Livonia was built almost entirely between 1950 and 1970, on a grid of mile roads, in neighborhoods of brick and aluminum-sided ranches on generous lots — Rosedale Gardens, Coventry Gardens, the subdivisions off Five Mile and Merriman, the streets around Clements Circle. It is remarkably consistent housing stock, which means the insulation problems are remarkably consistent too. We know what we are going to find before we open the hatch.
The Standard Livonia Ranch, Diagnosed
- A wide, shallow attic. Easy to work in at the center, nearly impossible at the eaves, which is exactly where the insulation is thinnest and the heat loss is worst.
- Settled loose fill. What was blown in 1958 or topped up in 1985 has compacted to a fraction of its original depth.
- Open top plates. Every interior wall in the house is a chimney into the attic.
- An unsealed flue chase. Often a square foot or more of straight-through opening around the furnace vent.
- A cold rim joist. The band of wood on top of the block foundation, all the way around the basement, usually with a token batt in it.
- A rear addition over a vented crawl. The coldest room in the house, every year.
How We Fix It
Air sealing comes first: two-part foam at the top plates, the flue chase with proper fire-rated detailing, the wire and plumbing penetrations, the bath fan boots, the attic hatch. Then baffles at the eaves so the soffit intake survives the new insulation. Then blown-in insulation to a marked, verified depth, pushed properly out to the perimeter where the ranch roofline makes it awkward.
In the basement, closed-cell foam on the rim joist. In the crawl space under the addition, vents sealed and closed-cell on the walls and rim. That combination — attic plane, rim joist, crawl — is the whole envelope on this style of house.
Livonia & Western Wayne County
All of Livonia (48150, 48152, 48154), plus Redford, Westland, Garden City, Plymouth, Canton, Northville and Farmington Hills just over the county line. Our commercial roofing work in the city is on the Livonia flat roofing page. Every community we cover is listed on our service areas page.
Livonia Insulation FAQs
What is the best insulation upgrade for a Livonia ranch?
The attic, and specifically the air sealing part of it. A 1955 Livonia ranch has a shallow, wide attic with settled loose fill, open top plates over every partition wall, and a big unsealed chase around the furnace flue. Sealing that plane and bringing the depth back up costs less than most people expect and does more than window replacement. The rim joist in the basement is the second stop.
Do you insulate the crawl space under a Livonia addition?
Yes. A lot of Livonia ranches picked up a family room or a rear addition over a crawl space or a slab in the 1970s. Those crawl spaces are usually vented, uninsulated and the reason that room is ten degrees colder than the rest of the house. We seal the vents and foam the walls and rim so the space joins the conditioned envelope.
Can you insulate a Livonia house that has knob-and-tube or old wiring in the attic?
We will not bury active knob-and-tube wiring in insulation — that is a fire code issue. If we find it, we stop and tell you, and the wiring needs to be replaced or abandoned by an electrician first. It is not common in Livonia's post-war stock but it does turn up in the older sections of the city.
Do you work on Livonia commercial buildings too?
Yes, but that is a separate crew and a separate system — spray-applied roofing on the low-slope industrial and retail buildings around Plymouth Road and Schoolcraft. That work is described on our Livonia flat roofing page.