Rim joist spray foam insulation in Red Deer is the piece of work that suits this city's housing stock better than almost anything else, for a reason that has nothing to do with building science. In a great many Red Deer basements it is the only part of the envelope still open.
Half-finished is the normal condition here
A basement gets developed in stages. The family room goes in, the utility area and the mechanical room do not, and the perimeter behind the furnace and along the storage side stays open framing. That leaves the band where the floor structure lands on the foundation exposed and reachable without taking anything apart, which is exactly the condition that makes this job quick.
A small area doing a large share of the damage
The rim joist band is a few inches tall running the full perimeter of the house. Behind it, in most homes of this age, sits a friction-fit batt with air moving freely around it, above concrete and directly below the floor of the main level. It is a short list of surfaces, and it accounts for a disproportionate share of the cold air arriving at floor level upstairs.
Small area, no demolition, a change people notice
Because the area is small, the material cost is small. Because it is already open, there is no demolition and no reconstruction. And because it is both the air leak and the insulation gap at once, sealing it changes something the occupant actually notices. Very little other envelope work combines those three, which is why it is worth doing on its own rather than waiting for a larger project.
Do the top of the wall while you are at it
The same reasoning applies at the top of the house. If the attic hatch area or the top plate is accessible, addressing both ends of the wall at the same time reduces the pressure difference driving air through the building rather than only patching the bottom of it.
What it costs you to leave it
The reason this job gets deferred is that nobody sees the rim joist. It sits behind the furnace, above head height, in the part of the basement that never got finished, and it does not look like a problem. What it looks like instead is a cold kitchen floor in February, a basement that never quite warms up, and a furnace that runs longer than the thermostat setting suggests it should. Those symptoms get attributed to windows and to the age of the house far more often than to a band of open framing at the top of the foundation wall, which is why it is worth looking at before spending money on anything larger.
Rim Joist Spray Foam Insulation Red Deer: Common Questions
Is this worth doing by itself? Yes. It is a small area with no demolition, and it addresses the air leak and the insulation gap together, so the change is noticeable.
My basement is partly finished. Can it still be done? Usually, and that is the common case here. The open utility and storage perimeter is normally enough to reach the band without opening anything up.
Will it stop the cold floors upstairs? It addresses one of the main causes. Cold air entering at the band arrives directly under the main floor, so sealing it is where most people notice the difference.
Check the assembly with the R-value calculator, then get a free Red Deer quote. More on Rim Joist Spray Foam Insulation Alberta.