This Leesburg, VA homeowner was tired of having cold floors on half of the house and cold, drafty kitchen cabinets. Comfenergy performed a full comfort and energy evaluation and discovered there were multiple issues creating these cold areas.
Solution
The cold floors were caused by a crawl space vented to the outside of the home that was unconditioned. The upper kitchen cabinets were very cold due to the bulkhead above them being wide open to the attic above! The homeowner decided to fix both of these issues, and also improve the energy efficiency of the home by upgrading the attic insulation and air sealing it.
See how in this case study!
Project Summary
Evaluator: Shayne Sandner
Check out this cold and nasty crawl space. This falling fiberglass insulation allows cold air to touch the floors above. Better wear extra socks to live here!
More falling fiberglass insulation.
The fiberglass insulation was removed and disposed of properly. Then, we installed "TerraBlock" insulation on the floor of the crawl to keep the ground from absorbing the heat in the crawl.
View of the crawl space access looking into the adjacent basement. The homeowner later said the basement was always cold. Makes sense why!
Crawl space access sealed nicely and the "CleanSpace" 20 mil thick, anti-microbial vapor barrier being installed.
Ready for spray foam insulation on the walls to retain heat and repel the cold!
Another view ready to spray closed cell spray foam. NEVER use open cell spray foam in an area below grade!
Closed cell spray foam insulation installed on the walls, completely encapsulating the crawl and making it "inside" the thermal boundary of the home.
Finished look of the crawl space. Much better AND warmer!
A new sump pump was installed in the crawl to keep it nice and dry.
The existing attic insulation was fiberglass batts too. Fiberglass will not stop air flow. Thus, the reason your furnace filter is made of fiberglass!
All of the old attic insulation was removed to allow us to do a great job of air sealing the air leaks in the attic.
Another look at air sealing. We use a highly visible orange colored one part foam so the homeowner can easily see how well we are doing our job!
Here is that open bulkhead allowing cold air from the attic into the cabinets. We sealed it off using 2" thick SilverGlo foam boards and one part orange foam. Notice the can lights also allowing cold air into the kitchen below.
NICE WORK! Warm kitchen cabinets, warm floors. Comfenergy does it again!
