Affordable Comfort Services
Insulation
We are a one-stop shop for all energy conservation needs.
Proper levels of Insulation for your attic, walls, basement, floors, and crawl space are essential not only for Home Performance, but also for the comfort of your home. A substantial amount of insulation and a continuous air barrier make up the home’s Thermal Boundary. It is very important to make sure you have enough of the right kind of insulation as well as an air tight barrier.
Two tools
To check the Thermal Boundary to see where you stack up to energy efficiency standards we use two tools.
1. Using our Attic Insulation Check Ruler: identify the insulation type, measure its depth, multiply the per‑inch R-Value by the inches, and you get the total R-Value. The ruler shows the R-value before and after the project.
2. We measure airtightness with a Blower Door Test. We test before the project, compare to EnergyStar standards, perform the InSEALation work, and then repeat the Blower Door Test to quantify improvements.
These 2 before and after measurements take the guess work out of the InSEALation process. We typically see a reduction of energy used of 30-45% in homes. A typical InSEALation job has a payback of less than 5 years. InSealation work saves more than it costs.
Attic Insulation
Attic Insulation is the easiest to install and the most cost effective improvement that you can do that will have an immediate impact on the comfort level and efficiency of your home.
A large percentage of the home’s unwanted heat transfer travels through the ceiling plane. Unless your home was built with energy conservation in mind, it is probably under-insulated. The Department of Energy recommends that we build to a total of R-49 or R-60 for attic insulation in this region of the country. In many homes, this will be an increase of 100% or more to the insulation in the attic and will have a major impact on its performance. We offer several different insulation packages including Fiberglass, Cellulose, Cellulose + and our Hybrid Insulation system. Blown in Cellulose insulation is the most commonly used. It has good air-sealing characteristics and is very affordable. We also install Blown in Fiberglass for some applications. If you want to address the Attic Insulation once and for all and max out the performance of your home, you should consider our Hybrid Insulation Package.
Floor Insulation
Floors over an unconditioned crawl space can be insulated with a closed-cell spray foam, open-cell spray foam or fiberglass batt insulation.
- Option A Closed-cell spray foam would provide the maximum R-Value and an air barrier as well as a vapor barrier. Installed at a thickness of 4” (R-25).
- Option B Open-cell spray foam would also provide a good R-Value and may be the best choice when insulating a floor above a crawl space where a bathroom or kitchen is present. If for some reason water should spill onto the floor and find its way through to the insulation the open cells will allow it to drain. Installed at 6 ½ “ you will have a total of R-30.
- Option C Fiberglass batt insulation may be used when you are on a budget. Installed carefully with the Kraft vapor barrier up (to the warm side) it can be effective.
All of these applications provide an excellent sound barrier. The better the product, the better the sound barrier.
Crawl Space Insulation
If your home has a Crawl Space it is critical to make sure it is properly insulated. In many homes, this area has been neglected. It can be difficult to access, making it impossible for many homeowners to address common problems like missing, deteriorated, and improperly installed Insulation.
To get it right here, you may have to go back to the basics to determine where a particular Crawl Space should be insulated. The question is: do you insulate the Floor above the Crawl Space or the Foundation wall? (You always want to Insulate the Band Sill that is exposed to the outdoors.)
If the Crawl Space is vented the Floor should be Insulated. If not, then the Foundation Wall should be Insulated. Of course, it may not always be quite so simple. Many times you find a Crawl Space that has vents when it should not. Let’s dig further into the fundamentals. In warm climates, a crawl space should be vented so that moisture can escape. In cold climates, a Crawl Space should not be vented because the ventilation brings the cold air into the crawl space and causes cold floors. Who wants to live with cold feet?
