Before & After Photos

Poorly insulated knee wall spaces leave homeowners experiencing cold, drafty rooms in the winter and hot rooms they can never seem to cool down in the summer. Often, the only protection between a knee wall space and the living space is fiberglass insulation in the knee wall. However, it's ineffective because it's almost never closed in on all sides, provides no air sealing, and when knee wall spaces are home to ductwork, it doesn't help protect the ductwork from extreme temperatures. 

In these cases, we insulate the attic rafters and gable ends of the knee wall space with closed-cell insulation.  This helps to reduce the extreme conditions in the knee wall space that impact the living space making it uncomfortable by reducing the conditioned air loss from the living space to the unconditioned attic knee wall space and the heat transfer from the attic space into the living space. 

Moving the crawl space insulation from between the floor joists to the foundation walls extends the thermal boundary of the home to the floor of the crawl space. Along with insulating the rim and band, this helps to reduce drafts and cold floors. 

Foam Board is installed by mechanically attaching it to the foundation walls leaving a viewing strip at the top of the foundation wall per building code for termite inspections. All seams of the foam board are sealed to create an air barrier. 

6-mil vapor barriers are most commonly installed when a home is built, they are lightweight, similar to a standard trash bag, they tear easily, and are simply laid out on the ground. As soon as someone or something moves through the crawl space, the liner is displaced, torn, and bunched up, offering very little protection to the home from the earth's moisture. 

Our homeowner opted to replace this 6mil with a CleanSpace 20-mil vapor barrier. This liner is similar to a pool liner, it's durable enough for service persons to crawl and work under the home, is overlapped and sealed at all seams, wrapped and sealed around all piers, and attached and sealed to the foundation walls about 6 inches above outside grade. It completely seals the crawl space from the earth's moisture, achieving the job vapor barriers are intended to do. 

This homeowner contacted us about high energy bills and uneven temperatures in their home. We addressed their concerns by air sealing an insulating the attic. Foam insulation was used to seal top plates and electrical and plumbing penetrations to reduce the amount of air escaping from the conditioned living space into the attic. Next, a fresh blanket of blown-in cellulose insulation was installed on the attic floor.  

This Surry, VA homeowner reached out to us because they wanted to add insulation to their attic and help make the rooms below more comfortable. We added blown-in cellulose insulation and built a dam around the storage decking to prevent the insulation from falling in.