Spray Foam Insulation in Lookout Mountain, TN

Old houses on a high, wet mountain

Lookout Mountain's Tennessee side is a small residential town at roughly 2,100 feet, and its housing reflects a century of mountain living. Census Bureau estimates put the median year built at about 1952, with roughly eight in ten homes predating 1980. Stone and frame houses from the 1900s through the 1940s line the streets near the brow and the Incline's upper station; mid-century homes fill in behind them. Very little has been built since 2000.

The mountain catches weather the valley does not. Cloud and fog sit on it, winter ice hangs on longer, and wind across the brow is constant. Old stone foundations, uninsulated walls, original windows and attics that have never been sealed mean these houses lose heat all winter and take on humidity all summer. The work here is careful, house by house.

Stone foundations, crawl spaces and basements

Many Lookout Mountain houses sit on stone foundations with a mix of crawl space and partial basement, following the slope of the lot. Stone is porous and irregular, and the mortar joints have been letting air and moisture through for decades. Board insulation cannot seal it. Closed-cell spray foam bonds to the stone, fills the joints and creates a continuous air and vapor barrier along the wall and the rim joist above it, which is where most of the winter drafts in these houses originate.

Where the crawl space is open to the outside, sealing it and adding a ground vapor barrier and dehumidification brings it up to the sealed-crawl-space assembly Tennessee's energy code describes. Where an old basement has a dirt or rubble floor, the same principles apply with more attention to drainage.

Attics, roof decks and renovation

Older mountain houses often have finished or half-finished attics with knee walls and sloped ceilings, which is exactly the geometry spray foam handles well and batts do not. Foam on the roof deck and knee walls, tied into a sealed floor, turns a stifling attic room into a usable one and stops the heat loss through the top of the house in winter. Because so many of these homes are renovated rather than replaced, walls get insulated with foam when they are opened, one project at a time.

The Town of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee is served by EPB, so the EPB and TVA EnergyRight rebates may apply, and the town handles its own permits. The Georgia side of the mountain, including the area around Rock City and Covenant College, falls under Georgia's building codes and different utilities. We work on both sides and sort out which rules apply to your house.