Fogarty's Home Services Before & After Photos

This customer called us when their home did not score well on a home energy audit.  Upon inspection, Fogarty's Home Services found their kneewalls were under-insulated and not properly air sealed. 

A kneewall space is created when a finished room is built within a sloped roof. A short wall called a “kneewall” forms a triangular space which may or may not be accessible with a short door or access panel. The floor of the kneewall space forms the ceiling of the room below it. The floor and kneewall itself are open to the kneewall space side with exposed fiberglass batts. Since fiberglass does not stop air flow, the insulation does next to nothing to air seal and insulate. The floor of the upper level, the ceiling of the lower level and the kneewall are all cold in winter and hot (from radiant roof heat) in the summer. The kneewall space is not suitable for storage since it is dusty and very cold or hot.

Fogarty's Home Services installed Blocks of SilverGlo™ foam insulation between the ceiling joist bays.  Silver-Glo™ foam insulation is installed under the rafters up to the kneewall and sealed at the top with foam sealant. SilverGlo™ increases the R-value by 24% compared to regular EPS foam. SilverGlo™ also has a radiant barrier on both sides to reflect roof heat out in the summer and house heat back in during the winter. The addition of this radiant barrier gives some thermal benefit so the insulation isn’t left alone to do all the work. After installation, inside air can’t get out of the house through the kneewall spaces and outside air can’t get in. 

The Results, significantly warmer upstairs room in the winter, cooler room upstairs in the hot weather, less drafts, more comfort, less dust. A kneewall space suit-able for clean storage. Lower fuel and electric bills.

The owner of a beautiful brick home in West Springfield, MA contacted Fogarty's Home Services to help insulate his home. He was experiencing cold drafts and wanted to resolve this issue. One of our Home Comfort Specialists discovered that there were sloped stairwell ceilings that were open to the attic when conducting this homeowner's free home energy evaluation. When a stairwell has a sloped ceiling forming a big triangular space that is open to the attic, it creates a heat loss (winter) and heat gain (summer) problem in the home. The sidewalls of the open well into the attic are hard to insulate and often leak air from the walls of your house into the attic. The stairwell ceiling radiates heat from the house in to the attic, and from the hot attic to the house in the summer. Insulating the attic properly is not possible with this big stairwell hole in it. Fogarty's Home Services installed a cover made of wood over this stairwell at the attic floor level. Appropriate framing and wood sheets were used. The cover was sealed with expanding polyurethane foam to make it airtight. Blown insulation can now be installed over the attic floor and the stairwell cover. The sturdy cover doesn't pose a fall hazard if someone crawls into the attic in the future. Now, this happy customer is reporting less air leakage, less unwanted heat loss and heat gain, and the attic can be insulated properly.

This homeowner's basement windows were old, leaky, and inefficient. In the past, home builders paid little attention to the energy efficiency of basement windows, often choosing the cheapest option available. This leaves single pane glass windows with metal frames that let lots of cold air leak into the home. Single pane clear glass lets heat from the home escape by conduction through the cold glass. Metal is highly thermally conductive and a poor material for a window frame - it rusts in the damp environment near the ground and leaks a LOT of air.  Fogarty's Home Services removed the old windows and frames and installed New Everlast™ basement windows. These sliding windows have double pane glass with a specially metallic "Low E" coating on the inside of both panes of glass to reduce heat flow in or out through the glass. The frame and sashes are made completely from vinyl - the perfect material for a window so close to the ground in a damp environment - they will never rust, rot, or need paint. And Everlast™ windows are a big improvement over the way your home looks - great! This happy customer now has a warmer basement, warmer floors above the basement, less drafts, less condensation, lower overall home air leakage, and lower energy bills.

The second floor of a Cape suffers from inadequate insulation, and air leaks from the soffits into poorly insulated kneewall spaces. This results in cold drafty rooms in winter that are harder than necessary to heat, and hot rooms in the summer as roof heat radiates in unchecked. Kneewall spaces are dusty and too cold or hot which is unsuitable for clean storage.

First, our SilverGlo™ foam insulation panels are installed on the bottom of the rafters in the kneewall spaces and the ceiling joist bays are blocked and sealed with foam to stop air leakage. Then the roof slopes are dense packed with TruSoft™ cellulose insulation to stop air flow and insulate. Finally, the flat ceiling is insulated with TruSoft™ cellulose insulation.

The owner of this Enfield, CT home reached out to Fogarty's Home Services because her home was feeling drafty and cold. After completing her free home energy evaluation, we found that one of the contributing factors to this discomfort was a kneewall space in her attic that wasn't properly insulated. A kneewall space is created when a finished room is built within a sloped roof. A short wall called a "kneewall" forms a triangular space which mar or may not be accessible with a short door or access panel. The floor of the kneewall space forms the ceiling of the room below it. The floor and kneewall space side with exposed fiberglass batts. Since fiberglass does not stop air flow, the insulation does next to nothing to air seal and insulate. The floor of the upper level, the ceiling of the lower level and the kneewall are all cold in winter and hot (from radiant roof heat) in the summer. The kneewall space is not suitable for storage since it is dusty and very cold or hot. Fogarty's Home Services installed blocks of SilverGlo™ foam insulation between the ceiling joist bays. Outside the blocks, the surface of the ceiling was sealed with sprayed foam or SilverGlo™ foam. (Fiberglass insulation may be installed on top). SilverGlo™ foam insulation is installed under the rafters up to the kneewall and sealed at the top with foam sealant. SilverGlo™ is expanded polystyrene foam insulation with graphite infused into the foam, which increases the R-value by 24% compared to regular EPS foam. SilverGlo™ also has a radiant barrier on both sides to reflect roof heat out in the summer and house heat back in during the winter. The addition of this radiant barrier gives some thermal benefit so the insulation isn't left alone to do all the work. After installation, inside air can't get out of the house through the kneewall spaces and outside air can't get in. Insulation can now be added, with integrity, to the correct surfaces. This happy homeowner will now see results such as significantly warmer upstairs rooms in the winter, cooler rooms upstairs in the hot weather, less drafts, more comfort, less dust, a kneewall space that can be used for clean storage, and lower energy costs.