Spray Foam Insulation in Saginaw, MI

Spray Foam Insulation in Saginaw usually means working on older houses. The city grew from a fort set up after the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw into a 19th-century lumber town, and East Saginaw and Saginaw City merged into one city in 1889. Its population peaked at 98,265 in 1960 and was 44,202 in 2020. That leaves a housing stock heavy on homes built before and just after World War II, many still on their original walls and rims.

What we find

Two-story frame houses with balloon framing, where wall cavities run from the basement to the attic and carry cold air with them. Story-and-a-half homes with kneewall attics. Bare rim joists in stone, block or poured basements. Attics with a few inches of old fill and wide-open bypasses around chimneys and plumbing. Each one leaks heat in a Saginaw winter, which brings about 49 inches of snow a year.

What we usually recommend

Closed-cell foam on the rim joists. Sealing the attic bypasses and blowing loose fill to R-49 or more. Dense-pack cellulose in empty walls, with the balloon-frame openings blocked first. Foam in kneewalls and behind them. Each area is priced separately so you can do the most important parts first.

Vacancy and rehab

The 2020 census counted 20,752 housing units in Saginaw with 12.7% vacant. Many owners and investors are rehabbing older homes, and open walls during a rehab are the best time to add spray foam.

Ice dams

Warm air leaking into the attic melts roof snow, and the meltwater refreezes at the cold eaves. Sealing the attic and keeping the soffit vents clear is the fix; more insulation alone often is not.

Rebates

If Consumers Energy is your utility, its insulation rebate chart lists amounts for attic, above-grade wall, basement wall, crawl space and rim joist work, with the highest attic rebate tied to reaching R-60. We note the R-value on the quote so you have it for the application.

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