I've been watching insulation videos for a few weeks now, trying to improve my homes efficiency, and Insulwise has top notch information. 👈👍 Andy is the coolest in the industry. Bruh's ice cold with that spray foam 🧊 ✌️
Hey there thank you for the shout out! We certainly try here. Our goals are to give homeowners as well as potential customers the most useful information possible. And our solutions are designed not just for effectiveness and durability, but also for not causing knock on problems with homes down the road (for example just killing the mold and not addressing the moisture issues that caused it to grow in the first place). Andy
Thanks for the tips! One thing I was surprised to see was the blower test. I would have thought that the attic is so well ventilated that the air leakage from house doesnt make a difference. Do you ever do a before/after and if so I'm curious what a difference the air sealing makes?
Hi there, we do before and after blower door tests all the time in homes, but not when we're doing mold remediation work. We don't want to risk pulling the spores down into the home. The ventilation measures act as a redundancy measure against moisture getting into the attic. We find minor roof leaks in homes all the time for example. The other thing though with air sealing the attic floor is that it massively improves the energy efficiency and comfort of the home, along with eliminating the home as a moisture source during winter time (from Stack Effect driven air leakage to the attic bringing moisture from the home to the attic). Thanks! Andy
We did not remove the existing insulation batts. They were fiberglass and mold cannot "eat" inorganic materials. There were likely mold spores present in the material, but there are mold spores everywhere. The key is in making it impossible for mold to grow again in the attic space by 1) removing the moisture sources (air sealing the attic floor and venting the bathroom fans out through the roof) 2) making sure the roof is ventilated well enough so that if moisture does make its way to the attic that it can readily dissipate to the outside.
A little random, we have hardwood floor and there's these bubbled areas between the planks. We have a crawl space below, unincapsulated., but with insulation batts between joists. Can the hardwood experience that if there are areas of insulation separated and not tight in the crawl space?
Hi there, unincapsulated crawl spaces can be problematic. I have seen mold growing on the undersides of the floors in them, depending on the level of moisture inside the crawl space. However I'm not sure if I'd expect the floor to behave the way you're seeing. I've seen hardwood floors do that before, but usually its been from them getting wet from above. An inspection of the crawl space would be your best bet to determine what's happening there.
I've been watching insulation videos for a few weeks now, trying to improve my homes efficiency, and Insulwise has top notch information. 👈👍 Andy is the coolest in the industry. Bruh's ice cold with that spray foam 🧊 ✌️
Hey there thank you for the shout out! We certainly try here. Our goals are to give homeowners as well as potential customers the most useful information possible. And our solutions are designed not just for effectiveness and durability, but also for not causing knock on problems with homes down the road (for example just killing the mold and not addressing the moisture issues that caused it to grow in the first place).
Andy
Great explanation of the issues and your mitigation process. Ty!
Thanks so much for the comment, we certainly try!
Andy
Andy , thank you for sharing your knowledge. Greatly appreciated.
My pleasure!
Thanks for the tips! One thing I was surprised to see was the blower test. I would have thought that the attic is so well ventilated that the air leakage from house doesnt make a difference. Do you ever do a before/after and if so I'm curious what a difference the air sealing makes?
Hi there, we do before and after blower door tests all the time in homes, but not when we're doing mold remediation work. We don't want to risk pulling the spores down into the home. The ventilation measures act as a redundancy measure against moisture getting into the attic. We find minor roof leaks in homes all the time for example. The other thing though with air sealing the attic floor is that it massively improves the energy efficiency and comfort of the home, along with eliminating the home as a moisture source during winter time (from Stack Effect driven air leakage to the attic bringing moisture from the home to the attic).
Thanks!
Andy
did you remove the old insulation bats? isn't there mold on those bats too?
We did not remove the existing insulation batts. They were fiberglass and mold cannot "eat" inorganic materials. There were likely mold spores present in the material, but there are mold spores everywhere. The key is in making it impossible for mold to grow again in the attic space by 1) removing the moisture sources (air sealing the attic floor and venting the bathroom fans out through the roof) 2) making sure the roof is ventilated well enough so that if moisture does make its way to the attic that it can readily dissipate to the outside.
@@insulwiseenergycomfortsolu3293 ah, thank you for that info...
Do u have a company in WA
Hi there, unfortunately we do not. But thank you for asking!
Andy
A little random, we have hardwood floor and there's these bubbled areas between the planks. We have a crawl space below, unincapsulated., but with insulation batts between joists. Can the hardwood experience that if there are areas of insulation separated and not tight in the crawl space?
Hi there, unincapsulated crawl spaces can be problematic. I have seen mold growing on the undersides of the floors in them, depending on the level of moisture inside the crawl space. However I'm not sure if I'd expect the floor to behave the way you're seeing. I've seen hardwood floors do that before, but usually its been from them getting wet from above. An inspection of the crawl space would be your best bet to determine what's happening there.
Are you sure it is hardwood? Bubbling at the seams sounds like laminate flooring water damage...