Insulating Rim Joists and Sealing Basement Walls in Palmer, MA
Challenge
Problem:
This home out of Palmer, MA needed the basement to be insulated. First with the basement rim joists then with the basement walls. The rim Joist is the perimeter of the floor framing along the exterior of the house. The joints and gaps between all the framing members allow for a lot of air leakage into the house. Even with the rim joists sealed your cement walls will make your basement cooler in the winter. Heat moves from more to less. The dense concrete has a lot of mass and heat from your basement that constantly flows into and through the wall by conduction. You can never heat them. If you have a furnace, boiler, or water heater in the basement, the heat that comes off this equipment is wasted and lost in the cold concrete, instead of warming the basement and floors above it.
This is a common problem for most homeowners and It is fixable by Fogarty's Home Services.
Solution
Solution:
The first step to making this home more energy efficient is to seal the rim joists. This two-part expanding spray foam is installed on the rim joist over the still plate to seal all air leaks from the outside and insulate this important area of your home. Our special spray foam has a high insulation value per square inch of R7, and because it expands, it seals up all the cracks and gaps and joints where air from the outside enters your home. Once we installed the rim joists the next step was to cover up the basement walls with our Foamax polyiso foam insulation board. This is not just any foam this is Foamax polyiso that is flame retardant, unlike EPS foam boards. In addition, the Fosamax polyiso board has a foil facing to reflect heat so the insulation isn't doing all the work by itself.
With these two jobs done the basement is warmer, and more comfortable, warmer floors above the basement, less condensation in the summertime, lower fuel bills and the house is easier to heat. All thanks to Fogarty's Home Services.
