This newly purchased home that had a history of ice damming & high energy costs. Upon inspection, the attic & front knee wall only had 2″ of old insulation. Heat from the living space was escaping into the knee wall area and warming the roof deck which leads to snow melt and severe ice dams. This thermal envelope flaw is very common with Cape styled houses.
To solve the historic problems, Cozy Home Performance installed 2″ of rigid insulation board over rafter slopes in the kneewall and then dense packed the empty rafter cavities with cellulose. This provided total R-value of R38, plus a thermal bread over the rafter framing. The attic was completely air sealed and insulated with 12″ of cellulose for a R-value of R42.
Fixing Ice Dams in NE Cape.
The basement sill band was not insulated or air sealed allowing cold air to enter the living space. To fix, we installed 3″ of closed cell spray foam which completely air sealed the sill band and the foundation top plate and provided an R-value of R19.
Our client is excited to feel comfortable in their new home! And, they can be confident that there will be no ice dams, no building damage and energy savings for a long time to come. Also, no more Mice!
“Thanks very much for this excellent work!” C.L.
South Hadley, Ma July, 2016
