Wendy’s River Falls, WI Insulation Project
When our long-time client, Wendy, asked us to come out to perform a roof inspection, we informed her that the tar seals were failing, and that home’s shingle were no longer sealed down. This meant that a new roof was needed to keep her home protected from nature’s elements. With every roofing estimate, we take the time to inspect a home’s attic. That’s because if the attic insulation and ventilation is lacking, the lifespan of the roof can be shortened.
When we inspected Wendy’s attic, we noticed a few pressing issues. First, effective ventilation was not present. When this happens, ice dams, corrosion, and rust on roof vents can occur. Another issue we noticed in Wendy’s attic was that the home’s bath fans, and range vents were not venting properly. This was allowing excess moisture to enter the attic, compromising the integrity of the home’s insulation. A final point of concern was the absence of a vapor barrier or attic air sealing. The situation was particularly bad because there was no ventilation allowing air past the existing insulation that was filling the rafter space. This was leading to condensation forming in the attic. When attic condensation forms, it quickly begins to drop onto the insulation, ceiling, and framing. This leads to attic mold. Here are the steps our insulation and ventilation experts took to make Wendy’s attic as energy efficient as possible.
Removal of Current Insulation: Because of the condition of the home’s current insulation, we recommended the removal of all of the home’s accessible fiberglass batts and loose fill.
See Behind-The-Scenes Footage of Wendy’s Insulation Project:
Ventilation: To correct Wendy’s home’s ventilation problems, a number of steps were taken. First, we installed a Panasonic “whisper” fan in the main floor bathroom and redirected the venting though the home’s roof, rather than into the attic. In the kitchen, we reworked the existing range vent through the roof with the proper ducting. In the attic, we installed nearly 60 air chutes which would promote more air movement. We blocked the soffits under the air chutes with fiberglass batts.
Insulation: For the insulation portion of the project, our experts sprayed five inches of closed cell urethan insulation to the entire upper attic floor area. This created a vapor barrier and perm rating of less than one. In addition, our experts also sealed off all exterior and interior top wall plates and eliminated air bypasses. All exhaust pipes in the attic area were sealed off to increase the energy efficiency of the space. To complete the project, we sprayed 1.5 inches of spray foam insulation to the exterior of the sun tunnel ducting.
