About 83% of dwellings in Vegreville were built before 1991, and in that stock the rim joist is the best value item in the building. Rim joist spray foam insulation in Vegreville is a small job on a small area that changes how the main floor of the house feels, and there is no other single item we can say that about.
What the rim joist is and why it is the coldest thing in the house
It is the band of wood that runs around the top of the foundation, carrying the ends of the floor joists, with the exterior wall sitting on top of it. It is a piece of exterior wall, but it is almost never treated like one. The outside face is exposed to the weather at ground level, there is often a sill plate sitting on concrete with no gasket between them, and the inside is open to the basement. It is the coldest surface in the house that anybody can actually reach, and in this town it is usually bare.
Why a house of this age leaks there most
Older construction gave the joint between foundation and framing very little attention. There was no sill gasket, no caulking at the plate, no sealing between the joist ends and the rim board, and frequently the floor above was planked rather than sheeted, which leaves gaps at every board. Where there is insulation it is generally a scrap of batt pushed into each bay, which does nothing about air at all and often traps moisture against the cold wood. The result is a continuous opening all the way round the house at exactly the height where the stack effect is pulling cold air in.
This climate makes it a season-long leak, not a draught
Winter here comes in and stays. Frost drives deep into the ground and the temperature holds below freezing for long uninterrupted stretches, with none of the chinook cycling that interrupts a southern Alberta winter. A rim joist that is cold in November is still cold in February, and the air flowing in at that level never stops. It is also why moisture reaching the back of a batt in a rim joist bay has no mild spell in which to dry out, and why rotted sill plates turn up on inspections in this part of the province.
Why foam is the material and batt is not
A rim joist bay is a shape nothing is cut to fit: a pocket with a joist on each side, a floor above, a plate below, and usually a wire, a pipe or a duct running through it. Closed-cell foam is sprayed in, expands into every corner, bonds to the wood and the concrete, and seals the joist-to-rim joint and the plate-to-foundation joint as part of the same pass. At roughly R-6 to R-7 per inch it reaches a useful value in a couple of inches, and at about two inches it is its own vapour barrier, so the wood ends up on the warm side of the assembly rather than behind a sheet of plastic. Batt in the same bay leaves air free to circulate around it and does nothing to the joints.
It is one day, and you can feel it
Because the area is small, this is normally a single visit, there is no demolition involved beyond pulling out old batt, and the difference on the main floor is noticeable immediately. Cold floors along exterior walls, a draught at the bottom of the stairs, a cold spot near where the floor meets the wall: those are rim joist symptoms far more often than they are window or wall symptoms.
We take care of the work
You are dealing with the contractor directly on rim joist spray foam insulation Vegreville. We quote the job, we schedule it, and our own installers do the work.
Rim Joist Spray Foam Insulation Vegreville: Common Questions
Why is this the first thing to do? Smallest area, biggest continuous leak, and the one item where an older house changes how it feels within a day.
There is already batt in those bays. Is that enough? No. Batt does not stop air, and in this climate it can hold moisture against cold wood with no drying season to recover.
Can it be done in winter? The bays are inside the basement and accessible year-round, which is one reason this job suits a cold-weather booking better than most.
How much does rim joist spray foam insulation cost in Vegreville? It is priced per board foot over the sprayed area, so the number follows the perimeter of the house and the thickness chosen, which makes it a modest job in absolute terms. Pulling out old batt and clearing stored items away from the walls are the only usual extras.
How do I choose a rim joist spray foam contractor in Vegreville? Ask whether the plate-to-foundation joint gets sealed as well as the bays being filled. Filling without sealing has done the visible half.
Size the thickness with the R-value calculator, then get a free Vegreville quote. More on Rim Joist Spray Foam Insulation Alberta province-wide.