Fogarty's Home Services serving Pomfret Center, CT

This homeowner in Pomfret Center, CT called us after a whole-home energy evaluation revealed that she needed to re-insulate her house. Our Home Comfort Specialist headed to her home, where he independently confirmed she had insufficient insulation. Since attics are vented, we should think of them thermally as outside in the winter. In summer because of the suns radiant heat, they are much worse than outside, reaching 130˚ on summer days. Clearly, we need to keep an absolute boundary between our living space and the attic so inside air doesn’t move to the attic in the heating season (convection), and heat doesn’t pass up through our ceilings in winter (conduction), and down from our ceilings in the hot summer (conduction, radiation). To reduce overall air leakage, the attic is the first priority because warm air rises to the top of the house and finds any and all holes to leak out into the cold vented attic and is lost. Holes, gaps and joints include between drywall and framing at the top of walls, around pipes, wires, electric boxes, fixtures, duct, penetrations, ceiling grilles and joints in framing. And the only reason cold air leaks in from the outside at the lower levels of the house, is that warm air leaked out of the top and created a suction at the bottom. Attics are dramatically under-insulated compared to today’s standards. Result - cold drafty rooms downstairs, colder floors, house is harder to heat and keep comfortable, higher fuel and electric bills.

Luckily, Fogarty's Home Services was able to help this customer. We first carefully air sealed the many various points where air from her home leaked up into her attic. We used expanding foam, boards, caulk, and metal flashing and fire caulk around your masonry or metal chimney as appropriate. Baffles (air chutes) were installed in each rafter bay to keep soffit vents clear and prepare for insulation. Finally, our premium TruSoft™ cellulose insulation was blown to the optimum R-value (typically R60). TruSoft™ will not burn, get moldy, or attract pests. Blown insulation fills all gaps and odd shaped voids, and by filling over framing members, “thermal bridging” is avoided. Results - a warmer, more comfortable, less drafty house that they'll notice everywhere - even downstairs! House is quieter. Fuel and electric bills are lower.

This customer in Pomfret Center, CT called to see about getting insulation in his walls. Many older homes have no insulation in the exterior walls. The problems this causes are obvious. Heat flows from more (inside) to less (outside in winter) right through the walls, and the opposite in summer. Nearly all walls leak air, insulated or not, causing drafts. The cold wall surface cools interior air which then sinks and travels across the floor and up the warmer interior wall, and across the ceiling back to the exterior wall. This is called a “convective loop” and makes rooms feel even draftier. Result - cold, drafty rooms, uncomfortable home, heating and cooling systems run much more and need more service, difficult to keep house at comfortable temperature, higher fuel and electric bills, dry home in winter, more dust/pollen, more humidity in the house in summer when air conditioned.

In order to properly insulate the walls, we dense pack them with TruSoft™ cellulose insulation. Siding is removed temporarily as necessary and 29 /16” holes are drilled through the wall sheathing. A fill tube is inserted up (and down) into wall cavities to not only fill, but dense pack the wall cavities. Dense packing is a technique that packs the insulation in very tightly - so tightly that all irregular shaped cavities and crevices in the wall cavities are filled, and air will not penetrate the dense packed cellulose. It’s remarkable, and something that can’t be achieved with fiberglass - not even close! Dense packed cellulose stops air flow through the wall and insulates. TruSoft™ Cellulose is treated to be highly fire, mold and pest resistant. Holes are plugged and siding is put back. With wood siding, old nail holes and new nails may be noticeable on close inspection. Very small new nail heads will be visible on aluminum siding. (If specified, siding will not be removed but drilled and plugged instead). Result - A less drafty, warmer, quieter, more comfortable house, less dust/ pollen, house not so dry in winter, lower fuel/electric bills, heating system runs less - less maintenance.

This customer in Pomfret Center called in stating that she was having issues with drafts in her home. Upon arriving, our Home Comfort Specialist noticed that her attic stairs had no insulation. 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 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. In addition to these problems, your pull down stairs are a big area in your ceiling that is not insulated - and your attic can be 30˚F in the winter and a blazing 130˚ in the summer! Result - cold drafty rooms that are hard to heat, high overall home air leakage, and higher heating and cooling (fuel and electric) bills.

The answer to this issue is installing a cover. Dr. Energy Saver’s exclusive “David Lewis Hatch Cover™” (named for our engineer who developed it) 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 into 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. Result - a tighter, more comfortable, less drafty home you’ll notice. Rooms easier to heat. Lower fuel and electric bills.

Our customer in Pomfret Center, CT reached out to us after an independent energy evaluation. She was concerned about the lack of effective insulation in her garage, especially as she has rooms above the garage that she uses. Garages are not heated, but the finished rooms above them are. So the garage ceiling must be insulated. Unfortunately, fiberglass batts leave lots of air space for air to circulate around them, eliminating their R-value. The result is cold, drafty floors upstairs and excess noise from the garage heard upstairs.

Our solution for this customer was to dense pack the garage ceiling with TruSoft™ cellulose insulation. A very long pipe is inserted into the joist bays all the way to the other side. Cellulose is blown in and dense packed into the floor. This not only compresses existing loose fiberglass batts and adds much insulation value, but the density stops airflow through the floor from air leaks. Results - warmer floors above, more comfortable rooms, quieter floors upstairs without that hollow sound, and lower heating and air conditioning bills.