Spray foam insulation in Mount Pleasant SC - a sealed attic that stays cool and dry

Most people who call us have a hot room over the garage, an upstairs that won't cool down or a power bill that climbs every summer, and they've heard foam might help. The price turns mostly on how much area we cover, which foam you choose, how thick it goes and how hard the space is to reach. It also depends on whether old, soaked or dirty insulation has to come out first through insulation removal. The schedule turns on the weather inside your house, because foam needs the right temperature, humidity and dry surfaces to go on properly, and on how long your family needs to be away afterward. When I come out, I look over the spaces you'd like insulated, explain what I found and what I'd suggest, and give you a figure for your own house.

I start with the roof above, because foam under the roof deck makes a slow leak harder to spot, so any stains or soft wood should be fixed before anyone sprays. I also look for old wiring, water and gas or other fuel-burning appliances, since sealing a space changes how air moves around them. Then we talk through open-cell or closed-cell foam, what each one does in your space and how long you'd be away from home. On install day our crew covers floors and furniture along the path, closes off the work area, sprays the foam to the depth we agreed and adds a coating or drywall over it when the product or the code calls for that covering. Then we clean up and air the house out before you come back.

Foam isn't always the answer, and I'll tell you so. In many attics, sealing the gaps and topping up with blown-in insulation, which is loose fill blown through a hose, gives you most of the comfort for less money. The exception is when your ductwork runs through the attic, because foam under the roof brings those ducts inside the cooled part of the house, and that's when foam usually earns its cost. If sealing and topping up is the better fit, our attic insulation work covers it.

The Town of Mount Pleasant requires a permit to build, enlarge or repair any building, and its list names electrical, gas, mechanical and plumbing work but not insulation, so the list alone doesn't settle whether a foam job needs one. The city asks owners to send project details to its Plan Reviewers, who decide what permits, if any, apply. Before we start, we check with them, or with the building office for your address if you're outside the city, and we handle any application and keep you informed.

Near the coast, the attic decision carries more weight. General national guidance finds that sealed, conditioned attics hold up better in hurricanes than vented ones, mostly because their soffits, the underside of the roof overhang, are built sturdier. Vented soffits have been known to give way in high winds, and wind-driven rain is a known problem for vented attics in coastal areas. Many of the lived-in houses we see here have ductwork in the attic and a hot room over the garage, and we see the same on jobs in Charleston and James Island. On those houses I often lean toward foam under the roof deck, once the roof above checks out.