If you live in a mid century home, it may be a pressing question: How do you insulate a mid century home? Whether you’re bundling up or still sweltering, as a mid century homeowner, you’re probably intimately familiar with a very significant drawback of MCM homes—lack of insulation. There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that living in a mid century home doesn’t mean you have to sweat all summer and shiver all winter. There are solutions! The bad news is, addressing your home’s insulation issues isn’t going to be a weekend DIY matter.
For more, we spoke with general contractor Steven Shields of Shields Residential. I called him from a drafty home office with concrete walls and tile floors, a biting sensation in my toes from the cold. He spoke to me from Palm Springs where the high was 116 degrees that day. I had heating at the top of my mind; he had cooling at the top of his mind. Fortunately, the common issue is the same: It all comes down to insulation—keeping the desert heat or winter cold outside of your home and keeping your AC or heat in.
To Insulate a Mid Century Home, It’s All About the Roof
Those streamlined MCM rooflines and tongue and groove ceilings may be the reason you fell in love with MCM design and became a mid century homeowner in the first place. While they are undoubtedly gorgeous, there’s a practical challenge to this construction. “Up to 80 percent of heat loss comes through the ceiling,” Steven says. The same is also true of AC—you may be pumping the AC, but if the roof isn’t insulated properly, most of the air you lose is through the ceiling. While many people’s first thought may be to upgrade the windows from single pane to dual pane, Steven says, “Even if you do a perfect job, you’re getting a 100 percent on 20 percent of the problem.”
“The challenge with MCM homes is the thin roofline, which means there’s not a lot of room for insulation,” Steven explains. “There’s no roof cavity.” So what’s an MCM homeowner to do?
Making Your Roof Weather-Proof
Steven walks us through the options when it comes to how you insulate your mid century home via the roof. “There’s a hard way and an easy way.” The hard way comes when a homeowner wants to do a full-scale renovation. Then a contractor like Steven comes in and creates a roof cavity and revamps lighting, plumbing and HVAC needs into that roof cavity. In that case, the insulation goes from 2 inches to 6 inches.
The “easy way” involves adding a waterproof, insulating material to your roof structure, such as rigid foam or spray foam, which he says is popular in Palm Springs. He explains that if you want to retain the look of your roof material, such as composite or shingle roof, you can remove the composite or shingles, add an inch of foam, and nail or screw in the composite or shingles. You’ll still retain the look of your roof and “gain insulation value.”
Talking HVAC Options for MCM Homes
This is not an exhaustive list, but here are some pros and cons for a few of the most common methods for heating and cooling your home.
Central air and heating – Your AC unit has a condenser outside of the house which cools the air and sends it back through your home through a forced air unit. For heating, inside the home you have a powered natural gas burner that heats up the air and blows it around the house using the same ductwork as the AC.
The pro is that it’s pretty powerful. The idea is to have a balanced distribution of air, but as Steven comments, that’s just not very realistic. Every house has hot spots and cold spots.
Some cons include a super noisy condenser and the dual fuel use. (Electricity for AC and natural gas for heat.)
Heat pump – A heat pump is almost the reverse of central air, Steven explains. It takes the cold air out and makes it warm. While heat pumps previously had a reputation for not working well, Steven says that’s changed quite a bit in recent years. “Its efficiency has increased, and you can use power [solar energy] you can harvest on your own home.” The con for this system, however, is the high installation cost. If you live in a place with harsh winters (below 40 degrees F), it may not be your best option as traditional heat pumps don’t tend to work well in those temperatures. Cold-weather heat pumps exist but will increase your system cost.
Mini splits – Mini splits use heat pump technology and can be used for both heating and cooling. It is a ductless system and units in each room allow you to customize the amount of heating and cooling each room receives. It is much more energy efficient than forced air systems that will always lose a bit of the heating or cooling energy as air moves through the ductwork. The pros include greater efficiency and the ability to manage the temperature in each room rather than have one thermostat for the entire house. The main con for the mini splits is that they’re typically mounted on the wall, and let’s face it, don’t look so great. Shields Residential has a solution to that, however, by installing the units recessed into the wall or ceiling with only a vent or two visible.
Why You Need A Mid Century Friendly Contractor
When I asked Steven where a mid century homeowner ought to start in assessing how to insulate a mid century home, he didn’t hesitate. “You need to call a local general contractor who has a reputation for working on homes like yours.”
If you try to piece it out yourself and call an HVAC company, they will probably sell you some version of what you already have. But if you call a general contractor like Steven, he or she will assess your home’s particular conditions and have the contacts and know-how to introduce more comprehensive solutions. It may be more expensive upfront, but you will probably be happier with the result and have your home’s insulation issues addressed more thoroughly. It may even save money in the long-run: Rather than calling a window company and an HVAC company, you can rely on the expertise of a trustworthy and mid mod friendly contractor to bring more holistic solutions to your home’s challenges—without disrupting its period character.
For more on Steven and Shields Residential, visit shieldsresidential.com. If you don’t live in the Palm Springs area but are looking for a contractor like Steven, consult our Resource Guide. Sign up here to receive your copy. And of course, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube for more Atomic Ranch articles, house tours, and ideas!
