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The contractor in Tucson who told me "insulation doesn't matter in the desert"
Met this guy at a job site last August. 110 degrees outside. He's installing a new AC unit but leaving the old single-pane windows. I asked about insulation and he laughed. Said we're in Arizona not Alaska. Six months later that house is struggling to stay cool in spring. The owner called me to fix the design. Now I'm pulling out drywall to add foam. That one dude cost them $4,000 extra. Has anyone else run into builders here who think the desert means you don't need basic energy stuff?
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the_holly10d ago
...and R13 in the ceiling in Arizona... that's like wearing a t-shirt in a snowstorm, isn't it? Did that guy ever actually look at his own energy bills or was he just convinced the sun works like a personal heater? I mean, what part of "heat rises and then sits in your attic like a angry bee" do these guys miss?
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colescott9d ago
R13 in the ceiling... and calling it a day." @the_holly I'm honestly sitting here trying to process that. That's like putting a screen door on a submarine, man. The sun out here doesn't just warm things up, it actively fights your AC. I looked into my own attic after a summer here and realized the previous owner had like R19 and it felt like standing next to a blast furnace. R13 in Arizona is basically giving your air conditioner a middle finger every afternoon from noon to 6pm. I'm genuinely shocked that guy kept building houses that way for 30 years and nobody stopped him.
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johnson.river10d ago
Last summer I wrapped my own water heater in that cheap foil bubble stuff and my wife asked if I was building a spaceship in the garage. Honestly I think some builders out here just see the sun and assume the heat only goes one direction. I grew up in Minnesota where insulation is the whole point of having walls so moving to Tucson was a wild ride of realizing people actually think like that. My buddy's dad built houses in Phoenix for 30 years and he'd put R13 in the ceiling and call it a day. We're all just paying for it later I guess.
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