Spray Foam Insulation in Fort Oglethorpe, GA

From cavalry post to suburb

Fort Oglethorpe was an active Army post from the early 1900s until after the Second World War, and the town that grew up around it kept the post's layout. The large frame officers' houses around Barnhardt Circle date to the post's early years, and the streets around them filled in through the mid-twentieth century. Since then the town has grown along Battlefield Parkway and LaFayette Road with ranches, split-levels and, more recently, subdivisions of 2000s and 2010s homes. Census Bureau estimates put the median build year at about 1994, with a little over four in ten homes built since 2000.

The town straddles the Catoosa and Walker county line and sits directly against the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. It is Georgia, so Georgia's building codes apply, permits come from the city, and electric service comes from Georgia-side utilities rather than EPB. TVA EnergyRight programs reach customers of TVA's local power companies, so eligibility depends on who serves your address.

The old post houses

The officers' quarters and other early buildings are large, tall frame structures on brick or stone foundations, with generous crawl spaces or partial basements, high attics and original woodwork. They were built for ventilation, not tightness, and they lose heat and take on humidity accordingly. Spray foam suits them because it can be applied to the irregular foundations and the complex attic framing without disturbing the finished interiors.

Crawl spaces under these houses get closed-cell foam on the masonry and rim joist and a sealed vapor barrier. Attics get either a sealed floor with blown insulation to depth or foam on the roof deck where the attic is finished or holds mechanical equipment. Walls are done when a renovation opens them.

Mid-century and newer neighborhoods

The ranches and split-levels of the 1950s through 1980s along the parkway and off Cross Street are on vented block crawl spaces with floor batts that have been wet for years, and shallow attics with a few inches of settled insulation. Encapsulation below and air sealing plus insulation above address both ends. The newer subdivisions have attic ducts, bonus rooms and vented crawl spaces on sloped lots, the standard set of issues in homes built in this region since 2000.

West Chickamauga Creek runs along the town's western edge, and the flat land toward it and toward the battlefield is low and damp. Homes on that ground benefit most from getting the crawl space sealed and dried.