We were in Lexington MA late January, 2013 installing spray foam insulation in an attic that had been insulated by a Mass Save contractors. We were just wrapping up the job in Lexington, what happened is we had to pick up the floor because there was insulation in the attic but it was properly installed. We had to pick up the floor for storage and removed it, took out the old fiberglass insulation, air sealed, and then dense packed the space with cellulose insulation. We also air sealed the gable wall and on the sides of the attic where the storage space wasen’t being used we installed open bay insulation for the sides of the attic.
Without properly spray foaming the house before the insulation is installed, the air will go right through the insulation no matter how good it is. On the eaves side of the home we hold back the cellulose in what is called an “open blow” there is about 15 inches of cellulose insulation and the whole attic has been air sealed. We spray foam the recessed lights in the room as well with specially made caps. These people are going to save some serious money with the improvements made in the attic. Insulating the attic will also fix any ice dam issues. These people knew they had something wrong and got an attic hatch (which is a great product). After this video we built a gasket just for the attic hatch to velcro the hatch and give a nice tight spray foam air seal. This will drstically cut down the draft, keeping the heat in their home.
