Ever wonder why your floors feel cold in January even after you've added attic insulation? The culprit is almost always the rim joist โ the band of framing that sits right on top of your foundation wall, all the way around the perimeter of your house. In most Northeast Arkansas homes built before 2005, it's either bare wood or stuffed with old fiberglass batts that have sagged and air-leaked for decades.
Here's the problem with batts in a rim joist: they stop conduction, but they do nothing about air infiltration. Cold outside air sneaks right past them. Spray foam is the right tool here because it air-seals and insulates in one step.
For a typical Jonesboro-area home, we cut 2-inch closed-cell foam panels or spray 2" of closed-cell directly into each bay. Two inches of closed-cell hits roughly R-13, which satisfies IRC R402.1 for Climate Zone 3 (that's us). A full perimeter treatment on a 1,500 SF ranch usually runs 80โ120 board feet of foam โ often less than a half-day of work.
Cost? Expect $1.50โ$2.50 per linear foot of rim joist for a spray-applied job, depending on access and bay depth. Most homeowners see that expense paid back in 2โ4 heating seasons through reduced gas bills โ and the cold-floor complaint disappears almost immediately.
Fall is the perfect window. Crawl spaces and basements are still dry from summer, and our crews can work comfortably before December cold sets in across Craighead and Poinsett counties.
Reply to this post or DM us for a free rim joist assessment โ we'll tell you exactly what you have and what it'll cost to fix it.