Attic Insulation Before & After Photos

This homeowner contacted Fogarty's Home Services to come investigate why the temperature and moisture level in the home were so uncomfortable. We discovered that there was old, dirty batt insulation that had been exposed to the outside air due to leaks in the roof and attic areas. Air that the customer was paying to heat was leaking out of the attic and drawing cold outside air in causing drafts. Fogarty's Home Services removed and disposed of the old insulation. 

This homeowner in Unionville, CT reached out to us hoping to get his attic insulated. When our Home Comfort Specialist came out to the home, he noted that the attic in the addition was insulated with old blown in insulation. It was unfortunately not air sealed, and the low catwalk meant that insulation could move around easily. This easily explained the issues that the homeowner was having with uneven temperatures throughout the home.

Luckily, we had a few solutions for this customer. One of these solutions was to replace the old blown-in insulation with our TruSoft™ cellulose insulation. First, we had to vacuum the blown-in insulation out of the home. Then, we went through and air-sealed the attic, adding insulated covers over the can lights in the attic.

This solution then was paused to begin installing the insulated catwalk and dam. This catwalk is insulated with SilverGlo™ foam insulation board. It was installed over the existing wood walkway. Then, oriented standard board (OSB) was installed over the SilverGlo™, using screws to keep it in place. The 18" dams are then installed on it, ensuring that the blown-in insulation does not spread onto the catwalk.

After the catwalk was installed and the attic was air sealed, we began to install the blown-in insulation. This is blown in using a large hose attached to a machine outside. This insulation gets into every crack, crevice, and odd shaped space, making sure that the entire attic is properly insulated to R-60. 

Now, this homeowner has a properly insulated attic! Within days of the work being done, the homeowner had let us know that the home was much more comfortable, and the temperature in the house was more even.

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.

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.