Closed-cell foam insulation in Mount Pleasant SC - a seal that holds back moisture

Most people who call us about it have a hot room upstairs, a musty crawl space or ductwork running through a baking attic, and they've heard foam is the answer. Sometimes it is, and sometimes a simpler fix does the job. The price turns mostly on how many square feet we cover and how thick the foam goes, then on how easy the space is to reach and whether old or soaked insulation has to come out first. The schedule depends on the roof's condition, the permit check for your address and the time your household will need to spend away from home. At my estimate visit, I look over the spaces you'd like insulated and explain what I found and what I'd suggest.

Closed-cell foam makes sense when the foam also has to control moisture, and I'll tell you plainly if your space doesn't need it. Before anything is sprayed, I look for trouble the foam would hide or make worse, such as old wiring, water stains and fuel-burning appliances that need fresh air, and we go over time away from home and any health concerns in your household before we schedule. On the day of the job, our crew covers floors and belongings, pulls out old insulation that's wet or full of droppings, and seals around pipes, wires and the attic hatch so no drafts are left behind. Then we spray the foam in even passes, taking care that the edges get the same depth as the middle, and add a fire-protective covering such as a coating or drywall where the product or the code calls for one, since not every foam needs it. We clean up, and I walk you through the work before we call it done.

When the foam only has to slow heat, open-cell foam insulation is lighter and usually costs less, so I'll compare the two with you at the estimate. We also spray closed-cell in offices, shops and storage buildings through our commercial insulation work, where metal walls and roofs tend to sweat and the moisture control earns its price.

The Town of Mount Pleasant requires a building permit for any construction valued above an amount its Building Official sets, or for work that needs a structural inspection. Whether a foam job crosses that line depends on its size and scope, so before work starts we check with the building office for your address, whether that's the Town, another city or the county. If the job needs a permit, we take care of the application and keep you informed.

We're based in Mount Pleasant and work in the cities around it, and this close to the water, storms shape how I think about an attic. Federal guidance for coastal high-wind areas says an unvented attic, one sealed with foam under the roof so it sits inside the cooled part of the house, is safer in a hurricane than a vented one, because vented soffits have been known to collapse in high winds. Closed-cell foam helps the walls as well, since filling the frame cavities makes them much stiffer against racking, the sideways shove a strong wind puts on a house. A sealed attic still needs a way to remove moisture, so I'll show you how the plan handles that before we begin. We weigh the same storm exposure on jobs in James Island and Charleston.