Insulating Sehome.
Sehome runs up the hillside below the arboretum, near Western, and it's known for homes built into the slope with daylight basements. That hillside construction comes with a specific weak spot: the rim joists and the band of framing where the house meets the foundation leak a lot of air, and the basement walls are often uninsulated. Combined with attics that were built under older code, these homes lose heat at the top and around the basement both.
The recurring work here is rim-joist spray foam to seal and insulate that leaky band in one pass, basement-wall insulation, and attic top-offs up toward R-49. The rim joist is one of the highest-payback spots in any house, and in Sehome's daylight-basement homes it's usually a big one. We air-seal the rim joist and the attic floor, then insulate, and we size the job to capture the PSE rebate.
What we see on Sehome homes.
Common home styles
1910s to 1960s homes, with varies, daylight basements. Leaky rim joists, basement walls are the moisture issues we run into most here.
Popular jobs
Spray foam for rim joists and vaulted ceilings, air sealing, attic air-seal-and-top-off are the recurring work on Sehome 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 Sehome that means paying close attention to leaky rim joists, basement walls, then insulating to current WA energy code.