Job Stories

This customer had several common concerns in his home. A ranch style house build over a crawl space. One concern was cold floors in the winter and the other concern was dust and indoor air quality. He did what many consumers do, he called a heating and air conditioning contractor. There solution was to install a new high efficiency heatpump system, that provided supplemental heat in the winter, filtered the air and killed germs with a UV light. That didn't do what was expected. He still had cold floors! Now he called an insulation company, who said of course your floors are cold you don't have any insulation. They added insulation in the floors and a liner on the crawl space floor. The result was within 2 years of his attempted improvements, The crawl space was wet, smelly and moldy. The indoor air quality got worse. (approx 50% in your living space comes from below) and he still had cold floors! Dr. Energy Saver division of DH Services Group, preformed a whole house evaluation and proposed the following solutions to his problems. #1 Seal all the duct work for his new heatpump system, located in the attic. Leaky ducts in attics and crawls lose massive amounts of energy and bring in contaminated air. #2 Remove all contaminated and organic materials from the crawl space, Treat exisitng organic growth and install a Clean Space Crawl encapsulation system, including a SaniDry air and dehumidification system, a smart drain to detect possible plumbing leaks and install a serviceable entrance. The End result: Customer has warm floors, the crawl space is dry, warm and safe, the indoor air quality was improved.

During my job site visit to confirm installation details, I (Dave the Owner) met the homeowner Dennis. As we walked through the project he commented that the 2nd floor, which consisted of 3 bedrooms and a bathroom, felt notably better, and the work wasn’t even 100% complete yet. One of the common issues with this type of home, is that the upper level is cold and drafty in the winter and much hotter in the summer. To the point where they typically would install window air conditioners to help. This is a Levitt built home from the 1970’s. This is a two story home on a slab foundation, with one Heating and cooling system located in a garage utility room. The problem is that the home has large under insulated attic flats, vertical walls on the 2nd floor between the unconditioned attic space and the bedrooms, (called knee walls), a large sky light well and the main heating and cooling return duct is 100% in the attic space. The duct is not insulated properly and has many small holes where it pulls in either very hot air in summer, very cold air in the winter and nasty fiberglass particulate every time it runs. The combination of these issues created a uncomfortable home that cost too much to heat and cool year round. These types of issues should be addressed by professionals who understand how buildings work. Improper air sealing or insulation can create ventilation, moisture and combustion appliance problems if not done correctly.

      Mary T. was referred to Dr. Energy Saver, Division of Dave Hoh's Home Comfort & Energy Experts to help her solve comfort and energy problems in her vintage style home at the shore. She was experiencing heating bills of over $300.00 per month in the cold weather. The hopes had major comfort issues, such as very cold hardwood floors, large temperature swings between rooms, and a damp musty crawl space infested with cave crickets. Mary moved into this as a retirement house and wasn’t happy how it performed.       We performed a comprehensive whole house evaluation, which included blower door air leaking test, infrared wall and insulation inspection in addition a thorough assessment of the home’s thermal and pressure baldrics from the crawl space to the attic!      We moved forward with the project in 2014. The overall results reported by Mary, is that her 2015 total heating cost $425 vs. $300 per month prior to work. (That is a huge savings) The floors are toasty warm, the house is comfortable and the crawl space is warm and dry.     Contact us for more details on this type of project for your home. 

This is a typical case of a 2 story home where the 2nd floor is uncomfortably hot in the summer, the house is drafty and the energy bills are higher than they should be. 1st-We met with the customer, identified what their concerns are and what they would like to accomplish. 2nd we performed a comprehensive home evaluation, including Infrared camera inspection to locate possible insulation deficiencies, a blower door test, to measure and identify where the house is losing and gaining heat through air leakage, in addition checking for potential health and safety concerns. A scope of work was developed that met the customer's budget and would accomplish the results they were looking. The pictures show, Insulation deficiencies, leaky recessed lights, uninsulated ductwork, bath fan not vented correctly, chases, drop down cavity and a gas leak. All having a impact on comfort. All these items where properly repaired by our fully trained crew, the job was tested at completion to measure our results and the gas leak was repaired. Results: Reduced excessive air leakage by 73%, bath fan vented properly, ducts repaired and insulated, attic access treated and insulation level increased from an average of R-11 to R-60. This will drastically improve comfort and reduce energy consumption paying for itself over time.

In Marlboro, NJ a homeowner was having moisture and insulation issues in the attic. Looking at the old fiberglass insulation we found dust and dirt all over the insulation. This is a sign that the attic is not properly air sealed. The adjoining wall is also poorly insulated and needs to be addressed. We also have condensation built up on the roof sheathing and rafters. If we look closely we can see rusty nails in the roof sheathing and stained moisture droplets on the floor of the attic or in the insulation. By properly ventilating the attic we can help alleviate moisture build up. Condensation or moisture build up can also cause dry rot and mold. As we can see this owner has mold on their roof raters and sheathing. Once our crew treats the moisture issues, we will then use our orange ZypFoam sealant to air seal the attic. Next we installed retaining walls to help contain our TruSoft cellulose insulation. We install our SilverGlo foam insulation panels onto the adjacent wall then air seal the seams. Finally, our team will blow-in our TruSoft cellulose insulation.

Looking in this homeowner’s attic in Point Pleasant Beach, NJ we can see dirt building up in the fiberglass insulation. When fiberglass insulation is exposed it does next to nothing to insulate. As unwanted air circulates around the attic, that unwanted air will pass through the fiberglass insulation. Fiberglass insulation is a porous material and also can absorb moisture, possibly contaminating the insulation with mold or unwanted unhealthy air in your attic. When we find dirty insulation it is a sign of an attic that has not been properly insulated and air sealed. After air sealing the attic properly we can then blow-in our TruSoft cellulose insulation. With fresh new insulation and an air sealed attic, this homeowner can now enjoy a more comfortable and energy efficient home.

This home was well built in 1961. It is a 2 story on a slab with an attached garage. We diagnosed what may be contributing to comfort concerns, using a blower door, air leakage detector (smoke) and a Thermal imaging camera. What we found was the the attics where underinsulated, the building was losing a great deal of the heated and cooled air through exceesive air leakage and air ducts in a lower attic where not insulated well and not sealed.  The customer moved forward with a comprehensive project that included, thorough air sealing, insulating 2 attic flats to R-60, maintaining proper ventilation and sealing and insulating AC ducts in the attic. The results,  overall airleakage was reduced by 31%. The excessive air leakage was reduced 54%, the customer noticed improved comfort right away. Also reported the house was much quieter.  In addition to the improved comfort, the products we used are safe for humans, reduce dust and improve indoor air quality.  We test in and out on every job to quantify results. This project qualifed the the NJ Clean energy program, recieved a cash back incentive and long term 0% funding. This project generates more savings annually than the cost the program funding actually paying for itself in energy savings.      

This Modern Modular Cape Cod house in Manasquan, NJ, had uncomfortable rooms during the summers and winters.  On the 2nd floor an overhang over the front porch created the room to overheat during the summers and become too cold in the winters.  After inspecting the attic and kneewall spaces we found the Modular Cape Cod house wasn’t air sealed and insulated properly. This can be a common flaw with Modular Cape Cod Homes because of their prebuilt construction or modularity.  What tend to happen is the seals and gaps of the Cape Cod house never get properly fitted together which creates gaps and air leaks from soffits into poorly insulated kneewall spaces. To eliminate hot rooms in the summer and cold drafty rooms in the winter, we installed our SilverGlo foam insulation panels over the existing expanding spray foam that’s on the bottom of the rafters in the kneewall spaces.  We also install SilverGlo foam insulation boards to the ceiling joist bays and use Orange ZypFoam to air seal the SilverGlo foam insulation.

When our crew inspected this Modern Modular Cape Cod house in Manasquan, NJ, we found the homeowners attic ducts were leaking from the seams.  In addition to leaking ducts, we discovered the homeowners exposed ducts were radiating excessive amounts of heat from the attic. This caused tremendous amount of energy to be wasted during the summers and winters.  Just think about what happens in the winter, blowing heated air through uninsulated ducts located in a frigid attic.  In the summer, you're blowing chilled air through the same uninsulated ductwork that's been heated to about 120 degrees or higher. To solve the ducts leaky seams our team used Orange ZypFoam to eliminate all air from seeping out of the existing ductwork.  By encapsulating the existing duct work with our SilverGlo foam insulation boards we can reduce the ducts from radiating unwanted heat throughout the house.  To encapsulate the ducts with our SilverGlo foam insulation boards, we frame out the ductwork and install each panel or board over the ductworks outer surfaces.  Finally using the Orange ZypFoam we can seal the seams of the SilverGlo to eliminate any unwanted airflow and/or excessive heat/cold.

Modern Modular Homes are not created equally.  When inspecting this Modern Modular House in Manasquan, NJ, we found poorly placed insulation throughout the home.  By further inspecting, we found discolored fiberglass insulation.  This is a clear indication that air is circulating through the fiberglass insulation by the open Soffits, cavities, and gaps between the walls and ceilings. With Modern Modular Homes some open Soffits, cavities and gaps are left unsealed by the manufacturer.  Our team was able to diagnose this issue and eliminate the air from seeping through the fiberglass insulation. We followed the dirty fiberglass insulation to discover where the gaps and cavities were located.  We simply found the seams and sealed all open seams with our Orange ZypFoam to fully eliminate any air leakage from theses soffits.  Our crew did not have to remove the fiberglass insulation as the insulation was up to code.  The homeowner’s results are the lowering heating and cooling costs.