In the intense heat of Central Texas, effective insulation plays an important role in helping homes stay comfortable season after season. Near Georgetown, one home was built with long-term comfort and energy efficiency in mind using Atlas EnergyShield® XR continuous insulation, recognizing that choosing the right product matters when you often only get one chance to build it right.
Builder Jordan Smith selected EnergyShield XR for its high R-value and low-profile design, helping create a more efficient building envelope. With R-10 in just 1½-inches, EnergyShield XR reduces thermal bridging and heat transfer to keep the home cooler during harsh Texas summers while maintaining consistent indoor comfort year-round.
Durability was a key priority for the project. EnergyShield XR delivers reliable thermal performance, offering an effective insulation solution without unnecessary bulk to the wall assembly. This Georgetown-area home shows how thoughtful material selection contributes to lasting comfort and efficiency in demanding climates.
View video transcript
My name is Patty. I'm retired and I'm a full-time grandma. This house is a little over 1,700 square ft, just about 30 minutes north of Georgetown, Texas. Summers can get pretty brutal here. I wanted a higher efficiency home, so my electric bills weren't going to be through the roof, and so plugs weren't going to come in, because I've experienced that too.
The AC was super important for me going into this. Installation was super important. The roof and the windows. I was watching YouTube and following some high-performance builders. I happened upon a video from Jordan, and I saw him using rigid foam insulation in that and at the end of the video he had contact information. So, I reached out to Jordan after the end of that video to schedule a consultation.
So this is an interesting house. She lives alone. Her son comes from time to time in the winter to live with her. And then she's also got grandkids that live close, locally. So, they won't be staying here, but when they're here, it's got to be able to open up. So, she already had a good feel for what she wanted.
In any build, there's always going to be this balancing act between performance or aesthetics and budget. I mean, there's just no two ways around it. I think the places where it pays the most dividends early on to invest in is like I said, any of the things that have to do with the exterior envelope and you can't get to and change later. In 10 years, if she says, "Nope, you're right, Jordan. We're going to replace those door handles because they're the worst things ever." You pop them off, you put them on, you're done. Versus with the exterior insulation that we did on this, once the brick's up, you're not going back. You can't go back. You can't do a better wall assembly 10 years down the road economically. There's just no there's no way of doing it. You're pulling all the brick off. It's going to be more expensive than building the house in the first place to try to do that. So, we really tried to put our money in the things that both matter the most and are also the hardest to change down the road.
There's a lot of insulation products available out there, but for us to keep the total wall thickness thinner and to make it a more standard build, we didn't want our insulation to be super thick. Polyiso is one of the best options to have the highest R value, the highest insulation value per thickness, right? So, I can get a lot more out of Polyiso per inch than I could with a different insulation product. Atlas makes a great product. And then because it's Polyiso in two layers of 3/4 in, we're able to get a very high insulation value, we're able to stagger our seams so that we don't have any seams that are letting energy out. And it's just a really light, easy insulation to put up. And when we wrap the whole thing, it just becomes this little, you know, inverted Yeti cooler.
I got my first bill for this and it was during that cold snap. My electric bill was under $100 for a month, my first months. I enjoy the house. I really enjoy the house. It's great for the kids. They love being outside. They can dig stuff and run and so this is the perfect place for that. Definitely like a forever house. My kids can have this when I'm gone if they if they choose.