Cape Attic Remediation Quote Help

Hi, I was hoping to get some help on this quote. I’ve tried to do my homework and think I know enough to be dangerous (and sense danger when I read it on a quote, which is happening now).

I have a 2005 cape style house. Upper attic is approx 700 sq ft, roof is 9:12. Knee attics are accessible (except for interior sides where separated by dormers). I think I have R30 FG down in the joists. My HVAC is in the attic as well, which in addition to simple air leakage and poor thermal performance is driving this project for me. The floor is decked, including over some uninsulated return vent pans, which show is very bright on thermals (let me know if you want thermals of a REALLY hot/cold attic!)

I had the contractor come to quote me a cellulose install in which…
1) I would have the deck cut up, duct work changed to R8 (currently R4.2 black jacket) and strung out to be as low as possible (in prep for a “deep bury”. I do have concerns here around boot insulation, etc.
2) The contractor would remove the last of the decking, remove the existing FG, air seal everything, and blow in R60 all over with (I specified) around 12-14″ over top of the ducts.

They quoted as I requested, and in addition said they would dense pack the vaulted ceiling (crushing the existing FG since they can’t get it out) in theory air sealing to the best of their ability with minimal intrusion & follow-up repairs.

They also pushed hard for spray foaming so I entertained them and asked everything I could think of about how it would go in. They would STILL do the dense pack in the long vaulted ceiling but they’d pull the FG in the short sloped ceilings in the other areas (about 4 ft) and reach in to spray. They’d use open cell, and spray to R40 (supposedly). They’d still remove the deck and existing FG, and I believe this deals with the knee-attics as well for a continuous boundary.

Immediately after that discussion I came here to read up and quickly got nervous about the following…
1) Open cell foam (interior moisture drives causing trapped condensation against a cold roof deck, and small amounts from any leak being trapped until it rots a larger spot out of the deck and into the house). Seems like you guys prefer closed cell- but emphasize proper installation lifts and monitoring bonding to the surfaces. This where I get nervous about reaching in the sloped ceilings, seems like it would be a risk for rollover in these areas.
1a) Not to mention getting R40 out of 3.5 R per inch open cell means they’d need 11.5 inches… they have 7″ and 9″ over the large vaulted ceiling. No mention of furring down with polyiso or anything… I’m a little suspicious.

2) Dense packing the vaulted ceiling… I read an article about how it seems great, but if it gets wet and can’t dry it may just rot the roof deck prematurely. That made me super nervous.

3) On top of all of this I have a large solar array on the south side of my roof. I installed it myself, used the best sealants and lots of it, but it’s still over 200 additional holes that could potentially be leak points, and I’m just nervous about how to identify leaks.

So… I really like the spray foam for air sealing and moving the thermal boundary out, enclosing the space around the HVAC seems like the only real solution to address all of it, not just the ducts. But literally all other aspects of the project make me nervous!

Please help! Any other information you need I’m sure I have or would gladly get. And I have thermals that show a “typical” HVAC-in-the-attic install and how thermally atrocious it is, let me know if you’d like to see them!

Thanks,

Austin