Energy Saving Insulation Contractor in Wilbraham, MA

This homeowner in Wilbraham, MA called us hoping to get her bulkhead door replaced. It was almost 70 years old and rusting, and looked unattractive next to her home. 

Luckily, Fogarty's Home Services was able to help this homeowner. We were able to install a beautiful new bulkhead door. We caulked around the edges and installed flashing behind the door to ensure a tight fit. Now, it looks amazing, and the homeowner is happy! 

This homeowner in Wilbraham, MA called us saying that he needed his basement re-insulated. Homes, especially older ones, were not built with proper insulation in the basement. This home was no exception. While they had insulation in the rim joist, 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 homeowner's basement. 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 basement is ready to be fixed properly with other  solutions.

This homeowner in Wilbraham, MA called us with concerns about his poorly insulated basement. Our Home Comfort Specialist was able to identify several issues with his basement insulation. Most notably, the rim joists were insulated with leaky fiberglass insulation. The “rim joist” is the perimeter of the floor framing system 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. The rim joist is seldom insulated and never air sealed. Basement ceiling insulation, especially fiberglass batts, doesn’t stop the flow of cold air into your home. Results - cold floors, drafty, uncomfortable rooms, cold basement/lower level, higher heating and cooling bills and more condensation in the basement or crawl space in the summer.

The homeowner and our team settled on the best course of action: removing the fiberglass insulation and replacing it with spray foam. Two part expanding spray foam is installed on rim joist and over sill plate to seal all air leaks from the outside and insulate this important area of your home. Our spray foam has a high insulation value per inch of R7, and because it expands, it seals all cracks and gaps and joints where air from the outside enters your home. Results - warmer floors, less drafts, more comfortable rooms, your house is easier to heat and costs less to heat, less summertime condensation on cold basement surfaces.

Our customer from Wilbraham, MA reached out to us after her basement flooded. Upon arriving, our Home Comfort Specialist identified that she had one single sump pump. A sump pump is a critically important part of a home because it keeps an entire level of your home protected against flooding - which could cause many thousands of dollars in property damage, clean up time and aggravation. A single sump pump will fail one day due to mechanical failure, a power outage, a circuit breaker tripping, or it may not be able to keep up with the volume of water in a heavy storm. Results - A flooded basement, mess, property damage, and mold -- just what you're trying to avoid!

The customer agreed that the course of action we needed to take was to install a TripleSafe™ sump pump system. The TripleSafe™ sump pump system has 3 pumps to protect from flooding. The first pump is a 1/3 hp, cast iron Zoeller pump that can pump up to 2200 gallons per hour, 8 feet high. Should the first pump fail or not be able to keep up with the temporary heavy flow of water, a 1/2 hp AC back-up pump on a separate discharge line can pump 3900 gallons of water per hour. If the power fails, then a third, battery operated "UltraSump" pump automatically pumps up to 12,000 gallons of water out of your basement! An airtight lid keeps moisture, odors and radon gas out of your basement. The TripleSafe™ System is the highest quality sump pump protection in the world! Results - you have peace of mind knowing you have both AC and DC powered back up pumps to keep your basement dry! 

In most areas of the United States, homes need R60 insulation in their attics, the equivalent of a 20” deep fiberglass batt. But cathedral ceilings only have the depth of the rafters (6”-11”) for insulation. Two factors relating to the optional vented roof design make the situation much worse. First, some of the rafter space is used for airflow (cold in winter) - which means even less space for insulation. Second, this air flow “wind washes” open faced fiberglass batts, reducing the R-value of batts that were designed and rated to be used in closed cavities with no airflow whatsoever. The result - your cathedral ceiling is dramatically under insulated. Air in your home that you paid to heat, hits the cold ceiling and descends, creating a “convective” loop making your room feel cold and drafty. In the summer, the roofing heats up to 160˚ and the roof heat radiates through the ceiling and heats up the room.  

The soffit vent is blocked with a continuous board which may need painting along with the fascia by the homeowner. The gutter and fascia board are removed and a TruSoft™ cellulose insulation is “dense packed” into the rafter bays through a long fill pipe inserted deep into the ceiling/roof. Dense packing fills all air spaces, compresses existing batt insulation, and stops air leakage. The ridge vent remains and functions not as an air vent, but a vapor vent.  The result is a room that is warmer in winter, cooler in summer, less drafty, lower heating and cooling bills, easier to heat and cool and a more comfortable home.