Ceiling Issues

Good evening all -

For the near future, I will be describing the daily actual happenings of HZG during the Energy work day. If anyone out there has an energy question or comment, I will pre-empt the happenings and directly answer the question or comment. Please, write this blog for me!

Today I went out on a sales call from a distressed home owner. This was not the typical "My gas bill is too high" call. This was "My ceilings paint is peeling and the ceiling is starting to bow." The client's fear was that due to a lack of insulation, condensation was occurring and forcing the paint to peel and the ceiling to bow. In the insulation industry, you will have many a company that would say, "Absolutely, I can fix that. Let's add insulation." HZG's philosophy is to actually go up into an attic with an idea but not to express it to the client until it's verified. The reasons being are: 1) You may be wrong and 2) we're in the business to help - not sell. Selling will take care of itself.

So anyway, I'm crawling through this 3' attic with the 1" of beat down fiberglass - maybe the client is right... I get to the area and yep, the ceiling is bowing. It's not even attached to the joists. Apparently, while asking questions across the attic to the client's head stuck up in the hatch, there WAS a roof leak and the roofer decided to fix the drywall on his own. Without much skill, in this instance.

Soooo, I have to develop pricing to remove and install this room's ceiling (3/4 of it was damaged), quote air sealing (4" chimney chaseway to the basement, soil stack issue), an R38 extra of cellulose and R38 of fiberglass on the hatch. This client also had a powered vent that should be disconnected. If there is anyone out there that would like to disagree with me on powered vents, please do so. To HZG, they're air seal breakers.

Next Topic: Actual Happenings Continued...