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Serving Dedham, MA and surrounding areas. (781) 410-0716
Every gap in your home's shell is an opening for cold Dedham air to get in and your heat to get out. We find every one and close it - for good.
Air sealing services in Dedham, MA close every gap, crack, and hidden opening in your home's outer shell so outside air cannot sneak in and conditioned air cannot leak out, most jobs are completed in one day with no major disruption to your routine.
The combined area of all the tiny gaps in a typical older home can equal leaving a window open all year long. Around pipes, wires, attic hatches, and framing joints - none of these gaps are visible from the living room, but they work together to force your heating system to run almost constantly. For Dedham homeowners in colonials and capes built before 1980, air sealing is often the single highest-return energy upgrade available. It works best when done alongside basement insulation, since the basement rim joist is one of the most common air leak locations in older New England homes.
A qualified contractor starts with a blower door test - a powerful fan mounted temporarily in your front door that depressurizes the house and makes every leak easy to locate. That diagnostic step is what separates a targeted, effective job from guesswork.
If your Eversource bill climbs sharply every winter but your home still feels drafty or uneven in temperature, conditioned air is escaping before it can do its job. Dedham winters are long and cold enough that a leaky home forces your heating system to run almost constantly - and you feel it in your wallet first.
Hold your hand near an electrical outlet on an exterior wall on a cold day. If you feel a draft, outside air is moving through the wall cavity. The same test works near any pull-down attic stair or access hatch - these are among the most common air leak locations in older Dedham homes.
If ridges of ice build up along the edge of your roof after a snowfall, warm air from inside is escaping into the attic and melting snow from underneath. Ice dams are a recurring problem in Dedham, and sealing the attic floor is one of the most effective ways to stop them from forming in the first place.
When outside air enters through uncontrolled gaps, it brings whatever is in that air - pollen, humidity, and in older Dedham homes, sometimes dust from unconditioned attic or basement spaces. If your home feels dustier than it should or you notice musty odors that seem to come from nowhere, air infiltration is a likely cause.
We use a blower door test at the start of every job to locate the actual leaks in your specific home - not just the obvious spots every contractor checks. That diagnostic step means we seal the gaps that matter most for your home's energy performance, not just the ones that are easy to reach. The most common locations in older Dedham homes are the attic floor - where warm air escapes into the unconditioned attic - and the basement rim joist, where the floor framing meets the foundation wall. We also seal around every pipe, wire, light fixture, and framing joint we can access. Where those locations connect to your attic air sealing needs, we can address both the attic floor and the living space penetrations in the same visit.
The materials we use depend on where the gap is. Spray foam expands to fill irregular shapes around pipes and wires. Caulk handles narrow cracks along window frames and baseboards. Rigid foam board seals larger openings like attic hatch frames and chimney chases. None of these materials are visible once the work is done. For homes where air sealing is part of a larger energy upgrade, we frequently pair the work with basement insulation so the rim joist is both sealed and insulated in a single visit.
Seals the boundary between your living space and the unheated attic - the most impactful location in most older Dedham homes.
Closes the gap between the foundation wall and floor framing where cold air commonly infiltrates from outside.
A comprehensive approach using blower door testing before and after to measure and verify the improvement across every area of the home.
Combines air sealing and insulation in a single visit - the most efficient way to address both problems at once in older homes.
Dedham has a higher share of pre-1980 homes than many of its neighbors, and those homes were built in an era when energy was cheap and air-tightness was not a design priority. Many were built using balloon framing - a construction style where wall cavities run continuously from the basement to the attic without blocking in between. That creates hidden air pathways inside the walls that are invisible from the outside but allow warm air to escape freely through the entire height of the house. A contractor who knows what to look for in older New England homes will check for these pathways specifically. Dedham's climate makes this urgent - the heating season runs from October through April, and winter temperatures regularly reach the teens and single digits. Every gap in your home's shell is a direct path for that cold to reach your living space.
Dedham homeowners also have access to the Mass Save program through Eversource, which makes professional air sealing more affordable here than in most states. We regularly handle air sealing projects in Norwood and Milton, where the same pre-1980 housing stock and climate conditions apply. See the U.S. Department of Energy air sealing guide for a plain-language overview of how gaps add up across a typical older home.
Call or submit the form and we respond within one business day. We will ask a few quick questions - your address, home age, and what is prompting the call - then set up an in-home visit at a time that works for you.
We inspect the attic, basement, and crawl space for obvious leak locations, and run a blower door test to depressurize the house and find every gap. This step takes one to two hours and is where all the real diagnosis happens.
After the assessment you get a clear written estimate explaining where the leaks are, what we plan to do about each one, and what it will cost. We factor in Mass Save rebate eligibility so you see your actual out-of-pocket number before you decide anything.
Most work happens in the attic and basement - areas you do not use daily. A typical job takes one full day. We run a second blower door test after the work is done so you have a real number showing how much the air leakage rate improved.
Free estimate, no obligation. We respond within one business day and include your Mass Save rebate eligibility in the estimate before you commit to anything.
(781) 410-0716We run a blower door test before we seal anything. That test depressurizes your home and shows us exactly where air is entering, so we seal the gaps that actually matter for your home's performance - not just the obvious spots. Most contractors skip this step. We do not.
We run the blower door test a second time after the work is done so you have a real number - not just a handshake - showing how much your home's air leakage improved. That documentation is yours to keep and gives you objective proof the job worked.
Homes built before 1980 have specific air leak patterns - balloon framing, chimney chases, and old pipe penetrations - that newer construction does not. We know where to look in these homes because we have worked on them throughout Dedham and the surrounding towns. The Mass Save program, available to Dedham homeowners through Eversource, backs this work financially. Visit Mass Save to start a no-cost home energy assessment.
Sealing the attic floor is one of the most effective ways to stop ice dams from forming on Dedham roofs. Ice dams are a recurring problem in this climate, and they can cause serious water damage to ceilings and insulation. Stopping warm air from escaping into the attic is the root fix, not just a comfort upgrade.
Every air sealing job we do in Dedham starts with measurement and ends with measurement. You know what the problem was, what we did about it, and how much it improved - before you write a final check.
Insulate the rim joist and basement walls to complement the air sealing work and eliminate a major heat loss path.
Learn MoreTargeted sealing of the attic floor to stop ice dams and warm air bypass in the most impactful zone of the house.
Learn MoreEvery week without air sealing is another week of paying to heat the outside. Call us today for a free estimate and find out what Mass Save rebates apply to your home.