TCI Home Services Case Studies: Air Seal & Cellulose Insulation in Clarkston, Mi
Challenge
The homeowner explained that he had raccoons get in his attic through openings in his roof and they had caused a mess in his attic. The homeowner noticed an awful smell coming from his daughters room where the attic access is and went into his attic to investigate only to find raccoon droppings and urine all over his insulation. He also noticed that his baffles had been ripped out of the soffits and some mold growth was starting to occur on his roofing sheathing. The symptoms of the problem were, his insulation had been covered in raccoon droppings and urine. The insulation was pulled away from the eaves of the attic and his baffles had been completely shredded apart. Urine saturated insulation had been pulled into the eaves completely covering around 60% of the soffits now allowing proper airflow into the attic and mold growth had started to form on the roof sheathing. The problem was caused by raccoons getting on his roof and removing the ridge cap and entering his attic. The homeowner chose to have the problem fixed because the smell in his attic was permeating down into his family living space and he was concerned for his family's health so he wanted his attic to be cleaned and disinfected. The homeowners biggest concern with the problem was that the odor coming into the home made being upstairs unpleasant and his kids room was where the access to the attic is and where the odor is coming into directly.
Solution
The homeowner chose our company because we were able to get the homeowner into the attic with us to show him exactly what was on his accomplish list and how we would be able to fix the problem and how we would prevent this problem from happening again. He also really appreciated the fact that we were able to work with him on coordinating getting the project completed right after his roof was going to be fixed. Our solution was to completely removed all of the contaminated fiberglass batt insulation and the blown fiberglass insulation to start with a clean surface. We then installed metal mesh fencing alone the peak of the roof inside of the attic to prevent pests from being able to enter the attic if the ridge cap were to be removed again. We installed can light covers on the recessed lighting in the lower attic space to prevent heat during the winter from being sucked through the can light soffits and lost to the attic. We then installed a rockwool chimney wrap around the metal chimney stack for fire safety. We vacuumed out the eaves to make sure that the blown insulation was no longer covering the soffit vents and then installed all new baffles into the eaves. We air sealed all of the penetration's in the attic ( Top plates, Bond plates, Wire and Pipe penetrations etc.) and then installed 14" of cellulose to achieve an R49 Energy Star rating Thermal Barrier on the attic floor. Some of the challenged that we faced during the installation process were the amounts of insulation that we had to remove. The fiberglass batt insulation was below the blown fiberglass insulation so it made it more time consuming to remove and bag. The other challenge we faced was the weather. It rained on us the entire day making it difficult going in and out of the house while still making sure not to track any mess behind us and keeping our equipment dry. We used many products on this project to achieve our end result. We used Metal wire mesh fencing, MoldX 2 Products, DuroVent Baffles, TiteShell Recessed Light Fixture Covers, Rock wool Sleeve, ZypFoam, Owens Corning 1" Foam Board for insulation dams, and TruSoft Cellulose. The homeowner now has a healthy clean attic that no longer contains pest contaminants as is now saving even more than he was before his existing insulation on his energy bills with his current improved Energy Star rated thermal barrier insulation.
