Ranch Homes & Staircase Rakes

If you own a ranch home with a basement that has not been weatherized (air sealed), it more than likely has a staircase rake that is losing vast amounts of energy.

A staircase rake is the area where the basement stairs' ceiling is exposed to the attic space. Typically, insulators simply ran batt insulation over the rake - without having a ceiling underneath. This means that the heat (or air) from the home would escape through the drywall - directly into the attic space.

If you were to properly air seal rakes (and other bypasses) it is a guarantee that your energy consumption would go down.

HZG prefers using foam board to cover the area, sealing the edges with caulk and foam. Once this has been done, we insulate over the area - giving the home a barrier that it never had.