highexpansion.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Funny story.
This has been 10 years ago andI built a house for a guy and
basically under the soaker tubin his master it was this giant
soaker tub and you can imagineyou fill that thing up with 30
gallons of water and what wateris?
8.6 pounds per gallon, so thatthat's a lot of weight in that
fiberglass soaker tub.
So the manufacturer recommendsthat you put, um, something
(16:19):
under that tub to support thedistance between the bottom of
the tub and the sub floorunderneath.
And most of the time peoplejust mix up a bag of saccharite
and they are a couple of bags ofsaccharite and most of the time
people just mix up a bag ofsacrete and they are a couple of
bags of sacrete and they putthat in there because you know,
it hardens to the shape, itworks.
And this guy said look, dude, Idon't want concrete under my tub
and it just rubs me wrong.
Well, we're still in sort ofthe first days when great stuff
(16:42):
became readily available to bigbox stores.
And I'm thinking for a coupleof days and I said, well, what
about?
We just use, you know, sprayfoam, and I knew it would expand
aggressively, like I mentionedearlier.
But we actually put itunderneath the tub.
We set the tub, rather, and weput the low expansion spray foam
and I was banking on the factthat it would just go out the
(17:05):
sides.
You know, it would just expandout around the sides.
We even took, I think we took abundle or two of shingles and
weighted down the top and wouldyou believe that spray foam
floated that tub up out of thehole.
We had to, and it wasn't a realbig cleanup, but we actually had
to go in there, take it out,start all over.
But we actually had to go inthere, take it out, start all
over.
And after he saw the end result, he was okay with the concrete,
(17:25):
cool new spray foam that theyhave.
They have an insect deterrentspray foam, so I think that's
really neat.
And if you live in an olderhome, I want to say it's the one
with the green lid, of course,but they have one that has, it's
, an insect blocker and aninsect deterrent.
So it actually has something inthere that I guess gives off a
smell that they don't like, butit also hardens to the point
where they can't burrow throughit.
(17:46):
So use that in several places.
Not that I monitor it veryclosely, but it seemed to work
well.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
All right, Donnie, someone isn't sure if they need
their house weatherized.
Let's do some steps they cantake.
Where do you go?
Or maybe they feel draftscoming through and they know
they need to do something.
Where do they start?
What do they need to do?
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Well, a lot of insulation companies have gotten
wise to the fact that this is abig need now.
So a lot of the insulationcompanies, instead of just
putting bad insulation in thefloors you know, walls and in
the ceiling, they have expandedtheir services to include things
like where they weatherizearound the window, so they'll
actually come in.
They include things like wherethey weatherize around the
window, so they'll actually comein.
(18:27):
They'll take off all of yourcasing around the window and
basically they'll do thelow-expansion spray foam around
your windows and put your casingback.
If you're handy I feel likethat's very much a DIY thing you
can order bigger cans of sprayfoam online than you can get in
the big-box store, and theyactually have a cool wand.
So if you have a big house anda lot of time on your hands,
(18:48):
that may be a cheaper route thanhiring an insulation company.
Another thing that we did a lotof weatherization back 15, 20
years ago for a localmunicipality, and a big thing
that they did was add radiantbarrier.
That's another weatherizationtactic, and what that is is
something that resembles almostlike a uh tinfoil with a woven
fiber.
A heavy duty tinfoil with awoven fiber in there comes in a
(19:10):
three foot roll and youbasically put that on the bottom
side of your rafters in theattic and, uh, that is the first
step before you blow more atticinsulation.
And when I say it works, wewould be on one side of an attic
doing the radiant barrier.
We'd go from the bottom of therafter up to the ridge, so the
uppermost, and with one sidedone of the attic and the other
(19:31):
side not, it would be as much asa 10 to 15 degree swing from
one side to the otherimmediately.
And what that does is basicallythe intake and the soffit that
we always preach about when wedo roofing shows.
The intake and the soffit ventfrom the outside that travels
along the backside of yourplywood, which keeps the
shingles technically a fewdegrees cooler for the lifespan
(19:53):
of the shingles and it exhaustsout the ridge vent.
It keeps all that heat intakeor all that air intake in that
cavity between the rafters, soit makes that ridge vent and
soffit intake work that muchbetter.
So several things I mean itjust depends on the house.
So it's a case-by-case scenario, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
DIY.
So it sounds like you need apro.
But you need a pro to do anaudit to really figure out where
to make your weatherization.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
That's a better answer than what I gave.
Yeah, if you've got the moneyfor an energy auditor.
I was thinking DIY, becausethat's all the questions we get
from the listeners, but anenergy auditor would really help
you tell the tale of where youneed it.
You know what's the mostimportant and you know where
your money needs to go first.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Well, what I was saying by that is there are DIY
things you can do.
Well, what I was saying by thatis there are DIY things you can
do, but you got to make sureyou know this is the issue, or
one of the issues.
You could be fixing something.
That's fine, or you could popoff some casing and make the
situation worse so you couldcrack casing, have to get that
replaced, or make sure yourwindows or something need to be
(21:00):
treated.
But there are energy auditorsyou can hire and they could come
through your house.
I don't know the pricing, Idon't know if you have a
connection with one that wecould get on the show in the
future, but somebody who couldgo through your house and say
you need to do these five, sixthings to weatherize your house.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
So I do have a connection for an energy auditor
and I've been meaning to gethim on for a while because this
seems to be a hot topic everytime the seasons change.
But basically they do what'scalled a blower door test.
So they depressurize the houseand they cover all the vents, so
anywhere that you might havefree airflow into the house.
So your supply lines from yourHVAC they seal all those tight
(21:41):
and they basically open one ofyour doors front door, back door
.
They seal all those tight andthey basically open one of your
doors front door, back door andthey leave it on and it tells
them how leaky your house is.
And they have a I can'tremember the number, I used to
(22:17):
be a little better versed onthis stuff but it'll tell them
if your house is really leaky,then we need to go around and
check things out.
And when they depressurize ahouse dude, you can walk around,
hold your hand by any window,by any outlet, any vulnerable
place, and you can just feel thewind rushing in from the
outside.
So that tells the tale there.
They do another thing called aduct blaster test, meaning your
HVAC ducts.
So a lot of times people don't,you don't ever get under your
house or you really don't get inthe attic and do a duct work
(22:38):
inspection, but it's notuncommon for your duct work to
have a tear or, you know, bepoorly insulated or just not
connected at the air handler.
There's several things that canhappen there, but that test
works for that.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Let me interrupt real quick.
My AC guy one time.
He says he'll measure the flowof your airflow through the
ducts.
Just by reading the airflow heusually can tell you if it's a
leak or just compressed ductwork, which is amazing of an ability
to without looking at it going.
You got a problem here based onthe airflow.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Well, I think that the order of operations is kind
of cool right here because that,yeah, if somebody's like your
guy, he's a heating and air guybut he did a semi energy audit
on your house and an energyauditor could tell you here you
are thinking you've got to spenda ton of money on a brand new
system and the whole nine yards,and an energy auditor can tell
you, maybe you just have acouple of loose duct runs from
(23:31):
the air handler and you can goin the attic and tighten those
up and seal those off andproblem solved and you're not
spending $15,000 on a new system.
So super important, and I thinkthat's a good place to start.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
So I'm going to put you on the job of finding your
energy auditor guy and have himcome on the show, because we
could probably talk about youmore than I, of course, the
basic steps and what the processwould be, but it would probably
be better to have a pro come onand tell us.
Here's what I'm going to do ifI come to your house, do an
energy audit.
No doubt.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Yeah, he's, he's man, this guy.
He'll talk circles around usbecause he lives it and breathes
it every single day and um morethan anything.
We kind of described theprocess that he goes through,
but I bet he has some reallygood stories.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Um, anything else you want to add.
So the energy auditor we'repretending here time to role
play has gone through a house.
He's made these recommendations.
What do you see?
You mentioned windows.
Any other thing you see as acommon place in a house that
needs to?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
be addressed.
I would say that just lookunder your house and over your
house, because you'd be amazedat how many older homes just
don't have insulation in thefloor and people just crank the
heat up instead of saying, hey,why are my floors cold every day
.
Just kind of floating throughlife.
And I would say that thewindows are probably the most
(24:51):
important place to check and ifthey're older windows we preach
about the best window that theymade 15 years ago is still worse
than the worst window you canbuy today, because the energy
codes are so much more strictnow that they dictate that even
the cheapest window you can buyis going to be really good.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
I word it this way the cheapest window today is
just as good as the best window15 years ago.
If you want to have a prettywindow, go ahead with it.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But it's mainly aesthetic.
The hardware might be nicer.
It might actually, over theyears, open and close just as
good as it did new.
But for the efficiency and theweatherization there's no need
(25:34):
to spend thousands and thousandsof dollars per window when you
could get your whole house donewith a set of new windows at a
lower price.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
it will still be super energy efficient,
absolutely when people get intothe triple pain and I won't call
the manufacturers by name, butthere's some manufacturers out
there that you know pretty darnpricey you know more about that
than I do.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
But um, yeah, and again, that's your decision If
you want to go that route.
I've we've seen houses wherethey've put in 50, 60, 70,
a100,000 in windows.
Great, I love capitalism,Fantastic for you.
I'll stick with some maybebasic silver line fiberglass
windows that will still do apretty dang good job of keeping
me comfortable and keep myenergy bill lower.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
I think one of the most important things that I
want to stress before we wrap upis that sort of like insulation
upgrades, weatherizationupgrades are permanent, so once
you do these, they don't wearout, they don't have a lifespan,
they're just in place, and,especially with how far the
installations come these days,that you put all that stuff in
there and it's made to last and,and the cool thing is, it pays
you back immediately.
(26:37):
So you're going to see thereturns on your utility bills
and once you make back what youspent on the insulation, which
payback period is shorter thanmost of the things in your house
you're making money.
So your house is actuallymaking you money, not like
another.
When we talk about ROI on allthese upgrades, you have to
actually sell the house to getthat money back, and so this is
something that pays you backimmediately, and to me it's a no
(27:00):
brainer.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yeah, that beautiful new front door might inspire a
buyer, but it doesn't give youany money when you put it on the
house and stay there for 15years.
But upgrading insulation,weatherization I want to remind
people that if you do do someweatherization, we're not CPAs I
know it's a shock.
We're not public accountants ortax advisors.
(27:21):
There are tax credits for doingweatherization.
You don't have to get it donebefore this tax season, but keep
your receipts because there'splenty of resources that you can
check out and find out whereyou can save money.
As a matter of fact, if I'mcorrect, aren't some like HELOCs
and loans?
Not that you're a banker either?
Can you take some of that offtaxes like the interest on that
(27:45):
if you're doing it for home?
Speaker 2 (27:45):
improvements.
Yes, sir, you're supposed to beable to do that, but I don't
want to speak out of turn, soI'm going to follow suit with
what you just said and refereverybody to a CPA.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
All right.
So near future we're going tohave an energy auditor on who
can tell people what the processis, what to expect, and maybe
he'll have details about squarefootage and savings per square
foot when you do simple thingslike weatherize your house.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Hey, and one thing I want to add before we go is just
to talk dollars and cents onthis thing.
I did a spreadsheet goshforever ago.
But Duke Energy had a price perkilowatt hour projection page
on their website.
I don't know if it's stillthere, but this is back before I
had a bunch of kids and hadmore time on my hands.
But I made a spreadsheetshowing that if you built a 1000
(28:30):
square foot house and you wereable to build it to code minimum
or you were able to build itefficiently, like we're talking
about, and save $100 a month.
And then I did another sectionof the spreadsheet where those
same calculations were figuredin on a 2,000 square foot house,
saving $200 a month.
And I did $3,000 at three and$4,000 at $400 a month when I
(28:51):
projected those price perkilowatt hour increases in there
.
And I did it conservativelyjust to make sure the numbers
would be okay, because, nosecret, that price per kilowatt
hour is always going to go up.
The power company is nevergoing to charge less.
When you got to the end of a30-year mortgage, the way I
would word it to people whenthey were this is before
everybody was on the efficiencytrain I would word it to people
that at the end of 30 years thenumbers were so big it was maybe
(29:15):
$100,000.
And this is back beforeconstruction shot up.
$100,000 saved on a1,000-square-foot house and the
bigger the house, the biggerthat in number multiplied out to
be.
So on a 3,000-square-foot house, if you built it efficiently,
the savings in the end wereexponentially more than that
1,000-square-foot house.
And the way that I would wordit to people that were looking
(29:37):
to build is you build itefficiently and you either pay.
If you don't build itefficiently, you either pay for
your house once or you pay forit twice.
The numbers were that big and Ihighly recommend it when I
haven't had anybody really buckme on it, because they know I've
been down this road over andover but I really think that
that's a way to save the verymost money possible on a house
(30:00):
is to go ahead and put a littlebit up front in a better heating
and air unit and insulating theproper way and maybe even going
the extra mile with theinsulation and the windows,
making sure that your systemsjive and that everything works
together, and it's going to payyou back.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
We even did a whole show talking about that very
thing, donnie, and I want toremind people they can go to the
website and download thepodcast.
We've got hundreds, literallyhundreds of episodes of the
Carolina Contractor Show online.
So find your favorite servicethat you'd like to listen to and
download podcasts from, andthey're labeled by a topic and
you can easily find subjectsthat are going to relate to you
(30:34):
more.
And weatherization we've kindof talked about before.
We've done insulation shows andthe one you talked about again
on the house was, uh, saving Imean six figures on a house over
the loan period in the time youown that house because you've
insulated and done thingscorrectly during the build and
you can still save tens ofthousands retrofitting or
(30:57):
putting stuff in on an existinghouse.
Yes, sir, well put.
Go to the websitethecarolinacontractorcom.
Donnie, you've got homework todo.
You're going to get us anenergy auditor on the show and
we'll save people even moremoney, and we just thank you all
for tuning in Again.
Hit the websitethecarolinacontractorcom and
give us a like there.
You got a question commentrecipes for something for spring
(31:20):
and summer.
Please submit it there and wehope to see and hear you next
week on the Carolina ContractorShow have a great day everybody
Thanks for listening to theCarolina Contractor Show.
Visit thecarolinacontractorcom.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.