Rim joist spray foam insulation in Leduc is the cheapest useful thing available on most houses in this city, and it is one of the few items that is the same job regardless of when the house was built. The rim joist is the band of framing where the floor structure sits on the foundation wall, running the entire way around the building.
The band leaks the same on a 1949 house and a 2019 one
That is genuinely unusual and it surprises people. Almost everything else about a house changes with its vintage. This does not. On the boom-era stock the band was left bare or stuffed with whatever was to hand. On a house built last year it has a piece of batt pushed into each bay to satisfy the inspection. Neither of those seals the joints in the framing behind it, so air moves through both, and the newer owner is usually more surprised than the older one.
On a house from the first oil boom the detail is not the modern one
A good part of the older housing in Leduc went up in the years after the 1947 discovery, and the way the floor sits on the foundation in those houses is not what a current detail looks like. There is frequently a wider sill plate, sometimes more than one, occasionally a shim course, and the joint between wood and concrete was made with whatever was to hand rather than with a gasket. The consequence is that the gap is wider, less regular and further from square than a modern rim, which is precisely the condition batt handles worst and a sprayed layer is suited to. It also means the condition of the wood has to be looked at first, because a sill that has been taking air and water for seventy years is not always sound enough to simply cover.
Three specific changes people report afterwards
The reports are specific and they are not about a bill. The floor above the band stops being cold at the edges of the room, the strip of cold that sits along the outside walls of a finished basement goes away, and the furnace settles into longer and less frequent cycles. On a Leduc house those three together are what people mean when they say the lower level finally feels like part of the building.
Reachable now, expensive later
It is done from an unfinished basement in an afternoon with no demolition at all, and it is the least expensive item on this site at that stage. Once a lower level is framed, insulated and drywalled, reaching the same band means opening the top of the wall. Nothing about the work changes. Only the access does, and the access is most of the cost.
Rim Joist Spray Foam Insulation Leduc: Common Questions
Our house is nearly new. Surely this was done? Almost certainly not sealed. The standard treatment fills the bay without closing the joints behind it, and that is true of new houses too.
What will we actually feel? Less cold along the outside walls at floor level, and a furnace that cycles less often.
Can it be done if the basement is finished? Yes, by opening the top of the wall. It is far cheaper before the framing goes in.
Size the assembly with the R-value calculator, then get a free Leduc quote. More on Rim Joist Spray Foam Insulation Alberta.