On a recent trip to Home Depot to get a piece of drywall, I inevitably ended up in the insulation aisle.  For some reason something struck me as not right.  I had been in this aisle many times for many sheets of drywall.

As I looked around at the insulation products I realized that there was no real offering.  Sure, there were plenty of fiberglass products available, but nothing else.  I could find no other energy saving insulation types such as radiant barriers or spray in foam systems. 

I decided to check my neighborhood Lowe’s and I discovered the same thing.   There were fiberglass products for sure, but still no real offering of other energy saving insulation types.

The Home Depot and Lowe’s are now our nation’s largest supplier of building materials.  To their credit, they inventory a vast amount of product types and have great business hours.  To their discredit however, during their rise they have put many building material suppliers out of business.  This reduces the overall number of suppliers for consumers to purchase from. 

For some people these giant retailers may be the only shopping option.  Or, the un-informed insulation shopper in their stores purchases products thinking he or she has been offered the best insulation system to their individual projects.  Either way, Home Depot and Lowe’s attract millions of customers including myself. 

Results of my research revealed absolutely no large coverage sprayed in foam insulation.  (Albeit initially not the cheapest, but a high quality sprayed in foam insulation system is the single best insulation for stopping convective and conductive heat transfer available on the market today.) The long term gains by insulating with sprayed in foam insulation are incredible. 

For radiant barriers, their pricing and small product offering makes it impossible for consumers to ever reap the gains of using reflective foil insulation products.

Home Depot’s Radiant Barrier Offering:  The Depot offers both a general purpose radiant barrier and also traditional reflective foil bubble insulation.  These products could be used for smaller insulation projects.  They basically have four major problems in their offering.  First is most certainly price.  Saying their foil insulation products are overpriced is an understatement.  The offering is severely limited.  You cannot tell if their radiant barrier product is perforated or not, which is very important in specific applications.  And, they do not offer any foil tape to complete projects with.

Lowe’s Radiant Barrier Offering:   Lowe’s clearly has a better offering than the Home Depot.  Their product offering is still extremely limited and they do not sell an attic radiant barrier product which is possibly the easiest and most efficient reflective foil insulation project you can do.  And again, only offering a 2″ x 30′ roll of tape at an unrealistic price is close to hijacking the consumer. 

The problem in both stores is the product offering and selection is simply not there or too small to complete any sizeable insulation project other than fiberglass.

This means that consumers who purchase their insulation products only at Home Depot or Lowe’s can never achieve concrete energy savings.  And, because the correct product offering of top insulation products is not offered, many consumers miss out on lower utility bills and overall lower energy consumption.

We can’t help you with the Sprayed in Foam Insulation but we can sure help you with the Radiant Barrier and Reflective Foil Insulation. 

Visit us at InsulationStop.com