Josh Lowe's Dr. Energy Saver

We received a letter from [redacted] Dated June 5th, 2017 writing in regards to the attic work we did in October of 2015. We did not take this lightly and scheduled to get out there right away and we did. We scheduled the date I arrived there at 12:30p on June 20th, 2017. We have pictures on file from...

before we did the work and she had some fiberglass batting loosely hanging on her upstairs knee walls which were not providing a good barrier between her attic space and the conditioned space. She also has 8 can lights in the ceiling and just a few inches of insulation on the upper flat attic. A Cape Cod style home also has slopes and the home had the old nominal 2’’ of destroyed sawdust type insulation in them with a huge air gap. Here in these slopes are 2X4’s (the rafters) between the baking hot roof deck and the ceiling drywall. Fact - When the outside temperature is 78 degrees, any attic anywhere in the world with a comp roof over plywood decking will be 130-140 degrees! No insulation of any kind will STOP the movement of heat, it only slows it down. You have to eventually condition the air somehow, or else the inside will equalize to the outside temperature. This is the natural law of thermal dynamics. Why does ice melt in an ice chest? Eventually it will equalize to the outside temperature. (They are made with foam, not fiberglass because it has the highest R-Value per inch.) R-Value stands for the resistance of heat flow. I showed her by taking a reading at the attic space roof deck and it read 78 degrees with my infrared camera. This is a temperature difference of approximately 57 degrees! I shared with her that this job is text book and is performing unbelievably. Before she was only separated by an insufficient few batts of fiberglass insulation and it would be miserable right now. She said she lived there for 10 years and remembers that with the old fiberglass that is was much cooler than where it is on hot days today after our work has been done and then told me I was calling her a liar because I am stating that this work has made a tremendous difference from where it was. The inside of her upstairs conditioned space was only 73 degrees! I shared with her it can’t be any better insulated and that she needs to install an air conditioner to get to her desired comfort zone. She told me if I don’t give her a refund that she would take me to court. I then asked if I can open the hatch to the upper attic where we blew the cellulose to show her with the infrared camera that the roof in the attic space would read 130 – 140 degrees and she would not let me and to go ahead and leave now. (This will prove that our products are working to reduce the heat flow) I said “Ok, I am not calling you a liar; I am just saying that we fix these Cape style homes all the time and we get the very best results with this application than any other solution available in the marketplace. I commented to her that since she thinks it was better before the work that I would offer to install fiberglass batts back onto the knee walls at no charge if that would make her happy, but that it will not make a comfort improvement. She said “when can you come and do that?” This is when I said we will come and do this work as long as you do not slander us on any third party sites. The whole time she was yelling at me and would hardly let me talk. I was told to leave and that she will post about us and still told me to come back on Saturday when it will be 97 degrees to see what it’s like then. She did say that she called four other insulation companies (she stated 3 in her letter) and said that spray foaming is the wrong thing to do. I asked her what companies and she said the name of one fiberglass insulation company that does not do spray foam. She confirmed  that none of them do spray foam. It is known spray foam has the highest documented R-value of any product on the planet. Cellulose also has a higher R-value than fiberglass. We can prove that foam stops heat better than fiberglass by using a heat bulb. Here is the Dr. Energy Solution to the problem in a Cape Cod style home: Note that we are part of the largest home energy conservation contractor network in the world with over 120 dealers nationwide. The Problem – The second floor of a Cape suffers from inadequate insulation, and air leaks from the soffits into poorly insulated knee wall spaces. The results in cold drafty rooms in winter that are harder than necessary to heat, and hot rooms in the summer as roof heat radiates in unchecked. Knee wall spaces are dusty and too cold or hot – unsuitable for clean storage. Our Solution – First foam gets sprayed with 3’’ average of closed cell high density spray foam on the bottom of the rafters in the knee wall spaces and the ceiling joist bays are blocked and sealed with foam to stop air leakage. Then the roof slopes are dense packed with cellulose insulation to stop airflow and insulate. Finally the flat ceiling at the peak (After we removed the flat ceiling insulation and knee wall insulation) is insulated with blown cellulose insulation to R-49 as well as installed the 8 can light covers and air sealed the space. The attic access was weather stripped and had rigid board foam installed on top. The Result – Rooms are comfortable all year and need much less heat and air conditioning. Drafts are eliminated as knee wall spaces are airtight and clean and suitable for storage. Summer roof heat is far less. Our agreement/ contract with her stated clearly in bold to “Make upstairs cooler in summer and warmer in winter” and without a shadow of a doubt, we fixed this uncomfortable home forever. A house needs three things to be comfortable and that is 1)      Produce warm or cool air efficiently 2)      Distribute it efficiently to the rooms where we want it 3)      Keep it in the building as long as possible In business we know you cannot please everyone, but one thing for sure we have fixed this uncomfortable home and when she decides to put AC up there, it will stay nice and cool and not be fighting a never-ending battle against the once very hot surfaces. The reason it cost as much as it did is because it is a large space and we installed the highest quality materials. Our goal is to make her happy. She is requesting $2500.00 to be refunded. She is also requesting that we ventilate the rake attic space and put fiberglass batts back on the knee walls. This is not a good idea to get the comfort she is looking for. We propose to leave the attic job as is and offer to provide and install a floor mounted single zone ductless heat pump in the master bedroom giving her a $2,500.00 credit toward our regular installed price of$5,506.00. This will get her a highly efficient heating & cooling system for the total installed cost of $3,006.00 which is below our cost. I would like to then reinstate that if we do this, we would like to be left alone and she must not post ill will against our company and sign an agreement saying so. The upper attic is still vented as well as the addition attic. Only the rake attic spaces are sealed as designed. For further comfort a ductless heat pump is recommended.

Complaint: [redacted]
This is an impressive attempt at revisionist history. I said while Mr. L[redacted] was leaving to come back at 4 pm on Saturday. He said he would. This is before I shut the door. I am unsure how further scheduling would be needed. Mr. L[redacted] outright stated that the other companies were liars. There was no “coming across”, but an actual statement that he repeated.  There is a difference between having a home reach 85 degrees when it is >100 degrees outside than having a home be the exact temperature or higher than outside. When I am able to cool the house to 64 degrees overnight, by Mr. L[redacted] logic, the foam insulation should be sufficient to keep the house cool. As I said before, I can provide the email correspondence from 13 months ago that shows I was already voicing my concerns about the heat in my house. As I had to find and then pursue getting the insulation returned to the part of the house they left un-insulated, I then had to wait to see if that would help, as Mr. L[redacted] initially said it would. I refuse to sign any further documents from this company. I find their practices to be unprofessional and dishonorable.   
[redacted]

[redacted] contacted us in June of 2016 regarding the room being left uninsulated. We had our crew back to her home to reinsulate it for her on their first available day and at no cost to [redacted]. As [redacted] was escorting Josh out of her home, he requested access to the rest of her attic to document the amount of heat in there. She said that he could come back on Saturday and then proceeded to close the door before Josh could respond and schedule this with her. [redacted] requested that the other insulation contractors send a professional with experience with spray foam. However, the other companies do not have a background in spray foam and as Josh was trying to explain this, it came across as him calling them liars.We fixed the home’s insulation and brought it to the highest standards and the spray foam is doing its job.Any home without a cooling system will get hot when the outside temperature is hot. Insulation is to help retain the cool air that is produced and being paid for by your cooling system. Insulation alone does not solve all comfort problems in a home, but is a big step in achieving desired comfort.[redacted] stated that previous insulation was adequate except on hot days there again indicating a cooling system is needed in conjunction with insulation.We did the job that all parties agreed to and that was paid for 2 years ago. The most we would be willing to offer is a cashier's check for $1,500.00 if [redacted] is inclined to reach a settlement, which would include confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions drafted by our attorney.