Sandalfoot Cove attic insulation | Cardinal

Sandalfoot Cove sits between the Florida Turnpike on the east and State Road 7 on the west. Palmetto Park Road is the north edge. Lyons Road runs through it. The houses are mostly early-1970s ranches, ZIP 33428, with some of the eastern edge in 33433. Sandalfoot Squire, the Belaire Club, and Rosewood are condominiums in the same area. Many of those buildings have no attic. There is no West Boca street address for Cardinal. The only Boca pin is 4263 NW 1st Ave.

A 1970s ranch in this ZIP often has a few inches of fiberglass left, matted, and pulled back from the plates. Count it at about R-2.2 per inch. Three or four inches is not R-30. The code floor is R-30. We install R-38. The planner's gap for four inches of settled fiberglass is about a foot of new fiberglass, and less cellulose if the ceiling can take the weight.

These ceilings are older drywall or plaster. Cellulose is denser. If the lid is already cracked or the span is long, fiberglass is the top-up. We do not pick the higher R-per-inch number and ignore the ceiling.

The hatch in the garage is the usual access, and it is also a large hole over a hot space. The lid gets weatherstripped and covered. A batt draped on it falls off. The top plates along the exterior walls are the other leak, and in a ranch they run the whole perimeter.

Soffit vents on these houses are easy to bury because the eave is low. Baffles go in first. A roof that cannot breathe cooks the deck after a summer rain. The insulation did not fail. The intake did.

If the fill is dry, it stays. If it is wet from a valley leak, or packed with droppings, it comes out before any new product goes down. Removal is its own price. Do not add the two numbers and call it a top-up.

A 1970s Sandalfoot ranch is often a low attic. There may not be a center catwalk, and the hatch may open into a garage that is hotter than the house. Standing room is not the point. The point is whether the bays can take baffles and whether the drywall lid is sound enough for the weight of cellulose. If it is not, the product is fiberglass.

Garage hatches in this neighborhood are large and usually uninsulated. The lid needs a stop, weatherstrip, and a cover that stays put. An insulated lid that cannot close is a hole the size of the opening, sitting over the cars, and it undoes a careful blow on the rest of the ceiling.

The Google listing is Cardinal Insulation, Cardinal Insulation of Boca Raton LLC, insulation contractor, at 4263 NW 1st Ave, Boca Raton, FL 33431. Blown-in insulation is the first service. Call (561) 654-7698. This neighborhood is not a second pin.