About 80% of homes in Westlock were built before 1991, one of the higher shares anywhere in Alberta, and that single number tells you what the attics look like. Attic spray foam insulation in Westlock is work on roofs framed before anyone designed for the depth of insulation we now expect, in a place where the snow that lands in November is still up there in March.
The shallow heel is the recurring problem
On houses of this vintage the rafter or truss comes down onto the top plate with almost no height at the eave. There is nowhere to put depth over the outside wall, which is precisely where heat loss is worst and where the cold roof sheathing and the warm ceiling come closest together. Blowing a deep layer across the open middle of such an attic leaves the perimeter as thin as it ever was. A sprayed closed-cell layer at the heel does fit, because it goes on at six to seven R per inch and needs no space to loft.
Snow that stays changes what ice damming means
Further south an ice dam is usually the product of repeated thaw and refreeze. North of Edmonton, with no chinook to interrupt the winter, the snowpack simply sits on the roof from the first fall until spring. That makes it an insulating blanket over the sheathing, and any heat leaking into the attic melts it from underneath whether or not the outdoor temperature ever climbs. Water runs down to the cold eave, where there is no insulation at the heel, and freezes there. Controlling the heat leak is the only part of that chain anybody can change.
What we seal on a house from this era
The top plates of the interior partitions, which on older framing are often open straight into the wall cavities below. The chimney or flue chase, which on a 1960s house frequently has a hand-cut hole around it. The bathroom fan, which in a lot of these houses was added later and terminates in the attic rather than through the roof. The plumbing stack. The attic access hatch itself, usually a sheet of plywood in a closet ceiling with nothing on top of it. Each of these is a continuous opening running every hour of a heating season that starts early here and ends late.
Why depth alone disappoints on this stock
Air leaving through the ceiling plane goes straight up through anything laid on top of it, so a deeper blanket over a leaky ceiling buys less than the invoice suggests. The owner concludes insulation does not work. It does; it was asked to do a job that belongs to air sealing. On an old Westlock house the right order is to seal the penetrations and build up the heel, then add depth over the flat where depth is cheap.
One company, start to finish
We take care of attic spray foam insulation Westlock end to end -- the assessment, the quote, the scheduling and the spraying. Our crews do the work.
Attic Spray Foam Insulation Westlock: Common Questions
Our attic has lots of insulation and the house is still cold at the walls. Why? Almost certainly the heel. There is no room for depth over the top plate on a roof framed this way, so the perimeter stays thin no matter what is blown across the middle.
We get icicles along the eave every winter. With the snowpack sitting up there all season, heat from the house melts it from below and the water refreezes at the cold overhang. Sealing and insulating the ceiling plane is the fix, not a bigger gutter.
Does the whole attic need spraying? Rarely. Foam does the sealing and the heel; blown-in depth is the sensible material across the open flat once the leaks are closed.
How much does attic spray foam insulation cost in Westlock? Attic work prices as board feet of sprayed foam at the perimeter and the penetrations, plus blown depth on top, so the number follows area and target R-value. On this stock the eave detail is the part that decides the scope.
How do I choose an attic spray foam contractor in Westlock? Ask what they intend to do at the eave. A quote that only describes depth across the flat has not looked at the part of your roof that is actually losing the heat.
Size the job with the R-value calculator, then get a free Westlock quote. More on Attic Spray Foam Insulation Alberta province-wide.