Your home should be comfortable, inviting, and a place that the whole family can enjoy. No matter how your home is constructed, it should offer those comforting qualities. With that said, every home has its comforting factors to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer, with a furnace and an air conditioner respectively. And depending on where your home is, keeping your living space at an optimal temperature can significantly increase your energy consumption over the course of a year. Insulation helps to mitigate these costs, but there are other, more energy-efficient means that can achieve the goal while being environmentally friendly. Case in point, choosing a structure that is made of brick or masonry in Chicago.
When built right by expert masonry contractors Chicago, a brick structure is one of the most energy-efficient solutions that can increase the general thermal efficiency of the entire building. A home built of masonry Chicago can allow you to use your heating and air conditioning systems more sparingly, saving you money and energy over the course of a year.
Measuring Energy Efficiency in Your Masonry Home
There is much debate about how to effectively measure energy efficiency, but for our purposes, we will use thermal mass evaluations. Thermal mass denotes the ability of any material to absorb and retain heat and then disperse that heat over time. Masonry in Chicago carries a very high thermal mass, especially as compared to other construction materials like wood, drywall, or vinyl siding. Bricks are indeed the most energy-efficient building material available on the market. Clay bricks achieve the best results, as many masonry and tuckpointing contractors Chicago will attest, but other forms of bricks can approach the same levels. Over the summer, structures made of bricks tend to stay cooler than those built out of wood, drywall, or vinyl. And during the cold winter months, masonry releases heat to maintain a more comfortable interior temperature without the need to crank up the furnace or boiler.
Masonry is a Great Energy-Efficient Solution
When constructing a new home or business building, the preferred material is always brick. You may spend a little more on the initial building costs, but over the life of the structure, the benefits far outweigh the added initial outlay to cover the cost of construction. Today, building with bricks involves adding a single layer of masonry over a wood frame. Once the external walls are in place, insulation is added, in the form of batten, foam boards, or spray foam, which all come together to increase the overall energy efficiency of the building.
VILLA Masonry & Tuckpointing Chicago brings you specialists in brickwork, fireplace and chimney repair, balcony waterproofing and restoration, masonry restoration, and tuckpointing Chicago. Call us today for a free quote and get your home or office to be more energy efficient.
Need professional help? Contact us and we will answer all your questions and repair your wall or chimney.