Insulation in Union, NJ

Insulating homes and buildings in Union

Union Township is largely post-war construction — capes, split levels and ranches built between the late 1940s and the 1960s — and that means the insulation problems are consistent enough that we can usually guess what we'll find before we open the attic hatch.

The classic Union Cape Cod is the clearest example. The second-floor bedrooms have knee walls with open triangular voids behind them, and those voids are usually connected straight to the vented soffit. Insulation gets stuffed against the knee wall but the floor cavity underneath stays open, so outside air runs directly under the bedroom floor. Spray foaming the slope and sealing the knee wall floor cavity is what actually fixes it — adding more batts against the knee wall does very little.

The other constant here is the rim joist. On split levels especially, the band joist wraps a large perimeter and is almost never sealed. Two inches of closed cell foam around that perimeter is one of the highest-value improvements available in these houses, and it is a fast job.