Insulation Cantilevered floors

Overhangs, bump-outs, four season porches, and rooms built over garages all expose their floors to the temperature extremes of the outdoor Minnesota and Wisconsin air. This creates uncomfortable, hard-to-heat spaces above. Often, the insulation installed in these cantilevers has fallen away from the flooring above, creating a leaky air gap and rendering the insulation useless. Thankfully, there are effective ways to improve the insulation value in these areas.

Dense Packing Cantilevered Floors

Cantilevered floors can be dense packed with cellulose or dense packing fiberglass insulation Our team does this by:

1. Removing a row of siding or soffit material from the exterior

2. Drilling holes into the floor cavities

3. Inserting an insulation fill hose in the hole

4. Densely packing in insulation at high pressure, which results in a fully insulated cavity that won’t slump or shift

After the job, we:

1. Seal fill holes, as well as any gaps in the sheathing

2. Replace the siding or soffit

Spray Foam for Cantilevered Floors

In other situations, cantilever floors may be accessible from inside or from below; in these instances, closed cell spray polyurethane foam (SPF) is used to create a permanent air/vapor barrier and insulation layer that brings the cantilevered floor into the conditioned space of the home. Additional insulation (with cellulose or fiberglass) can be added after the space is foam sealed.

Insulation For New Construction and Remodels

In new construction or remodeling situations, these approaches are combined. The SCES team applies a continuous layer of spray foam or rigid foam board, sealed tightly against the warm surface of the floor above. To boost R-Value, we dense pack additional insulation dense packed into the cavity below.

Get in touch to learn more about insulating and sealing your cantilevered floor!