Spray Foam Insulation in East Brainerd, TN

Subdivisions, attic ducts and bonus rooms

East Brainerd filled in over four decades as Chattanooga grew toward the interstate and the mall. The neighborhoods off East Brainerd Road, Gunbarrel Road, Jenkins Road and Igou Gap Road are mostly 1970s through 2000s two-story and split-level homes on quarter- to half-acre lots, with a wave of 2010s construction on the remaining land toward Apison and the state line. The housing profile is newer than the inner suburbs but older than Collegedale or Ooltewah.

These homes were built with the upstairs air handler in the attic and the downstairs one in the crawl space or a closet. The attic equipment works all summer in air far hotter than outdoors, and the upstairs bedrooms are the rooms that never cool down. Roof-deck spray foam that brings the attic inside the envelope is the fix that changes that, and East Brainerd's two-story housing stock is where it does the most good. Bonus rooms over garages are common and get the same knee wall, slope and garage-ceiling treatment.

Rebuilt and repaired homes

The Easter 2020 tornado cut through East Brainerd and damaged or destroyed a large number of homes. Many were rebuilt or extensively repaired in the years since. A rebuilt house is a chance to do the envelope right, and many owners took it, but repaired houses can be a patchwork: new roof framing over an old attic floor, new drywall over walls that were never insulated, new ducts in the same unconditioned attic. If your house was repaired after the storm and the upstairs still runs hot, the attic and the knee walls are the first places to look.

We see this pattern often enough that we check for it on every East Brainerd assessment: mismatched insulation depths, sections of roof deck with and without insulation, and air leaks along the seams between old and new construction. Foam is the material that ties those seams together.

Crawl spaces along the creeks

East Brainerd is drained by East Brainerd Creek, Mackey Branch and the other tributaries of South Chickamauga Creek, and the lots along them are low and damp. Vented crawl spaces on those lots carry the standard set of problems: wet batts, stained joists and a musty smell when the air conditioner runs. Encapsulation, with closed-cell foam on the walls and rim joist and a sealed vapor barrier, is the fix, and on the 1980s-and-later block foundations here it is a clean job.

East Brainerd is inside the City of Chattanooga and served by EPB, so the EPB and TVA EnergyRight rebates for attic insulation and air sealing may apply under the program's rules, and permits go through the city.