Basement Insulation In Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
Three separate problems meet in a basement, and ordinary insulation solves none of them. The wall touches wet ground, masonry moves heat readily, and the joint where framing lands on the foundation leaks air right around the building.
Closed cell spray foam insulation handles all three in one application, which is why it has largely displaced framed walls packed with fibreglass insulation down there.
Call +1 902-201-3017 for a written basement insulation figure on yours.
Basement Insulation details
The Problem With Framing It Out
The traditional method stood a stud wall in front of the foundation, packed fibreglass insulation between the studs and stapled polyethylene over the face. That insulation fails in a way anyone can predict.
Masonry stays damp. Absorbent insulation touching it takes that damp on. The cavity has no route to dry, and the sheet on the warm face guarantees it. What grows in there is what people discover when the finished basement comes apart five years on.
Closed cell spray foam insulation goes directly onto the masonry. It bonds to the face with nothing between, insulates it, and manages vapour with the same layer of insulation. There is nothing absorbent against the wall and no void for damp air to occupy.
Half The Value Is At The Top Of The Wall
Where the foundation ends, the floor structure begins, sitting on a thin band of framing that faces the weather. In most houses the only insulation on that band is a scrap of fibreglass pushed against it.
It is a small area, but it accounts for a disproportionate share of the leakage.
Two to three inches of closed cell spray foam insulation around that perimeter is quick work, and it is the insulation that stops the floor above feeling cold.
We take that on as a standalone insulation job as well, for people who want the strongest return before committing to a whole basement.
Older Foundations
A good number of houses on the island stand on stone or rubble, and plenty have had block or poured work added later. Neither troubles spray foam insulation, but both deserve a look first.
Spray foam insulation bonds happily to an irregular face. What it will not do is hold back running water. A wall that is actively leaking gets repaired before we spray, and we say so plainly rather than sealing the evidence in. The same approach applies under a crawl space, where the foundation wall is just as irregular.
Allow For The Board
Spray foam insulation in a basement you actually use has to be covered. A thermal barrier is required over it, and half inch gypsum board is what normally satisfies that.
Put it in the budget. A basement figure that looks unusually low is very often one with the boarding left out, and that surfaces later.
Get A Basement Insulation Figure
We measure the walls, read the moisture pattern, inspect where the framing lands, and set out one written spray foam insulation price with the covering requirement named inside it. Basement insulation is one of several services covered on the home page.
Call +1 902-201-3017 to arrange a visit.
Other Spaces We Insulate
Cape Breton Spray Foam Insulation covers attics, foundations, crawl spaces, garages and new builds right across the island.
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Attic Insulation
More heat leaves through the top of a house than through any other single surface, which is why attic insulation is the cheapest spray foam insulation you can buy. Warm air rises, finds the openings around fixtures, hatches, plumbing stacks and wall plates, and departs.
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Crawl Space Insulation
Everything true of a foundation wall is true here, only on your elbows. Too little headroom, bare ground beneath, a difficult way in, and all of it directly under a floor people walk on.
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Garage Insulation
The garage is the space people most want to be warmer and least often have treated properly. It is also the space whose insulation decides the comfort of a room you are already paying to heat, because whatever sits above it shares a floor with it.
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New Construction Insulation
A building still open is the one chance to get the envelope right with everything reachable and nothing to dismantle first. The air barrier can be continuous by design instead of assembled from patches.
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Closed Cell and Open Cell Spray Foam
Two spray foam insulation products share the name and they are not substitutes for one another. Getting that choice right is most of what separates a lasting insulation job from an expensive lesson.
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Insulation Removal and Replacement
Some insulation has to leave before anything else can begin. That includes saturated batts, contaminated loose fill, material rodents have been through, and spray foam insulation that went on badly the first time.
Ready For A Figure On This?
Arrange a spray foam insulation visit. We take measurements, read the substrate, and put an insulation price on paper that will not shift.
Describe The Space
Tell us what it is, roughly how big, whether it is heated at the moment, and what the insulation in it is doing wrong.
Prefer to talk it through?
+1 902-201-3017
Monday to Saturday, 7:00am to 6:00pm