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Drafts, cold rooms, high bills or thin insulation.

A trained insulation crew should do air sealing and insulation, and a qualified person should test vented appliances first.

Customers put it like this

  • this room is always cold
  • I can feel a draft
  • our heating bill jumped
  • I can hear the neighbors through the wall
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Stop first if

  • A CO alarm is active or garage odor is in the house.Leave and call emergency services first.
  • Knob-and-tube wiring may be live in a cavity.Do not fill it. Have a licensed electrician deal with the wiring first.
  • The house has vented appliances and is about to be tightened.Hold the work until a qualified person runs a combustion appliance test.
01

Ask on the call

6

Homeowner? These are the questions a good technician will ask you. Having the answers ready makes the first visit count.

  1. Which rooms feel it, and when?
  2. Where do you feel moving air?
  3. What is in the attic, and can you see the joists?
  4. Is any of the attic floored?
  5. Do you have gas or other vented appliances?
  6. Is the original wiring still in the walls?
02

Bring

6
  • Smoke pencil
  • Thermal imager
  • Micromanometer
  • Tape measure
  • Flashlight
  • Phone for photos
03

Check on site

6
  1. Find the air path and the pressure that drives it. More fiber does not stop air.
  2. Use smoke at outlets, baseboards and trim, and scan with a thermal imager on a cold day.
  3. Start with the attic hatch, penetrations, rim joist, windows, doors, dryer vent and panel.
  4. Note voids, gaps at plates, fishmouths and missing contact. A compressed but full batt is not the defect.
  5. For loose fill, read the label and note settled depth at several points. Floored attics can hide empty bays.
  6. For sound through a wall, look for leaks and flanking paths first.
04

Keep on the record

4
  • Air leak locations with smoke or infrared photos
  • Insulation type and depth by area
  • Loose fill label photo
  • Vented appliances in the house

General guidance for a qualified person, not a finding about any home. The person on site decides.