Cardinal Insulation

Where: Studs, furred walls, framed bays
Not where: An open attic floor
Facing: Unfaced unless the assembly needs it
The steel: Still a thermal bridge

Where a batt is the right product

A commercial batt belongs in a cavity: a metal stud wall, a furred wall, a knee wall, or a framed bay with a depth that matches the batt. It does not belong rolled across an open attic and called R-38.

A 3.5-inch metal stud with an R-13 batt is R-13 at the cavity and almost nothing at the steel. The stud is a thermal bridge. Continuous insulation, when the wall assembly needs it, is a different layer. A batt alone does not turn a metal-stud wall into the code wall.

Facing, in this climate

Zone 1 is hot and humid. A polyethylene sheet on the inside of a wall can trap moisture. We do not add an interior vapor barrier because a house in a cold climate would have one.

Unfaced batts are the usual cavity fill here. A kraft facing is used only when the assembly actually calls for it. We do not install a faced batt backward and hope the paper is on the right side.

What a batt will not do

Batts do not air-seal the top plate, the stud track, or the penetrations. The cavity still gets sealed. A batt shoved into a bay with the edges folded is not the R-value printed on the package.

An attic floor that can take a hose gets blown-in, not a grid of batts. If someone sold a batt attic as the cheaper R-38, the inches will not be there and the gaps will.

Commercial batt insulation

Where a batt is the right product

Facing, in this climate

What a batt will not do

The other commercial jobs

Commercial batt insulation by city

Tell us the house. We'll call you.