Air Sealing & Insulation

Thom and Brad of Energy Services Group came and built a platform for attic storage higher than the new insulation would be to prevent compressing it, which would reduce its effectiveness. Brad sealed the gaps in the attic with foam, and foamboard where appropriate.

Here is the biggest gap, sealed for the first time in the house's 37 years, along the framing void for the master bath.

A common gap is around the furnace flue, like this one:

Another gap was found hidden under the old insulation over the stairs near the upstairs hall bathroom. They covered and sealed it too:

Thom opened the drywall in the shed to check the air gap and then close it with foamboard and seal it with foam:

They installed baffles to keep the eaves clear of insulation for good attic ventilation:

Another contractor blew the cellulose insulation carefully all over the attic floor while Thom fed cellulose into the blower outside:

We went from R11 to R38, which is 10" of cellulose. Then they ran the blower door test again and showed a substantial reduction of the air leakage rate. There was still some air leakage. I could feel it in the furnace room, but nothing like the torrent I felt before the work. Thom said it probably wouldn't be cost-effective to tear up the house further to find more leaks. He said that doing more of the recommendations from the audit should take care of our needs.

Now the upstairs is wearing a warm sweater. We lowered the thermostat by four degrees right away with the same comfort upstairs. It's been neat to try the thermostat one degree lower each night. Our latest try: 61 degrees was just fine while we slept. So we're saving money at night and when we're in the office, since it's upstairs. We still raise the temp a few degrees when we plan to spend the evening downstairs, a few times a week. The downstairs will continue to improve as we finish more of the recommendations.

Update: We've been sleeping at 60 degrees comfortably for a few days!