The band where floor framing sits on the foundation runs around the entire house, and it is the single most skipped part of most insulation jobs. It is out of sight, it is uncomfortable to work in, and nobody thinks about it until the floors above it never feel warm no matter what the thermostat says. Crawl spaces get the same treatment: visited once during a home inspection and then forgotten.
Cold floors get blamed on the furnace more often than anything else, and sometimes that is right. But a crawl space open to outside air, a rim joist with nothing in it, and ductwork running through both will produce cold floors with a system that is working exactly as designed. That is worth ruling in or out before anyone starts talking about replacing equipment.
Crawl space and rim joist pricing turns on access more than anything else. Clearance height, how far someone has to move on their stomach, whether the ground is dry, and how much material has to be carried in and out all drive the labor. The linear footage of rim joist matters, as does whether old material has to come out first and whether moisture work has to happen before any insulation goes in. A vented crawl space and a closed one are treated differently and priced differently. Ask for those pieces broken out separately rather than bundled into a single number.
Because floors sit over the coldest part of the house. An open crawl space, an empty rim joist band, missing or sagging under-floor material, and ducts losing heat on the way up can all be true at once. A working furnace does not compensate for a floor assembly that is essentially outdoors underneath.
It depends on the crawl space, the moisture conditions, and how the rest of the house is built, and the two approaches get insulated differently. This is worth having a contractor explain in front of you, with reasons specific to what they saw down there, rather than applied as a default.
Often yes. It is a continuous band around the entire house that is frequently untouched, and it is one of the more accessible places to seal and insulate in a home with a basement. Many contractors will look at it while they are already down there for something else.
Then insulation is not your first purchase. Wet material stops working and stays wet, and covering damp framing makes the condition harder to observe. Drainage, grading, and moisture control come first. A contractor who tells you that instead of quoting insulation is doing you a favor.
The attic is where most of your heat goes, which is why it is usually the first place a contractor looks. Older Utah homes often have coverage that has settled, thinned near the edges, or been pushed aside by past work.
Learn more →Insulation slows heat moving through materials. It does not stop air moving through gaps. Sealing the openings between your living space and the attic is a separate job, and doing it after the insulation goes down is far harder.
Learn more →Walls are closed assemblies, so the question is how a contractor gets material into them and whether the cavity can take it. Blown-in, batt, and foam each suit different framing, and foam is not automatically the better one.
Learn more →Sometimes the old material has to come out first. Rodent damage, water staining from a roof leak, and smoke contamination are all reasons adding new insulation on top would bury a problem instead of solving it.
Learn more →Cold rooms, drafts, ice at the eaves, or an attic you have never been in. Any of it is a place to start.