Fogarty's Home Services Before & After Photos

This homeowner contacted Fogarty's Home Services to come investigate why the temperature and moisture level in the home were so uncomfortable. We discovered that there was old, dirty batt insulation that had been exposed to the outside air due to leaks in the roof and attic areas. Air that the customer was paying to heat was leaking out of the attic and drawing cold outside air in causing drafts. Fogarty's Home Services removed and disposed of the old insulation. 

The homeowner called Fogarty's Home Services concerned about the floors above the basement door being cold. We found that the existing door was old and drafty. We replaced the basement door with a steel-insulated basement door. Now the floors are warmer and the basement is more comfortable.

Fogarty's Home Services received a call from the homeowner who was experiencing cold, drafty rooms near the attic hatch pull down stairs to his attic. Attic hatch pull down stairs are necessary to access your attic. The problem is that when closed, they leak a LOT of air that you paid to heat from your home to the vented attic where it is lost. All of this warm air leaving the top of the house is replaced with cold outside air entering at the lower levels of your home, causing drafts, cold floors and uncomfortable rooms that are hard to heat.

Fogarty's Home Services installed an exclusive "David Lewis Hatch Cover" (named for our engineer who developed it) that rests right over your pull down stairs. It stops air leakage and insulates over the stairs. Made of lightweight SilverGlo™ foam insulation, you just lift it aside to go up to your attic, and set it back in place when you leave. You don't see anything from the finished area of your home. SilverGlo™ foam insulation has graphite infused into the foam which bumps up the insulation value by 24% over standard EPS foam. It also has a radiant barrier (foil) on the flat lid to reflect heat back in during winter and out in the summer, so the insulation isn't doing all the work by itself. Now the homeowner has a tighter, more comfortable, less drafty home he'll notice. His rooms are easier to heat and he'll experience lower fuel and electric bills.

The owner of this Enfield, CT home reached out to Fogarty's Home Services because her home was feeling drafty and cold. After completing her free home energy evaluation, we found that one of the contributing factors to this discomfort was a kneewall space in her attic that wasn't properly insulated. A kneewall space is created when a finished room is built within a sloped roof. A short wall called a "kneewall" forms a triangular space which mar or may not be accessible with a short door or access panel. The floor of the kneewall space forms the ceiling of the room below it. The floor and kneewall space side with exposed fiberglass batts. Since fiberglass does not stop air flow, the insulation does next to nothing to air seal and insulate. The floor of the upper level, the ceiling of the lower level and the kneewall are all cold in winter and hot (from radiant roof heat) in the summer. The kneewall space is not suitable for storage since it is dusty and very cold or hot. Fogarty's Home Services installed blocks of SilverGlo™ foam insulation between the ceiling joist bays. Outside the blocks, the surface of the ceiling was sealed with sprayed foam or SilverGlo™ foam. (Fiberglass insulation may be installed on top). SilverGlo™ foam insulation is installed under the rafters up to the kneewall and sealed at the top with foam sealant. SilverGlo™ is expanded polystyrene foam insulation with graphite infused into the foam, which increases the R-value by 24% compared to regular EPS foam. SilverGlo™ also has a radiant barrier on both sides to reflect roof heat out in the summer and house heat back in during the winter. The addition of this radiant barrier gives some thermal benefit so the insulation isn't left alone to do all the work. After installation, inside air can't get out of the house through the kneewall spaces and outside air can't get in. Insulation can now be added, with integrity, to the correct surfaces. This happy homeowner will now see results such as significantly warmer upstairs rooms in the winter, cooler rooms upstairs in the hot weather, less drafts, more comfort, less dust, a kneewall space that can be used for clean storage, and lower energy costs.

The owner of a beautiful brick home in West Springfield, MA contacted Fogarty's Home Services to help insulate his home. He was experiencing cold drafts and wanted to resolve this issue. One of our Home Comfort Specialists discovered that there were sloped stairwell ceilings that were open to the attic when conducting this homeowner's free home energy evaluation. When a stairwell has a sloped ceiling forming a big triangular space that is open to the attic, it creates a heat loss (winter) and heat gain (summer) problem in the home. The sidewalls of the open well into the attic are hard to insulate and often leak air from the walls of your house into the attic. The stairwell ceiling radiates heat from the house in to the attic, and from the hot attic to the house in the summer. Insulating the attic properly is not possible with this big stairwell hole in it. Fogarty's Home Services installed a cover made of wood over this stairwell at the attic floor level. Appropriate framing and wood sheets were used. The cover was sealed with expanding polyurethane foam to make it airtight. Blown insulation can now be installed over the attic floor and the stairwell cover. The sturdy cover doesn't pose a fall hazard if someone crawls into the attic in the future. Now, this happy customer is reporting less air leakage, less unwanted heat loss and heat gain, and the attic can be insulated properly.