Blown-in insulation in San Luis AZ - even attic coverage all the way to the edges

Most calls start with a hot room upstairs or a power bill that climbs every summer, and the first thing I check is how many inches are already up there and what shape they're in. The price moves with the size of the attic, how much air sealing it needs, whether old material has to come out first and whether the attic is floored, and the schedule turns on those same things plus any older wiring that has to be dealt with before insulation goes in. We're based in San Luis and work in Somerton, Yuma and the cities around them, and you get your own figure from the estimate, once I've seen the attic and gone over what it needs with you.

We start by looking at what's up there, including the depth you have, the eave vents and any old knob-and-tube wiring, because Energy Department guidance has installers check for live wiring of that kind before insulating and then dam it off or replace it. The same guidance calls for dams of metal flashing or another approved material around heat sources, taller than the finished layer, and for covered junction boxes to be flagged so they stay easy to find. Those are routine checks, and I want them done before anybody seals a house up. Then we seal the gaps in the ceiling, set baffles at the eaves so the vents stay open and the insulation stays out of them, and blow the fill to an even depth across the whole ceiling, out to the edges over the walls, because a deep middle with thin edges is the most common mistake I find in attics.

Blown-in is one part of home insulation, and if the walls or the room over the garage are the real problem, I'll say so. When the old layer is soaked or full of droppings, insulation removal comes first, since new fill over a bad layer just keeps the problem.

The City of San Luis has adopted the International Energy Conservation Code with its own amendments, and the city's Building Safety Division enforces the building code, so new blown-in insulation should meet or exceed the levels that code requires. Whether your job needs a permit is the city's call, so before we start we check with the building office, and if a permit is needed we pull it and set up the inspections. If you have questions about the city's rules, I'll point you to the right office.

A lot of the older homes we see have little or nothing in the attic, and what's there is often thin at the edges or piled over the eave vents. We find the same attics on jobs in Somerton and Yuma, and we fix them the same way, by clearing the vents and evening out the layer.