BUILDING ENVELOPE
What wind washing is, why it destroys the performance of your insulation, and how Guardian diagnoses and fixes it.
Wind washing is what happens when outdoor air infiltrates an attic or wall cavity and blows through the insulation rather than around it. As wind moves across loose-fill or fiberglass batts, it strips heat away from the insulation — dropping its effective R-value to a fraction of the rated number printed on the package.
The result: rooms feel drafty even when the heat is on. Heating bills climb. Ice dams appear. And the homeowner replaces equipment or adds insulation, only to see the symptoms come right back.
We start with a building-envelope inspection that combines a blower-door test with infrared imaging. The combination reveals exactly where wind washing is happening — including spots that look fine to the naked eye.
Once we know where the problem is, we seal the leakage paths, install proper baffles, and where appropriate add a wind-washing barrier (rigid or spray foam) over the insulation. The result is insulation that performs to its rated R-value — for the life of the home.
Most homeowners overpay because they don’t get the right diagnosis first. Let us change that.
