Photo Album: Attic Air Sealed in Crownsville, MD

This home in Crownsville, Maryland was not doing a very good job of keeping its homeowner warm. She was tired of fighting with the thermostat and paying an arm and a leg in utility costs. That's why she made the decision to call up Complete Home Solutions. She knew that we would have the knowledge and the ability to give her house the kind of work that was needed to make it healthy, efficient, and comfortable.

Attic Without Any Air Seal Work

Here is the attic before we got to add our upgrades. There is no air sealing and the old insulation (that brown, sand looking stuff) isn't able to work effectively on its own (there's also not nearly enough of it). This is where the homeowner was losing most of her hot air.

Attic With New Cellulose Insulation

Here is the attic after we've added in our loose fill cellulose insulation (the gray, clumpy looking fill). This (combined with air sealing) has created a great thermal boundary throughout the attic. This is something you have to have in order to achieve a energy efficient and comfortable home.

Air Sealing Within the Attic

As we've said, air sealing is a really important step in weatherizing your home. Here you can see an example of how we do that. We use caulk (those orange lines in the picture) to seal up any open cavities or penetrations where your attic could be leaking air from.

Skylight Tunnel With Old Insulation

If a skylight is not properly air sealed, then it allows for large quantities of air to leak in and out of the home. Although there is some insulation around the skylight tunnel here (the pink and brown in the picture), it is beginning to deteriorate and is no longer efficient.

Skylight Tunnel With Spray Foam

We took out the old insulation and replaced it with 2" of our closed cell spray foam. This will properly seal the skylight tunnel to prevent air leakage.

Attic Hatch Tent Cover

The attic opening is a huge area that can allow for lots of air flow. To prevent this from happening, we caulked the framing joins (which you can't see from this side of the attic), installed weather stripping (those white streaks around the border), and an attic tent (that aluminum foil looking fabric). Together, these work to finalize the thermal barrier around the attic.

Air Seal Bay Window Cantilever

In addition to the attic, we also air sealed the bay window cantilever (the part that extends past the house). If it is not treated, then it leaks air and causes the floor to feel cold. So, we installed fiberglass batt insulation and caulked the seams along the sides of the bay window cantilever area.