Retrofit Air Sealing and Insulation
BUILDING SESSIONS Retrofit Air Sealing and Insulation
Practical options for improving thermal performance on remodeling jobs
In this episode of JLC Building Sessions, we look at options for air sealing and insulation the building enclosure during renovation work.
Say you’re remodeling just the kitchen, or just a bathroom: Is it worth improving the thermal performance of that one space? We think it is vital that you do everything you can when you have the opportunity. Even if the air sealing and insulation work you do in one room won’t have a big impact on a home’s energy bills, it critical to do whatever is possible to improve comfort and protect the durability of the building enclosure.
That is certainly the case in example remodel we examine in this webinar. During the gut rehab of a kitchen in an old house in upstate New York (climate zone 6), the existing conditions made for a very uncomfortable room during the long winter. And because it’s the kitchen where cooking is frequently generating moisture-laden air, it is important that we propertly air seal and insulate to prevent condensation forming inside cold building assemblies.
Even if the air sealing and insulation work you do in one room won’t have a big impact on a home’s energy bills, it critical to do whatever is possible to improve comfort and protect the durability of the building enclosure.
In this session, JLC editor, Clay DeKorne is joined by Jeremy Kassel, owner of Kassel Construction serving the greater Albany, N.Y. area and Nathan Shirai, an insulation and air tightness contractor serving the greater Chattanooga, Tenn. area. We are also joined today by Dan Schroer, a principle investigator at DuPont, where he is deeply involved in new product innovation – notably the development of innovations to Froth-Pak, which is one of the solutions to air sealing and insulation we will explore today.