New Homeowner's Attic Insulation Installed in Somers, CT
Challenge
Proper air sealing and insulation for new homeowners is important for saving on fuel and energy bills after purchasing a new home.
Our Building science specialist evaluated the property of the new homeowners and noticed the insulation was about ⅓ of what it should be, and the previous owners cut some corners before selling the home. The entryway to the attic was under insulated and hard to access causing air leakage of a lot of air. An under-insulated attic entryway affects your home with colder drafty rooms that are hard to heat, and higher heating and cooling costs. This home was constructed with rooms that have walls exposed to hostile attic temperatures. It’s part of why rooms are too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. The fiberglass insulation in the wall was very exposed (open-faced to the attic) It was not giving much insulation value at all because air and heat would flow through the open matrix of insulation easily. The new homeowners also had a whole house fan, today most of these whole house fans are obsolete and never seldom used. The problem is that the fan louvers leak a lot of air when the fan is off, also adding to the problem of a cold, drafty room. After evaluating this home we knew exactly have to save the new homeowners' money on their future fuel and electric bills and how to make this home more comfortable.
Solution
Here is how we made the new homeowner's home more comfortable with air sealing and attic insulation.
First, we removed all the old dirty attic insulation to make sure the attic was ready for air sealing and installation of clean fresh Trusoft cellulose insulation. Then we installed pulldown stairs for attic access and a David Lewis hatch cover named by the engineer. This hatch cover stops air leakage and insulates over the pulldown stairs. Made of lightweight SilverGlo foam Insulation that you can lift aside to go in your attic. It has a radiant barrier foil on the flat lid to reflect heat back during the winter and out in the summer, so the insulation isn't doing the work by itself. We removed the old whole house fan to better help with the air sealing of the attic. The wall insulated the adjacent wall with silver glo, applied and sealed to the attic side of the interior walls to stop heat gain in the summer and heat loss in the winter. Following the application of the radiant wall barrier, we air-sealed areas with air leakage and insulated the attic floor with Trusoft cellulose. This helped to make the home more energy efficient for all seasons.
