A ceiling is easy to insulate when it is one flat plane with an attic over it. The ceilings that cause trouble in Coaldale's post-1991 houses are the ones that step, drop and change level, and each step is a piece of ceiling standing on its edge with nothing on the other side but attic air.
Bulkheads and dropped soffits are vertical ceiling
Over a kitchen there is usually a soffit above the upper cabinets. Over a bathroom there is a dropped section hiding a fan duct. Along a hallway there is often a bulkhead concealing a duct run or a beam. In a two-storey there is frequently a dropped section where plumbing comes down from above.
Every one of those is built by framing a box below the ceiling plane, or by raising a section of ceiling into the attic. Either way there is now a vertical face of drywall with heated room on one side and attic on the other, and in the great majority of houses that vertical face was never insulated. The flat ceiling around it got its full depth of blown-in material, the box got nothing, and the top of the box is frequently left open to the attic altogether.
You can find them from below. On a cold day, a bulkhead that is noticeably cooler to the touch than the ceiling beside it is open at the top.
The tray ceiling and the raised section
A tray or coffered ceiling in a main room does the same thing on a larger scale. The ceiling plane steps up into the attic space, which means the perimeter of that step is vertical ceiling, the flat top of the step is now closer to the roof than the rest of the ceiling, and the insulation above it is correspondingly thinner. A sprayed layer on the vertical faces and over the raised flat is the only practical way to make that assembly continuous, because loose material will not stay on a vertical surface and cutting batts to fit a stepped perimeter from an attic leaves a gap at every cut.
Where the ceiling is also the roof
Some rooms in these houses have no attic at all above them: a vaulted living room, a sloped section over a stairwell, a covered deck that was later closed in. There the ceiling is the roof assembly, the available depth is the framing depth, and a ventilation gap has to be preserved or the assembly has to be sprayed solid to the underside of the sheathing. That is a decision to make deliberately rather than discover halfway through.
The penetrations that are easy to forget
Recessed light housings, bathroom fan housings, the plumbing stack, the top plates of every interior wall that meets the ceiling. None of them is a large hole. All of them together are a continuous opening between the house and the attic, and they run for every hour of the heating season. On a house that already has good depth overhead, closing them is the work.
What a sealed ceiling plane changes
The measurable changes are a house that holds its temperature through a working day with the thermostat set back, less frost in the attic in February, and the end of the cold draught that falls down a stairwell in the evening. What it does not change is anything caused by the walls or the floor perimeter, which is why we would rather look at the whole envelope and tell you the ceiling is not your problem than sell you the ceiling anyway.
Who does the work
Ceiling spray foam insulation Coaldale is work we take care of ourselves. We scope it, we quote it, we schedule it, and our own installers are the ones holding the gun.
Ceiling Spray Foam Insulation Coaldale: Common Questions
Why is the bulkhead over the cabinets cold? Because it is a vertical piece of ceiling with attic on the other side, and it was almost certainly left open at the top when the attic was insulated.
Is a tray ceiling a problem? It is thinner over the raised flat and it has a vertical perimeter that loose insulation cannot cover. Both are straightforward to spray from the attic side.
Can this be done without damaging the rooms below? Nearly always, yes. Bulkheads, trays and penetrations are reached from the attic. Only a ceiling with no attic above it needs work from inside the room.
How much does ceiling spray foam insulation cost in Coaldale? It is priced per board foot over the sprayed area, so the number follows how many steps, bulkheads and penetrations there are rather than the floor area of the house. Working room in the attic at those locations is the other variable.
How do I choose a ceiling spray foam contractor in Coaldale? Ask them to walk the attic and come back with a count of the bulkheads, trays and penetrations they found. A quote by square footage has not looked at the ceiling you are asking about.
Size the assembly with the R-value calculator, then get a free Coaldale quote. More on Ceiling Spray Foam Insulation Alberta province-wide.