Ever notice your Jonesboro home feels drafty in November even with the heat running? That's a classic sign your attic insulation isn't doing its job โ and you're paying for it every single month.
Here are the red flags to look for. First, uneven room temperatures โ one bedroom is warm, another is cold. Second, ice dams forming at your roofline (yes, we get them here during hard Arkansas freezes). Third, an energy bill that jumped 20โ30% compared to last winter with no obvious explanation.
The fix usually starts in the attic. Arkansas sits in Climate Zone 3, where the IRC recommends a minimum of R-38 in your attic โ that's roughly 12 inches of blown-in fiberglass or about 11 inches of cellulose. A lot of older homes in Trumann and Jonesboro are sitting at R-11 or R-19 from insulation installed in the 80s and 90s. That's thousands of BTUs walking straight out your roof every night.
A quick DIY check: pop your attic hatch and look down at the joists. If you can see the tops of the framing, you're almost certainly under-insulated. The wood should be buried. For a more accurate read, a pro can walk the attic with a depth ruler in about 15 minutes.
Adding blown-in cellulose to bring an average 1,500 SF attic from R-11 up to R-49 runs roughly $1.10โ$1.60 per square foot installed in our area โ a job that typically pays back in 2โ4 heating seasons through lower utility bills.
Don't wait until January to figure out where your money is going. Reply or DM us for a free attic assessment before the cold really sets in.