Remediation and Insulation in Farmington Hills, MI
Challenge
The homeowner had noticed that his upstairs was always warmer in the summer and colder in the winter. He also noticed that his HVAC system would come on after shutting off within 10-15 minutes. The symptoms of the problem were his energy bills were much higher than he thought he should be paying. The upstairs was always hot in the summer even with the air conditioning running all day. The ceiling temperatures was reading 91 degrees on a 72 degrees day. Mold growth was also visible on the roof deck sheathing. The problem was caused by not having enough insulation on the attic floor. The attic floor contained R19 Fiberglass batt insulation in a zone that requires R49-R60. The radiant heat coming from the attic was heating up to the top floor and making the HVAC work much harder to cool upstairs. During the winter time the heat would rise and escape through penetrations (wire penetration, top plates, bond plates, light and ceiling fan fixtures, etc.) that had not been sealed in the attic floor. The attic mold was caused by a lack of ventilation in the attic because the soffit vents had been covered up with fiberglass batt insulation. The homeowner chose to have the problem fixed because he was tired of his upstairs being uncomfortable and it always being a 5-10 degree difference upstairs compared to downstairs. The homeowners biggest concern with the problem was that his energy bills were through the roof and he couldn't figure out why his HVAC system was always running.
Solution
The homeowner chose our company because we were able to show him all the problems that were being caused by his attic insulation not being able to maintain the air he was paying to heat and cool his home and how the products and solutions we would provide would make his home more comfortable and be energy efficient. We were able to use thermal imaging so he could see for himself how warm the ceiling was even with his thermostat set to 70 degrees. Our solution was to remove the old dirty R19 fiberglass batt insulation from the attic floor, Remediate the mold on the roof deck, Air Seal all of the penetration's in the attic floor ( Top plates, bond plates, wire penetrations, etc. Install baffles into the soffits, cover the gable vents to prevent cross ventilation as the attic contained soffit vents and a ridge vent, Air seal and insulate the hatch cover with R20 foam board with radiant barrier on both sides, and then install 17" of stabilized cellulose insulation to achieve an R60 value. We did not run into any challenges during the installation process. The job went smoothly as planned out. We used Mold X2, SilverGlo, weather-stripping, ZypFoam, and TruSoft cellulose to achieve our solution. The customer now has a clean healthy attic, and the homeowner now has the upstairs temperature staying consistent with the first floor of his home and is no longer uncomfortable upstairs during the summer.
