Ever wonder why your floors feel cold in January even with the heat cranked up? The answer is probably your rim joist โ that band of framing sitting right on top of your foundation wall. Most homes in Northeast Arkansas have little to no insulation there, and it's one of the worst air-leak points in the whole house.
A rim joist is typically 9โ11 inches tall and runs the entire perimeter of your home. In a 1,500 SF ranch, that's roughly 150โ200 linear feet of exposed wood touching cold outside air. Uninsulated, it can account for 15โ20% of your total heating and cooling loss. In a Jonesboro August, that's real money walking out the door every single day.
The best fix is two-inch closed-cell spray foam applied directly to the rim joist cavity. Two inches gets you to R-13, seals every gap and penetration in one shot, and also acts as a vapor barrier โ critical here in Climate Zone 3A where summer humidity is brutal. Closed-cell runs roughly $1.50โ$2.25 per board foot installed; a typical rim joist job on a 1,500 SF home uses 80โ120 board feet and is usually done in under two hours.
IRC R402.1.2 lists rim joists as a required insulation location in new construction, but thousands of existing homes in Trumann, Jonesboro, and Paragould were built before those rules tightened up. If your house predates 2012, there's a good chance yours is bare.
This is one of the highest return-on-investment insulation upgrades you can do โ low material cost, fast install, immediate comfort improvement. Reply or DM us for a free rim joist assessment and estimate.