Challenge
The homeowner explained that heating and cooling the home was a constant problem. The home would not maintain a comfortable temperature and the HVAC would come on constantly to heat and/or cool the home, making it very expensive on utility bills. The HVAC would kick on just a few minutes after shutting down. The home would be hot during the day and only cool down once the sun went down. The attic was extremely under insulated. The attic floor contained blown in fiberglass insulation with an R-Value between R-8.4 and R-11 spread across the entire attic floor. In certain areas of the attic floor zero insulation was found providing no thermal barrier between the attic floor and the rooms below. The homeowners biggest concerns with the problem was that he and his family were not able to live comfortably in their home and they were spending to much on utilities.
Solution
Our customer and Sales Manager spent a lot of time discussing the problems found within the attic and why the lack of insulation and air sealing on the attic floor was contributing to the low level of comfort they were experiencing in their home. We decided that it would be best to completely remove all the insulation within the attic in order to air seal the floor. There were multiple drop down kitchen cabinet soffits that needed to be covered and air sealed including a structural covering needed for the staircase leading down to the basement that was completely exposed to the attic. We then installed TruSoft Stabilized Cellulose Insulation to a R-Value of R-60. The temperatures in the attic on the day of installation was roughly one hundred and thirty degrees making it difficult to stay in the attic for long periods of time requiring an extra day to complete project. The product we used were TruSoft Stabilized Cellulose Insulation, Zypfoam expandable polyurethane foam, and Silverglo polystyrene foam board. Durovent dual-wide baffles were installed in the soffits for directional air. The home is now keeping the homeowners and his family at a comfortable living temperature and has been able to lower the cost of utilities.
