Spray Foam Insulation in Decatur, AL

Spray Foam Insulation in Decatur deals with a long, humid cooling season. Wikipedia's 1991-2020 normals for the city show an average July high of 89.8F and an all-time record of 108F, and the area sees close to 50 inches of rain a year. The city stretches along Wheeler Lake on the Tennessee River and covers about 61 square miles, more than 6 of them water.

A 1960s and 1970s housing stock

Point2Homes' summary of census data puts Decatur's median build year at 1977. The 1960s and 1970s together account for about 37% of the city's homes, and close to 70% of all units are detached single-family houses. Many are brick ranches and split-levels on vented crawl spaces, with ductwork in the attic and insulation that has been compressed or pulled apart over the years by cable runs, HVAC changes and pest work. Those are the houses where sealing the attic floor and fixing the crawl space change comfort the most.

Victorian homes and Albany

Decatur also has the largest Victorian-era home district in Alabama, and its Albany neighborhood was once a separate town, New Decatur, which merged with the city in 1925. Older houses there often have balloon framing, plaster walls, tall ceilings and attic spaces that were never insulated well. Foam can seal the open cavities that act as chimneys, and dense-packed loose fill can go into closed walls without tearing out plaster. We look for knob-and-tube wiring before recommending either.

Lakefront and low ground

Homes near Wheeler Lake and the river flats tend to have damper crawl spaces. Encapsulating those spaces, with a sealed vapor barrier and closed-cell foam on the walls, usually does more for comfort and odor than adding insulation under the floor.

Planning around a Decatur summer

Attic work is easiest from October through April, when the space is not baking. Crawl space and shop jobs can run year-round. If you already know you want work done before next summer, a fall or winter visit gives the widest choice of dates. HomeGuide's national cost ranges, $1.50 to $5.00 per square foot for installed foam and $3 to $10 per square foot for crawl space encapsulation, are a fair planning start, and our written quote replaces them once we have seen the house.

Call (256) 973-9880 or get a free estimate and we will come out, look at the attic and crawl space, and write up a price.