Basement Insulation Before & After Photos

This home owner in Windsor, CT called us out originally to figure out why his bathroom was so cold! When the building science specialist was doing his inspection he found another issue that the home owner had in his basement. The issue was that his sump pump was sitting in a hole open to the basement with water in it. This is a problem because when that water evaporates, it becomes humidity and the dehumidifier has to take the water out of the air. But the dehumidifier was dumping the water back into the sump pump hole! It was a cycle that could not continue. To fix this problem, we installed a new sump pump with a lid so the water cannot evaporate back into the air. 

Now that Dr Energy Saver by Eco Energy Solutions has come in and installed a new sump pump, this home owner will not have to worry about his humiditiy issue again!

Fogarty's Home Services was contacted by this Windsor, CT homeowner to help make his basement warmer. This home has poured concrete basement walls that are perpetually cold - about 17°F cooler than we like the interior of our homes, due to being below ground level. In the winter, the part of the foundation that sticks up above the ground is much colder than that. Heat moves from more to less. The dense concrete has a lot of mass and heat from the basement constantly flows into and through the wall by conduction. You can never heat them up. Heat that comes off the heater and hot water heater was being wasted - lost into the cold concrete, instead of warming the basement and floors above it. In the summer, warm humid air from outside hits the cold basement walls and condensation forms, supporting mold. This is why the homeowner's basement and floors above the basement were cold. Fogarty's Home Services made this home more comfortable by installing foam insulation board is on the basement walls with Dr. Energy Saver's proprietary Foam-site fasteners. But not just any foam - Polyisocyanurate foam has the flame retardant properties to satisfy building codes to leave it exposed in a basement - unlike expanded or extruded polystyrene foam (EPS, XPS). In addition, the "polyiso" board has a foil facing to reflect heat so the insulation isn't doing all the work by itself. This happy customer will now have a warmer basement and much warmer floors.

Insulating a rim joist is one of the most important things you can do to start making your home more efficient. It can help lower your energy bills and make the first floor of your home more comfortable. To do this, we start by first removing the old nasty insulation from the bay spaces in the basement. Once that is done we spray the rim joist with our 2-part spray foam insulation in every bay space. We cover the entire space and the sill plate so no air from outside can be sucked inside from the basement. After this we clean up and your rim joist is insulated! No more cold floors and you will see your energy bills start to go down!

This homeowner in Simsbury, CT called us hoping to get her basement insulation done. When our Home Comfort Specialist arrived in the home, he noticed that there was actually no insulation in the basement at all. The homeowners knew something needed to change -- their basement was perpetually cold, in part due to their exposed concrete basement walls. 

We were able to help this customer. One of the solutions we utilized in her home was our Foamax polyisocyanurate foam insulation board. It is flame retardant and able to stay exposed if the homeowner wants it to. It even has a foil facing to reflect heat! Now, this homeowner will have a more comfortable basement and home!

This home owner in Granby, CT called us out to solve a water problem in her basement. When our building science expert got to the home, he saw the problem. There was no sump pump! 

To install a sump pump, the first thing you have to do is find the lowest spot in the basement. This is where we will put the pump so the water will naturally go towards it. Then we start to jack hammer the concrete and dig a hole about 2-3 feet deep.

Once that is done, we put some stone in the bottom of the hole. After we do this, we put the pump housing in the hole and make sure it sits level with the floor. Then, we put in the pump and run the PVC piping out of the home through the rim joist and away from the house. The last step is to concrete around the pump to fill in the gaps. 

Now that Dr Energy Saver came in and did a great job, this home owner does not have to worry about her water issues anymore!