Spray Foam Insulation in Old Hickory, TN

The land itself has a long record. It began as a 3,000-acre grant to Sam Jones in 1786. Then DuPont arrived.

DuPont built a large plant here and built a town with it. The company put up rows of smaller bungalows for factory workers and larger houses for management, all in the early decades of the last century, all to repeating plans. That is what gives Old Hickory its character today, and it is also what makes the insulation work so predictable.

When a whole neighbourhood goes up fast, to a handful of drawings, by the same crews, the same weaknesses appear in every house. A century on, we see them repeat street after street: shallow crawl spaces that were never meant to be entered again, nothing at the rim joist, wall cavities that have never held insulation, and framing in the older houses that runs closer to balloon construction than to the platform framing a modern insulator expects. Decades of additions and enclosed porches sit against the original structure, with gaps where the two meet.

The setting adds its own pressure. Old Hickory is bounded by the Cumberland River on the north and west, Old Hickory Lake on the east, and the former city of Lakewood to the south. Water on three sides means damp ground and humid air for much of the year, and a hundred-year-old vented crawl space in that environment has spent a century breathing moisture up into the floor. Cupped boards, soft spots and fallen fibreglass are the usual evidence.

Open-cell foam is the lighter material. It expands further for the same money and it absorbs sound well, which is why it earns its place on attic planes and in interior walls. In the tall, irregular cavities of older framing it fills corners that a batt never could.

• The crawl space and rim joist. On a 1920s bungalow near the river or the lake, this is almost always the first job. It addresses cold floors, musty air and fallen insulation in one pass.
• The attic plane. Air sealing the top of the house does more than adding depth to old, settled fill, especially where additions have broken the original ceiling line.
• Additions and enclosed porches. These were typically built with less care than the main house and are the coldest rooms in winter. They are also easy to reach from below.
• The band between floor levels. Where an addition meets the original structure there is usually an unsealed gap. Foam closes it.
• Interior walls between living space and an unheated garage or porch. Open-cell quiets the room and stops the draught path at the same time.

When the mix or the technique is wrong, the foam does not cure, or it pulls away from the framing after a season. There is no topping up failed foam. It is cut out by hand and the job starts again. Use a crew that sprays full time.

You can read more about our residential spray foam work or see the complete service area.