More than 30 years have passed since the house was completed on Pirinkatu in Seinäjoki. It was built better than was normal at the time. There is 40 cm of insulation in the attic and 20 cm in the walls, and the windows have 4 panes of glass.

– We considered whether to install that additional attic insulation for a long time, but it was a good decision in the end, reflects Matti Latvala. The heating costs decreased somewhat, but perhaps the most important thing was the elimination of drafts in the office and bedroom.

The Termex boys did a meticulous job

The additional attic insulation work on Latvala’s house was done in the spring of 2009, so practical experience has already been accumulated over a long period. Right after the insulation work, Matti gave feedback by email. He said that now it feels as if the heat has been put to better use, and it no longer bleeds out into the wild in the way it used to. And he still feels the same, several years since the additional attic insulation work. In the same email, he gave recognition for a job well done. The surface of the insulation layer is even and there is insulation in all the necessary places.

The original board insulation of the attic, despite being multi-layered, had gaps. Those were effectively filled with fine-grained blown-in loose fill insulation. A seamless layer of insulation was also installed over the piping of the air-heated house.

The work took an hour. The installers took care of it and gave the house a warm coat. One of the two men was in the attic and guided the insulation material into place with a hose, and the other fed the insulation material into the blowing machine. The owner of the house accompanied the installer and watched the blown-in work from a close distance. When I saw how the fine-grained cellulose fibers even penetrated into all the tight spots, I finally became convinced of the insulation choice I had made. I wish we had known years ago how easy installing additional attic insulation is.

The house no longer has draft

In the air-heated house, the residents had become used to the movement of air, but the rooms at the other end of the house felt distinctly draughty. Immediately after the insulation, they noticed that the rooms warmed up and the feeling of a draft disappeared.

– Apparently, heat escaped from the gaps in the original wool, and the fact that the rooms were at the end of the air supply duct, meaning that the air that reached there was slightly cooler, could have had an impact, too, comments Matti Latvala.

A feeling of a draft can arise in a space when there are colder spots on the ceiling where the indoor air cools, and as its weight increases, it moves down.