13/09/2015
ROOF INSULATION
Extreme weather, isn’t it? The sun is pretty angry at us and rampant power outages aren’t really helping. Keeping in mind this unfortunate set of circumstances, we thought we should share with you all some highly useful information about insulating your home, which might help you lower temperatures, particularly on top floors.
Although buildings are insulated for a variety of reasons such as fire safety, sound-proofing and vibration cancellation, this post will focus solely on insulation meant to keep out the heat in hot climates such as ours.
The concept of insulation seems to be somehow alien to the country and, consequently, the vast majority of homes are unprotected from the sun’s wrath come summer time. So, how much does it cost to insulate your home and what types of materials are generally used in the insulation process? Let’s find out, shall we?
Spray Polyurethane Insulation
Spray Polyurethane Insulation is the best form of insulation available in Pakistan. In fact, polyurethane is the material used to insulate deep freezers and refrigerators, so it’s pretty good at keeping temperatures hot or cold per the user’s requirements. In Pakistan various companies use a technique to insulate roofs using polyurethane sprayed in the liquid form, which then dries up and turns into solid insulation material.
Polystyrene Insulation
Polystyrene Insulation, also referred to as ‘thermopore’ insulation in Pakistan, is another type of insulation used to keep houses cool in the summer and warm in the winter. However, the extruded form of polystyrene with no pores is a better option for insulation. The preferred time for installation of polystyrene sheets is during the construction of the house, where the sheets are placed within the walls and topped with cement or concrete. However, if you missed out on installing the sheets during the construction process, you can still add polystyrene sheets and top them with a layer of concrete or cement later. This, however, is likely to be a costly process.
Rates
The average rate of the polystyrene insulation is Rs 50 per ft2 if the thickness of the sheet is kept at one inch. Again, the rate would vary if you increased or decreased the thickness of the sheets to be installed.
Benefits of insulation
The most obvious benefit of insulating a building is that keeps it cool during summer and warm during winter. This translates into great savings on energy costs, which go down as you use air-conditioning and heating appliances less and less. Last but definitely not the least, another great benefit of insulation is that it keeps the building safe from water seepage to a great extent.