I was in one of our Springfield homes under construction the recently.  I watched as an installer from Austin Insulating went from outlet to outlet spraying a small amount of foam behind each one. Seems like a small thing but I thought you would appreciate how big this can be and why we do it.

When an outlet is on an exterior wall of your home, we are left with approximately 3/4″ of gap between the back of the box and the exterior wall sheathing. Left alone this gap would not be insulated. Current South Carolina building code does not require any special insulation of this area. In fact for years, it has been largely accepted as an uninsulated part of  the home. The gap is too small for fiberglass insulation to be effective so it is typically just left empty. The problem with this is that creates a cold spot and potential energy leak for your home. Consider, if there are 20 outlets on the exterior walls of your home and each one did not have any insulation behind it. It would be equivilant to having 2 square feet of uninsulated wall in your home. Would you accept that?

Building code does not requre this special foam. We believe it is worth it as it adds to the comfort and energy savings of your home. Remember all of our homes come with an Environments for Living guarantee.