Living along the Jersey shore presents challenges, especially in flood-prone areas. Some residents elevate their homes to mitigate flood risks, but this can cause air leakage, leading to cold floors in winter and hot rooms in summer.
Solution
Fortunately, effective solutions exist. One method is to insulate the undersides of the house with TruSoft cellulose insulation. Dense-packing the floor involves drilling holes between joist bays and blowing insulation into the cavities. Once insulated, the holes are sealed, plugged, and spackled. It is now the responsibility of the homeowner to paint over them. While insulating the floors of a raised house is similar to insulating those above an attached garage, it is more complex due to exposure to the elements. Nonetheless, dense-packing the first floor significantly boosts comfort and energy efficiency.
On the left, you can see the house's deck. If we were to open up the underside of the house, it would resemble the decking. Unfortunately, there's a lack of insulation underneath, allowing air to leak into the house, leaving it vulnerable to the elements outside.
More decking is visible, exposing the underside of the house to the elements outside. This allows cold air and warm air to easily infiltrate into the house, causing discomfort for the homeowner.
We are underneath the raised house, observing the bottom of the first floor. Currently, there's nothing preventing unwanted outside air from seeping into the home's floors.
During cold and windy weather, cold air can easily penetrate the sides of the house and enter the joist bays, spreading across the cavity bay and resulting in cold floors. Additionally, this cold air can cause drafts throughout the entire house.
In hot weather, hot air infiltrates the sides of the house and enters the joist bays, spreading unwanted heat throughout the house. Since hot air naturally rises, this exacerbates discomfort in the rooms, making them even hotter.
We are observing underneath the house deck, where the impact of outside elements is evident. Air can seep through wood, and when the seams are not properly sealed or, in this case, the floors are not adequately insulated, outside air infiltrates the home. This leads to uncomfortable rooms and wasted energy as you try to maintain comfort.
Air can penetrate through wood, and if the seams are not properly sealed or, in this instance, if the floors lack adequate insulation, outside air can infiltrate the home. This leads to uncomfortable rooms and wasted energy as you try to maintain comfort.
In this picture, we can observe the holes used for dense-packing the first floor. On the left, we have plugged and sealed the holes.
We'll apply one coat of spackle to the holes, and the owner can paint over them whenever they choose.
