Westfield, MA's Leading Insulation & Mold Removal Company

This homeowner in Westfield, MA called us hoping that we would be able to help with their home. It was almost 100 years old and was in desperate need of insulation. In addition, there was high humidity in the basement. High humidity in a basement is caused by a number of important conditions. High humidity causes many problems in a home such as mold (which grows at Relative Humidities [RH] above 75%), rot (which happens above 90% RH) odors, airborne mold spores that aggravate allergies and asthma, increased pests and insects such as termites, and higher air conditioning and heating costs. Result - cold floors above, condensation, mold, rot, odors, drafty, uncomfortable home, higher fuel and electric bills.

We had the perfect solution for this customer. The SaniDry™ Sedona air system is a powerful but energy efficient dehumidification and air filtration system in one unit. Able to remove an incredible 100 pints of water per day and using only 5.9 amps of electricity, the SaniDry™ Sedona drains automatically to a sump or the outside with a condensate pump. It has a powerful 310 cfm blower to circulate the dry air completely around to dry building materials and contents. Mold doesn’t have a chance! An automatic control is easy - set it to 55% RH and forget it - the SaniDry™ Sedona does the rest! And there’s no buckets to empty! Results - Low Relative Humidity, mold stops growing, odors are reduced, basement is suitable for storage, lower air conditioning cost, upstairs is dryer.

This homeowner in Westfield, MA called us hoping we would be able to help her with her attic insulation. She was having some home comfort issues and needed it replaced.

Before we were able to help this customer make their home more comfortable, we had to first remove the old insulation. This homeowner had two types of insulation in their home -- loose fill fiberglass on top of fiberglass batts. The loose fill insulation was vacuumed with a giant vacuum located outside with giant filter bags and a very long, fat hose. After it was removed, the batt insulation was bagged and then the attic was vacuumed to remove pieces, parts and dust. Result - Now the attic is clean! We could then begin our other treatments and solutions to help this homeowner stay comfortable in her home for years to come! 

This homeowner in Westfield, MA called us hoping that we would be able to help him with his home. He had a home from the 1700s that did not have any insulation in the walls. Many older homes have no insulation in the exterior walls. This causes obvious problems. Heat flows from more (inside) to less (outside in winter) right through the walls, and the opposite in summer. Nearly all walls leak air, insulated or not, causing drafts. The cold wall surface cools interior air which then sinks and travels across the floor and up the warmer interior wall, and across the ceiling back to the exterior wall. This is called a "convective loop" and makes rooms feel even draftier. Results - cold, drafty rooms, uncomfortable home, heating and cooling systems run much more and need more service, difficult to keep house at comfortable temperature, higher fuel and electric bills, dry home in winter, more dust/pollen, more humidity in the house in summer when air conditioned.

We had the perfect solution for this customer. In this solution, the siding is removed temporarily as necessary and 2 9/16" holes are drilled through the wall sheathing. A fill tube is inserted up (and down) into wall cavities to not only fill, but dense pack the wall cavities. Dense packing is a technique that packs the insulation in very tightly - so tightly that all irregular shaped cavities and crevices in the wall cavities are filled, and air will not penetrate the dense packed cellulose. It's remarkable, and something that can't be achieved with fiberglass - not even close! Dense packed cellulose stops air flow through the wall and insulates. TruSoft™ Cellulose is treated to be highly fire, mold and pest resistant. Holes are plugged and siding is put back. Results - a less drafty, warmer, quieter, more comfortable house, less dust/pollen, house not so dry in winter, lower fuel/electric bills, heating system runs - less maintenance. 

This homeowner in Westfield, MA called us saying that she needed help with her home's insulation. Homes, especially older ones, were not built with proper insulation in the basement. This home was no exception. There was insulation in the ceiling of their three season room, but it was fiberglass -- meaning air just blew around and through it. 

In order to help this homeowner, we had to start with removing the old fiberglass from the home. This insulation is very bulky and takes up a tremendous amount of space in trucks and our dumpsters. But it’s necessary to have a healthy home in the end. Result - now the building is ready to be fixed properly with other solutions.

This homeowner in Westfield, MA called us hoping that we would be able to help her with her home's insulation. One of the issues that this homeowner had was there was a bulkhead door leading to the basement -- but there was no door at the bottom of the stairs to keep out the outside air. Steps from the basement to the outdoors are convenient, but the (metal) hatch doors that cover them are completely uninsulated and leak lots of air. Cold winter air gets sucked into the home continually in winter. In summer, warm humid air enters the basement and causes condensation on cool floor, wall and duct surfaces. Results - Cold basement, cold floors on first floor, drafts, higher heating fuel costs, condensation in summer, higher electric costs for A/C.

We had the perfect solution for this customer -- a new insulated exterior door! Proper framing is installed and a new insulated exterior door with weatherstripping and locking knob is installed. Now “inside” the house is inside the door, and “outside” is outside the door, so it doesn’t matter that the hatch door is uninsulated and leaks air. Result - warmer basement and floors over the basement, drier basement in summer, lower fuel and electric costs, less drafts, house easier to heat, more security.

This homeowner in Westfield, MA called us stating he was having issues with the ceiling in his garage. Specifically, the garage in the ceiling was falling down, and he was hoping that we could help, as there were finished rooms above it. When our Home Comfort Specialist arrived in the home, he noted that insulation would need to be reinstalled after the ceiling was fixed. Garages are not heated, but the finished rooms above them are. So the garage ceiling must be insulated. If left uninsulated or poorly insulated, the result is cold, drafty floors upstairs and excess noise from the garage heard upstairs.

Once the work repairing the ceiling was done, we were able to insulate the garage ceiling. We were able to do this using TruSoft™ cellulose insulation that had been densely packed. The siding was removed in the appropriate places.. Holes were drilled into the rim joist (outer edge of ceiling/floor framing) from the outside, a very long pipe was inserted into the joist bays all the way to the other side. Cellulose was blown in and dense packed into the floor. The density stops airflow through the floor from air leaks. Results - warmer floors above, more comfortable rooms, quieter floors upstairs without that hollow sound, and lower heating and air conditioning bills.

This customer in Westfield, MA called due to their worries regarding a lack of insulation in their crawl space. When our Home Comfort Specialist came out to evaluate, he noted a large amount of mold in that crawlspace directly under a bedroom. High relative humidity in a crawl space will cause mold to grow on the surfaces of framing lumber, sub floors, insulation, and everywhere. Spores are the airborn seeds of mold, which are produced when the mold is growing and active. These spores float on airstreams up from the crawl space into the living space, and people with sensitivities can react to them. 

Luckily, Fogarty's Home Services has the perfect solution for the mold they had. Mold-X2 Cleaner effectively eliminates mold and mildew stains on contact. It is non-abrasive and non-flammable, and is sprayed on effected areas. Once Mold-X2 Cleaner is applied, mold disappears instantly, leaving wood surface looking nearly new. Mold-X2 Botanical, a plant-based disinfectant with a pleasant, temporary scent, is sprayed or fogged on surfaces, which prevents mold from growing back. Now your crawl space is ready for other solutions. Results – The mold is eliminated, with no odors or potential for wood rot. Your crawl space is now ready for a permanent repair to keep humidity low.

Our customer in Westfield, MA called us due to mold issues she was experiencing in her dining room. Our Home Comfort Specialist came out to assess the home and find the cause of the mold. When he arrived, he noticed that there was a vented crawl space that had not been encapsulated. In the winter, vents let cold air directly into our home. Floor insulation sags away from the sub floor and the cold air gets above it - rendering the insulation useless. In the summer, the vents let warm humid air in which is cooled by the subterranean crawl space. This caused the relative humidity to go way up and condensation to form all over the crawl space surfaces including floor joists and ducts. Mold grows and wood rots, while insect and other pests flourish. Musty odors can be noticed upstairs as mold spores travel upwards into the living space. Eventually rotted floor joist must be replaced and mold must be remediated. An unending stream of water vapor comes up from the ground adding to the moisture load in the crawl space and house. The damp air is harder to heat and cool. Result - condensation, mold, rot, pests and odors, cold floors, drafts, uncomfortable home, higher fuel and electric bills.

Luckily, Fogarty's Home Services was able to help this customer. We decided to encapsulate the crawl space. Your vents and other air leaks to the outside are sealed, often using our insulated vent covers. Walls are insulated with SilverGlo™ insulation with a reflective radiant barrier face. SilverGlo™ foam has graphite infused into the foam to increase the R-value by 24% over standard foam. A dimpled plastic drainage matting is installed across the floor to create an airspace and thermal break, and TerraBlock™ floor insulation is installed over it. Finally the heavy duty, 20 mil thick CleanSpace™ crawl space encapsulation liner is installed permanently across the dirt floor - sealed with mechanical fasteners to the walls and spiked to the floor. CleanSpace™ features Ultrafresh™ anti-microbial ingredients in the product. Results - much lower humidity, much warmer floors upstairs, less drafts, more comfortable house, lower fuel and electric bills.

A cantilevered floor sticks out past the wall below it. This building detail allows air to leak in, creating cold floors above and cold ceilings below. Insulation is inadequate does not fill the bay, and can not stop air flow.

A 29/16” hole is drilled in each joist bay of the cantilever soffit. A special mesh bag is inserted into the hole and filled with TruSoft™ insulation via a hose and fill tube connected to a special blowing machine. Once packed full, the bag is pushed back towards the house and the cantilever spaces are “dense packed” with TruSoft™ cellulose insulation which stops air flow and insulates. Dense packing fills all spaces, however odd shaped they may be. Holes are plugged. Result - warm floors and ceilings, less drafts, increased comfort, quieter home, lower fuel and electric bills. 

This homeowner in Westfield, MA called us to schedule an appointment for a Free Home Energy Evaluation because they were experiencing extreme ice damming on the roof of their home. This was happening due to a lack of proper insulation. We got them on the schedule and sent one of our Building Science Specialists to the home to evaluate why they were having this issue. We conducted our Full Home Energy Evaluation and noticed that they had very old, fiberglass insulation in the kneewalls. This was making cold air easily able to leak through the outside of the home, in to the home. This also will allow air to leak out of the home, causing high electricity bills. We proposed they choose to go with out Super KneeWall Treatment. They agreed to help become more comfortable in their homes by having this treatment done.

We sent out production team out to start the work. They installed our foam boards to them bottom of the rafters in the kneewall spaces. The ceiling is blocked and sealed with foam. This will stop the air leakage. The roof slopes were dense-packed with our cellulose insulation. This stops air flow and insulates. These homeowners called us with a problem, and we gave them a solution. The blocking, air sealing, and insulating made it so that cold hostile air from the outside cannot enter the attic, leaking out of the attic into the home. They have noticed a decrease in their energy bills and are no longer cold in their bedrooms. We fix uncomfortable homes!

This is a photo of a kneewall space finished.

These homeowners in Westfield, MA called us out to assess a problem they were experiencing in their home. The big problem they were having was that the room above their garage was super cold and drafty all winter! They were having trouble keeping this room cool during the summers as well. Upon arriving to the home and performing our full Home Energy Evaluation we noticed there was little to no insulation in the ceiling of the garage. Garages are not heated or cooled, but the bedrooms directly above them are. When the garage ceiling under a bedroom is not sealed and insulated, air that you pay to heat or cool is escaping back into that hostile environment in the garage. These customers were paying to cool their bedroom, and noticing that their room never stayed as cool as they wanted it to be since air was so easily leaking out into the garage. During the winter, these customers were always freezing in their bedroom, paying to heat air that was escaping out into the cold garage. In order to fix this issue we have to densepack TruSoft cellulose insulating into the garage ceiling from the exterior of the home. We have to carefully remove the siding off of this spot on the home. We drill holes into the rim joist, the outer edge of the ceiling, from the outside. A very long densepacking pipe is inserted into the holes we drilled, going all the way to the other side of the garage ceiling. This will compress any existing loose insulation that existed and adds much insulation value. The density of densepacking cellulose stops all airflow through the floor, making it easy to heat, and or cool the bedroom above the garage. Thanks to Dr. Energy Saver by Eco Energy Solutions, these customers can not live comfortably, happy, and more energy efficient in their homes!!