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Speaker 1: It's always right every Thursday at this time to have

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Speaker 1: our main man on. I mean you can listen to

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Speaker 1: At Home with Gary Sullivan on over two hundred and

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Speaker 1: seventy five stations nationally. I mean, can't go anywhere without

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Speaker 1: people bothering him, Isn't that right?

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Speaker 2: Gary? Oh gosh, you know it.

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Speaker 3: Man.

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Speaker 2: You got a busy day today.

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Speaker 1: You know, you know you have. I have a very

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Speaker 1: busy day to day. I've got to drive to Blacksburg,

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Speaker 1: Virginia later today. Such pretty country though there. I don't

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Speaker 1: know if you ever spent any time there. That is

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Speaker 1: one of my favorite parts of America.

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Speaker 2: Yep, yep.

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Speaker 3: Well, my daughter's in Charlotte, so we go that way

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Speaker 3: a lot. Yeah, and it is beautiful.

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Speaker 1: The only thing you gotta do, you gotta be careful.

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Speaker 1: And I was explaining to my wife last night about

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Speaker 1: why I'm leaving. When I'm leaving because you know, one

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Speaker 1: thing that I don't like to do, especially the older

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Speaker 1: I get. I don't like driving through the mountains of

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Speaker 1: West Virginia at night.

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Speaker 2: Yep. Well, a lot of people don't like to do that. Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm not alone, all right.

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Speaker 1: Listen, there are a lot of people out there, Gary,

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Speaker 1: They're gonna their eyes are gonna start rolling in the

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Speaker 1: back of their head when we're gonna start talking about insulation.

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Speaker 1: But the bottom line is you better not ignore it.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about adding insulation. Now, let me ask

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Speaker 1: you before we go any further, because this is where

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Speaker 1: I get to ask dumb questions.

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Speaker 4: And I love it. Okay, I love it.

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Speaker 1: Is there a big difference between trying to insulate an

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Speaker 1: older home compared to a relatively newer home.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, there's a real big difference.

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Speaker 3: I mean, usually when we think, or at least even

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Speaker 3: when I think about insulating a home, I think of

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Speaker 3: a two story house and you got a little cross

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Speaker 3: space up there where you can get into the attic

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Speaker 3: and you insulate the floor of the attic and you're done.

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Speaker 3: And all houses aren't constructed that way. I mean, we've

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Speaker 3: got balloon foundations, we got the old cape CODs, But generally,

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Speaker 3: what we're trying to do is create a buffer between

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Speaker 3: the air and the attic and the air in your home,

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Speaker 3: which you're paying to condition. So they're not all the same,

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Speaker 3: but the principle is pretty much the same, that's for sure, Okay, Okay,

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Speaker 3: And One of the things been bugging me is, you know,

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Speaker 3: it's been bugging everybody the price of.

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Speaker 2: Energy.

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Speaker 3: This year, I've heard more complaints I've ever ever had

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Speaker 3: about the price energy. And the other day when I

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Speaker 3: was doing a show, it dawned on me. It's like, well,

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Speaker 3: we're all whining about it. I wonder what everybody's doing

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Speaker 3: about it.

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Speaker 1: Well, you know, it's interesting here. I heard a long

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Speaker 1: podcast and I don't listen to many podcasts, but I

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Speaker 1: was struck by this one because you know, everybody wants

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Speaker 1: to do and I don't care what side of the

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Speaker 1: political fenchure on, but clearly during the Biden administration they

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Speaker 1: were not for drilling, fossil fuse, et cetera, et cetera. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so we fell behind compared to where we were during

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Speaker 1: Trump's first term. Now he wants to go back in

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Speaker 1: the adage, right, drill, baby, drill, But it takes time

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Speaker 1: for them to get that oil and gas true. And

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Speaker 1: so that's the reason, as I understand it, why there's

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Speaker 1: a chance or that's the reason why we have higher

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Speaker 1: energy prices now.

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Speaker 4: But let's get back to installation.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm gonna let me add one thing too. Tom

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Speaker 2: because that's the oil side of things. And one of

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Speaker 2: the things that's driving the prices.

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Speaker 3: On electricity is the demand for electricity with all this

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Speaker 3: AI that it takes these computers so much energy, no kidding,

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Speaker 3: and that's driving it up too. Yeah, I mean yeah,

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Speaker 3: search that and read it.

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Speaker 2: It's fascinating. I will check it out.

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Speaker 4: I will check it out for sure.

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Speaker 1: Okay, if you're looking at insulation, okay, what type are

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Speaker 1: you looking for?

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Speaker 2: Is that?

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Speaker 4: And is this pretty much straight across the board?

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Speaker 3: Well, there's different types of insulation, and people will ask

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Speaker 3: that question a lot. If it's a you know, standard house,

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Speaker 3: there's probably a chance on the attic floor they've got

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Speaker 3: blown in fiberglass insulation, or they got fiberglass batting insulation,

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Speaker 3: or they got cellulose. Some of the newer homes now

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Speaker 3: are starting to use phones. But I tell people all

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Speaker 3: the time, first of all, you or somebody has got

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Speaker 3: to get up in the attic and see what you got.

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Speaker 3: I think some people, and I've encouraged people to do that,

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Speaker 3: are shocked. They get up in the attic and with

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Speaker 3: their yardstick and they got five inches five inches of insulation.

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Speaker 2: On the floor.

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Speaker 3: And in our area Tom, we should probably have about

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Speaker 3: sixteen to eighteen inches, no kidding, yeah, yeah. So if

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Speaker 3: you're using fiberglass for an R value, Department of Energy

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Speaker 3: says about an R forty two and one inch of

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Speaker 3: fiberglass blown in insulation gives you about an R two

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Speaker 3: point five. You know, do the math quickly and you're

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Speaker 3: probably around sixteen eighteen inches and they literally find five

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Speaker 3: inches of insulation. So I tell people, I don't care

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Speaker 3: what you use in that attic, but if you've got

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Speaker 3: five inches of insulation, if you're do it yourself, fine,

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Speaker 3: do a little research. I really, you know, fiberglass is fine.

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Speaker 3: Cellular settles a little bit more than fiberglass, but it's fine.

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Speaker 3: Putting batting on top of batting, you can do that.

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Speaker 3: You can go perpendicular so that you cover any you know,

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Speaker 3: where it butts up against the joist. Don't use two

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Speaker 3: vapor barriers. There's probably a vapor barrier down at the

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Speaker 3: bottom top.

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Speaker 2: So what I'm saying is, if.

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Speaker 3: You use batting, don't use it where it's got the

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Speaker 3: paper casing over it. Just use the plane batting or

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Speaker 3: blow insulation in there. But you know, if you only

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Speaker 3: got three inches of insulation or five inches of insulation,

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Speaker 3: and you get it up to eighteen inches. The difference

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Speaker 3: you're gonna feel and here your house will be quieter,

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Speaker 3: it'll certainly be warmer, it won't be as drafty. So

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Speaker 3: you know, whatever insulate was something. There's even blue gene insulation,

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Speaker 3: I mean.

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Speaker 4: Blue Just what the hell is blue jean?

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Speaker 2: And so ground up blue jeans? What it's ground up denim?

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Speaker 4: You're kidding me.

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Speaker 1: No, this is for real, this is for real, ground

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Speaker 1: up blue jeans.

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Speaker 3: How about that you wondered where all your jeans went?

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Speaker 4: Oh my god, Well, now I know I have somewhere

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Speaker 4: to go donate them.

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Speaker 2: There you go, there we go. All right.

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Speaker 1: Well, now one of the biggest mistakes we can make,

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Speaker 1: because you can make a mistake on this stuff and

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Speaker 1: then all of a sudden it was wasn't worth all

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Speaker 1: the hassle that you went through, Right, Well.

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Speaker 2: That's true. In fact, you gotta again.

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Speaker 3: It gets into the era that your house was the

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Speaker 3: First thing you want to do is you want to

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Speaker 3: make sure if you have old electric system. There's something

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Speaker 3: called knob and tube wiring, and it's porcelain insulators with wires,

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Speaker 3: you can't insulate over that that creates heat. So you know,

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Speaker 3: just make sure you don't have any weird looking wiring,

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Speaker 3: not like that wiring we're used to looking at. And

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Speaker 3: if you do, don't insulat or get somebody in there

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Speaker 3: to check that out. The other thing is around the

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Speaker 3: whole perimeter.

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Speaker 2: Of the attic.

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Speaker 3: I think we talked about this a few weeks ago,

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Speaker 3: we were talking about softied ventilation. Was it you that

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Speaker 3: told me you had the softs but you didn't have

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Speaker 3: any ventilation?

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Speaker 1: I know what't me, but I hed a bunch.

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Speaker 3: But if you're up in the attic in the daytime

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Speaker 3: and you look around the perimeter, you may see some

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Speaker 3: cardboard shoots that are going up and bringing the air

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Speaker 3: from just below the gutters into the attic. It's called convection.

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Speaker 3: It's cooler temperatures at the lowest area, forcing the hot

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Speaker 3: air out of the ridge vent or those shoe box

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Speaker 3: vents on the roof. And a lot of times those

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Speaker 3: cardboard shoots aren't there or people aren't paying attention, and

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Speaker 3: they're up there blowing insulation on the attic floor and

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Speaker 3: they cover those vents up.

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Speaker 2: Which is a huge and no, no wow, because it's

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Speaker 2: not going to really hurt you.

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Speaker 3: Well, it will hurt you in the winter, but not

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Speaker 3: as much as it's going to hurt you in the summertime.

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Speaker 3: All of a sudden, you put insulation on the floor

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Speaker 3: to save money, but your attic temperature is now one

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Speaker 3: hundred and fifty degrees because you don't have any air

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Speaker 3: in flow right into that attic.

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Speaker 2: Yea.

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Speaker 3: So those are the two most you know, most common mistakes.

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Speaker 3: Probably covering up the soft inventing around the perimeter for sure.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and the last thing I asked you this at

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Speaker 1: the very start, But I want to circle back for

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Speaker 1: a minute, because there are a lot of people around

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Speaker 1: here that are living in older homes. We've got a

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Speaker 1: lot of beautiful older homes or you know, start off

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Speaker 1: homes for a lot of people that have kind of

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Speaker 1: been redone, you know, in recent years in certain areas,

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Speaker 1: a lot of older homes have no insulation in the walls.

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Speaker 1: Does that mean that insulation does it settle over time?

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Speaker 2: Or what?

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Speaker 3: We didn't put insulation in walls till about nineteen seventy seven,

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Speaker 3: You're kidding.

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Speaker 2: No, sir.

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Speaker 3: When we went into the gas crisis, the old crisis,

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Speaker 3: during Carter, they never put insulation in walls. Now, the

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Speaker 3: Department of Energy in our area says we should have

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Speaker 3: an R nineteen in the walls of our home. Well,

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Speaker 3: kind of too late to a degree. I mean the

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Speaker 3: wall's already made.

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Speaker 1: But well, when you say that too late, you mean

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Speaker 1: there's nowhere to get in there. It's a brick home

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Speaker 1: and there's just nothing to you. Just can't shoot it

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Speaker 1: in there.

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Speaker 3: Right, you can shoot it in there, but it's too

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Speaker 3: late to fact to get into an R nineteen because

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Speaker 3: remember our little theory with what an our value is

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Speaker 3: in terms of you know, so there's a space in there.

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Speaker 3: Sometimes it's an inch, sometimes it's an inch and a half.

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Speaker 3: But there's companies out there that can you know, if

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Speaker 3: it's a vinyl siding, clip to vinyl siding off, if

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Speaker 3: it's wood, drill through the wood, If it's brick, drill

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Speaker 3: into the brick, and they can hit the pockets of

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Speaker 3: the house and under pressure, pump a foam in there.

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Speaker 3: And it's a closed cell phone, so it has a

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Speaker 3: water vapor barrier in there, and they pump it in there,

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Speaker 3: and on the foam per inch of thickness, it's about

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Speaker 3: an R seven.

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Speaker 4: So well, I mean, it's better nothing, right, better than nothing.

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Speaker 3: You know what the real big benefit is there. Since

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Speaker 3: it's under pressure, it seals all the gaps. It totally

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Speaker 3: eliminates drafts, and that's what's making young.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's where you're spending your money, Yes, sir, Okay, Arry,

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Speaker 1: you know you're you're the man, Tracey. I mean you know,

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Speaker 1: I mean you really are. I mean, you get you

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Speaker 1: get two hundred and seventy five stations. You're the kind

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Speaker 1: of guy that the rest of us dream of the

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Speaker 1: coming two one hundred and seventy five stations.

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Speaker 3: And your boss is coming in the day, so you'd

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Speaker 3: be good. Okay, who is and your wife coming in?

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Speaker 1: She's already here there you go. Yeah, I mean she's

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Speaker 1: sitting here and she's you know, on her phone and

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Speaker 1: you know, paying attention to you, right, yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: she's bored with this radio show already. Gary, whenever bored

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Speaker 1: with your show though, Little Era Saturdays and Sundays on

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Speaker 1: fifty five KRC nine to noon.

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Speaker 2: Gary.

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Speaker 4: Always great being with you, buddy. Thank you for your time.

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Speaker 2: I appreciate it. Thanks. Take care