Basement Insulation You Can Trust In Colrain, MA

This customer in Colrain, MA called us when he decided he wanted to insulate his mobile home. Our Home Comfort Specialist team came out to inspect the home and realized that the bottom of the home was open to the air. When the outside air flows under a floor it feels very cold and uncomfortable in the winter - especially with ceramic tile, linoleum or laminate floors. Since the floor is the surface of the room we are in contact with most, it’s very important to fix, in order to be comfortable. There are two issues - air leakage through the floor, and conductive heat loss through the floor, because heat moves from more to less through solid materials. Even if there is fiberglass batt insulation in the floor, because it sags down away from the sub floor, the same outside air gets over it (“thermal bypass”) rendering it useless. Mold on the floor joists and sub floor is also a concern. Results - cold floors, drafts, uncomfortable rooms, greater overall home air leakage rate, higher fuel and electric bills.

Luckily, Fogarty's Home Services was able to present a solution to this homeowner that met his needs. We decided to insulate the home with our SilverGlo™ foam insulation board. SilverGlo™ foam insulation board is installed across the bottom of your floor joists with special long screws and 3” washers, SilverGlo™ is expanded polystyrene foam with graphite infused into the foam, which bumps up the insulation (“R”) value by 24% over standard EPS foam. Further, SilverGlo™ has a radiant barrier to reflect heat, so the insulation isn’t doing all the work by itself. All seams are sealed. If necessary a skirt board can be installed around the perimeter of the insulation so the edge is not visible. The skirt board may require painting after we are complete.Result - Much warmer floors, less drafts and more comfortable rooms, quieter home, lower fuel and electric bills.

This homeowner in Colrain, MA called us looking for more insulation in his home. When our Home Comfort Specialist arrived, he noticed that the rim joist in the home was not properly insulated. 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.

Fogarty's Home Services had a perfect solution for this homeowner. The best course of action was to use spray foam to seal and insulate the rim joist. 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.

This homeowner in Colrain, MA called us to encapsulate his crawlspace, hoping that it would be the end of insulation issues he had been having. Upon arriving at the home, our Home Comfort Specialist noticed that he had an uninsulated mounted fan in his house. Before most homes had air conditioning, whole house fans mounted in the upper floor ceiling were somewhat popular. These fans would suck out a very high volume of warm air from the house, which would be replaced by incoming outside air entering open windows. Of course there was no control over how hot, cold, humid or dusty the incoming air was, but without a properly insulated house with air conditioning, there was little choice. The problem is that the fan louvers leak a lot of air even when the fan is off - and for every cubic foot of air that leaks out the top of the house, a new cubic foot of cold or hot/humid outside air is sucked into the bottom of the house to replace it. In addition, the fan/louver area represents a big gap in your ceiling insulation. Results - Cold, drafty rooms - even downstairs, uncomfortable rooms that are hard to heat, and higher fuel and electric bills.

Luckily, we had just the solution for this homeowner. Our exclusive “David Lewis Whole House Fan Cover™” (named for the engineer who developed it) is installed over your fan assembly and sealed airtight with expanding foam. It stops air leakage and insulates over the fan. Made of lightweight, high-tech SilverGlo™ foam insulation, which has graphite infused into the foam to bump up the insulation value by 24% over standard EPS foam. It also has a radiant barrier (foil) on the flat top to reflect heat back in during winter and out in the summer, so the insulation isn’t doing all the work by itself. This cover is completely compatible with our TruSoft™ blown insulation in your attic. If you may want to use the fan in the future, just let your representative know and we will “pumpkin cut” a removable lid in the top of the cover. Result - a tighter, more comfortable, less drafty home you’ll notice. Rooms easier to heat, and lower fuel and electric bills.