Challenge

Old dirty insulation in the attic and uninsulated areas in the ceilings are not good for heating and cooling costs.

Our building scientist inspected this home and discovered a few areas of concern. The attic insulation was old and dirty with undesirable mouse droppings. Another issue was a whole house fan mounted in the upper floor ceiling which leaked air and was uninsulated. Whole house fans are seldom used and these fans are most certainly not needed anymore. The homeowner’s bathroom fan was causing destructive moisture in the attic as well as being vented directly into the attic. Plumbers and electricians leave fans dumping into the attic not factoring in the mold and rot damage that comes from the humid air. Some attics have what is called a scuttle hole o access the attic the problem with this homeowner is how much air was leaking out of their scuttle hole cover. The scuttle hole was a big area in the homeowner's ceiling that was not insulated. This Homeowner also had a sloped stairwell ceiling open to the attic. When a stairwell has a sloped ceiling forming a big triangular space open to the attic it creates a heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer. The stairwell ceiling radiates heat from the house into the attic, and from the hot attic to the home in the summer. The style of this homeowner’s home is a cape cod style construction which entails the second floor of the cape suffers inadequate insulation. All of these issues were discovered to result in cold drafty rooms in the winter and hot in the summer. 

Solution

Fogarty’s Home Service resolved this uncomfortable situation in this home and here is how we fixed it. 

Fogarty’s Home Services' first step in fixing this uncomfortable home is conducting the unpleasant task of removing the damaged, soiled insulation in your attic. Once the insulation is removed your attic is now clean and ready for proper air sealing and installation of insulation. Next, we remove the whole house fan, the solution is simply to remove the fan and its leaky louvers and install drywall over the hole. This eliminates the air leaks, and now the space formally occupied by the fan can be filled with attic insulation! Air sealing and insulating the scuttle cover was the followed procedure after and we sealed the original entrance to the hole and made a new entrance. The scuttle cover is weather stripped to stop air leakage, and then the cover is insulated with our SilverGlo foam insulation panel. This helps the scuttle cover become tighter, more comfortable, and less drafty. With the bath fan issue, we helped to get the moisture where it’s supposed to be - safely outside. Your bath fan will be ducted with insulated ductwork outside through the roof with a proper vent hood. To finish off the insulation of the homeowner's attic we first apply SilverGlo panels on the bottom of the rafters in the knee wall spaces and the ceiling rim 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 airflow and insulate. Finally, the flat ceiling is insulated with TruSoft cellulose insulation.

Results - Rooms are more comfortable all year and need much less heat, and air conditioning drafts are eliminated as knee wall spaces are airtight, clean, and suitable for storage. Summer roof heat is far less.

Project Summary

Cape Cod Style Insulation: Nivia Easterling