Getting Your Home’s Insulation Ready for Winter

As temperatures start to drop, it's worth taking stock of how ready your home actually is for winter. Insulation is one of the quieter factors in that equation, but it has an outsized effect on how comfortable — and how expensive — the season turns out to be.

Start with the areas most prone to heat loss: the attic, exterior walls, and crawl space if your home has one. These are the places where gaps or thin insulation let warm air escape fastest once the heat is running full-time.

It's also worth checking for drafts around windows, doors, and any penetrations in exterior walls — vents, pipes, or wiring — since these small gaps can add up to a noticeable amount of heat loss over a whole season.

If you noticed cold rooms or high heating bills last winter, that's a good sign it's worth having your insulation assessed before temperatures drop again this year.