Insulating Cornwall Park.
Cornwall Park is an established family neighborhood around the park of the same name, with a mix of homes from the 1920s through the 1960s on quiet, tree-lined streets. The older homes here see a lot of the issues common to Bellingham's mid-century stock: attics that need topping off, cold floors over crawlspaces, and, fairly often, old attic insulation that's been fouled by rodents nesting in it over the years. The tree cover that makes the neighborhood pleasant also gives rodents easy roof access.
So the recurring work here is a mix of attic top-offs up toward R-49, crawlspace floor insulation with a vapor barrier for the cold floors, and removing rodent-fouled insulation before re-insulating. When insulation is contaminated, it has to come out, not get buried, so we remove it, seal the entry points, and re-insulate clean. We air-seal and handle the moisture first, and we size the job for the PSE rebate.
What we see on Cornwall Park homes.
Common home styles
1920s to 1960s homes, with varies, older homes. Rodent-fouled insulation, cold floors are the moisture issues we run into most here.
Popular jobs
Attic air-seal-and-top-off, removal of old or fouled insulation, crawlspace floor insulation and vapor barrier are the recurring work on Cornwall Park homes, matched to the housing stock and the moisture.
Moisture & prep considerations
Like everywhere in Bellingham, we air-seal and get the moisture under control before we insulate. In Cornwall Park that means paying close attention to rodent-fouled insulation, cold floors, then insulating to current WA energy code.