Insulation removal in San Luis AZ - a clean attic floor ready for new insulation

Most people call after they've been up in the attic and didn't like what they saw, or after a home inspector flagged it. The price depends on how big the attic is, how dirty the old fill is, how hard it is to get to and what goes back in afterward. The schedule depends on the same things, plus anything we find that makes us stop, like vermiculite. You get your own number once I've been up there and gone over what the attic needs.

First I go up and look, because what's in the attic decides everything else. If it looks like vermiculite, we stop, leave it alone and point you to a trained asbestos abatement company, because that's not a job for an insulation crew. Otherwise the crew protects the path from the hatch through the house. Wet, moldy or rodent-soiled insulation goes out in bags, not swept up or vacuumed, so none of it ends up floating through your rooms. With the floor clear, we deal with the gaps around can lights, pipes and the hatch and make sure the eave vents are open, because this is the easiest time to fix them. The safety checks get done before anybody seals your house up tight. For what goes back in, air sealing, which is closing those gaps first, plus blown-in fill, which is loose insulation blown through a hose, usually does the job. Foam costs more because it seals while it insulates, so I only recommend it when the ductwork runs through the attic.

Trouble in the attic doesn't always stay there. Rodents can come up from below, and nested-in crawl space insulation usually needs the same bag-out. When an old leak ran down inside a wall, or the walls are open for other work, wall insulation can go in while we have access.

The City of San Luis Building Safety division inspects buildings and construction sites to make sure the work meets local, state and federal law. Before work starts, we check with the building office in the city where the job is, and if you have questions about that city's rules, we'll point you to the right office. We're based in San Luis and work in Somerton, Yuma and the cities around them. The attics we see here look a lot alike, with packed-down fill, old leak stains and nesting along the eaves, and we run into the same things on jobs in Somerton and Yuma.

Old insulation has to go somewhere. When we do the job, the bags leave with us. If you're pulling it yourself, Yuma County runs the solid waste transfer stations and keeps a list of what they will and won't take, so check it before you load the truck.