Sidewall Insulation

Step 1: Diagnostic Testing

Our highly trained technicians use state-of-the-art equipment to identify areas of energy savings for you. An infrared camera, especially done in conjunction with a blower door test, can identify uninsulated and poorly insulated wall cavities.

Note: We also recommend the investment in an independent energy audit from your utility company.  The cost is fairly low and heavily subsidized — meaning that its actual cost would be much higher without the contribution by the utility.

Step 2: Visual Inspection

Our crews perform an initial walkthrough with you to determine the most effective strategy to complete your insulation project. If necessary, we’ll drill a small hole in an outside wall in an inconspicuous place to look at your current insulation, and then plug the hole with a tight-fitting plastic plug. This determines existing insulation type and amounts.

Step 3: Prep Exterior Work Area

We carefully protect your home, business, and belongings with thorough worksite preparation, including clean drop cloths, plastic, and our state-of-the-art Air Scrubber filtration system.

Step 4: Lead Safe Practices

If your home or business was built in 1978 or earlier, it might be necessary to use lead-safe practices when insulation your structure. When necessary, we test for lead based painted surfaces before proceeding.

Step 5: Remove Siding

At MGT Insulation, our goal is to leave your home or business looking as good as we found it. That’s why we never drill holes in siding. Our technicians have the training and careful technique — gleaned from years of experience — to successfully remove and re-install siding.

The only exceptions to this are stucco or brick siding, which requires a different strategy.

• Insulating with stucco siding: Stucco walls can be successfully patched by a trained stucco contractor. The skill is to replicate the texture and color of the surrounding wall area within a series of 2 1/2″ holes — and done in such a manner that the holes blend with the existing stucco.
• Insulating with brick siding: Brick walls must be insulated from the interior. This requires good preparation of the site before starting. Luckily, our technicians have the skill to prepare and insulate your walls from the inside by removing wall hangings, moving furniture away from the outside walls, covering floors, and covering furniture.

Step 6: Drill Holes

A row of small holes are drilled, at least one per cavity per floor, through the sheathing that lies beneath the house siding, after the siding has been properly removed and retained for re-installation. At MGT Insulation, we use the one-hole-method for drilling holes to open wall cavities alongside a specialized drill bit. This allows us to minimized wood shavings and debris.

Step 7: Fill Cavities

We insulate sidewalls with dense-packed insulation – cellulose or fiberglass. Our equipment has the blowing capacity to create densely packed insulation and our installers are well-trained to do so. This is important because less air space between fibers means that your insulation will be less prone to settling. It also creates a tighter barrier against air infiltration from the outside.

Insulation is blown into the sidewall cavities with a small diameter wall tube using a high pressure, high capacity insulation blowing machine, installed in the MGT Insulation work truck. Our crew uses its own power for the machine with a gas-fired generator.

Step 8: Plug Holes

Wood or Styrofoam plugs are friction-fit into drilled out wall cavity holes.

Step 9: Replace Siding

Our technicians carefully reinstall your siding so that it looks as good as it did before.

Step 10: Post Blower Door Test

We perform another blower door test to determine your home or business’s increase in comfort due to reduced air leakage through your walls.

Step 11: Health and Safety Check

Our crews perform a “Worst Case Scenario” test to ensure that your structure is safe from carbon monoxide and your family, pets, employees, or customers are protected.

Step 12: Clean Work Area

Our crews know how to broom clean and vacuum!

Step 13: Post Inspection

To ensure that our job is complete, we walk with you through your home or business to inspect the work. During this time, we’ll answer any questions, get your stamp of approval, and have you complete our job satisfaction survey.