Spray Foam Insulation in South St. Paul, MN

Spray foam insulation in South St. Paul starts with a housing stock that is older than most suburbs. Census survey estimates for 2019 to 2023, as summarized by Point2Homes, show 22.6% of homes built in 1939 or earlier and 24.4% in the 1950s, with a median year of 1958. Much of the city grew around the St. Paul Union Stockyards, where Swift and Armour were the largest employers, and the houses that workers built and bought still line its streets.

What those houses need

Prewar homes on the hillsides above the Mississippi often have plaster walls with empty cavities and small attics. 1950s homes tend to have thin batts in the walls and a few inches of fill in the attic. Basements in both eras commonly have bare or batt-stuffed rim joists that leak cold air.

Our usual plan

For many South St. Paul houses, the best value comes from three things done together: seal and insulate the rim joist with closed-cell foam, seal the attic bypasses and blow in insulation to depth, and fill empty walls with dense-pack. We check for knob-and-tube wiring and vermiculite in older homes before anything gets covered.

Rebates

Xcel Energy's 2024-2026 Minnesota summary pays 40% of cost, up to $1,200 each, for attic insulation from R-19 or less to R-49 or more and for filling empty walls to R-11 or better, when air sealing is part of the job. Eligibility depends on your heating fuel supplier.

Hillside basements

Many South St. Paul houses sit on slopes above the river, so one side of the basement is more exposed than the other. That exposed wall and the rim joist above it lose the most heat. Closed-cell foam there makes a lower level noticeably warmer.

Call (651) 661-2833 or ask for an estimate. Get a free estimate