Hot upstairs rooms and a climbing power bill usually mean the attic is thin or leaky. We seal the gaps, then add what's missing.
Retrofit insulation in Aliso Viejo means adding insulation to a house that's already built, most often in the attic but also in closed walls, on ducts and on the water heater. Done in the right order, it helps your rooms stay comfortable, cuts down outside noise, and needs no upkeep once it's in.
Most calls start the same way. The bedrooms upstairs are hot by afternoon, the room over the garage never feels right, and the power bill keeps creeping up. In an older house, the insulation up there has usually settled, been walked flat during other work, or was thin to begin with.
The price depends on what's already in the attic and what has to happen before anything new goes in. Old insulation that's wet or full of droppings has to come out first, old wiring changes the plan, foam costs more than loose fill, and walls or a cramped attic take more work than an open one with good access. Those same findings set the schedule, so my estimate lists each step and anything that has to be fixed first before we start.
I come out for the estimate and our own crew does the job, with the order of the work written down before anyone climbs a ladder.
I started out hauling hose in hot attics, opened this business in Aliso Viejo in 2013, and I still go up into most attics myself. My written estimate lists each step in order and anything that has to be fixed before insulation goes in.
We're licensed and fully insured. Our own crew does the work in the order the estimate lays out, and because the city allows construction Monday to Friday from 7am to 8pm and Saturday from 8am to 8pm, with none on Sundays or federal holidays, we book your install inside those hours.
When the crew wraps up, I go back up and look the work over against the estimate before we call the job done. Satisfaction guaranteed.
We start by deciding whether the job is worth doing at all. If your current insulation already sits well above the floor joists, you may have enough, and I'll say so instead of selling you more. When it's thin, the attic usually comes first because that's where an upstairs bedroom picks up its heat, then bare ducts and the water heater, and closed walls only if a room still runs hot after that.
Foam and loose fill both have a place. Spray foam insulation costs more and seals air while it insulates, so it earns its price when your ductwork runs through the attic. For most houses, sealing the gaps and topping up with loose fill does the job for less, and that's the work we cover on our attic insulation page.
The order matters more than the material, so we keep to it on every attic.
Old insulation that got soaked or filled with droppings comes out first, because new material laid on top keeps the damp and the mess right where they were. Clean, dry insulation stays and gets topped up.
We close the gaps around can lights, pipes, wiring and the hatch before anything new goes down, so the insulation isn't fighting a draft coming up from the rooms below. This is the step most often skipped.
We block the insulation back from the vents at the edges of the roof, because an attic that can't breathe holds moisture and it ends up in the framing. Buried vents are one of the most common problems we find.
We add blown-in insulation, loose fill sent through a hose, evenly from the center out to the eaves. A thick middle with thin edges is backward and leaves the rooms along the outside walls running warm.
Call (949) 619-8040 or send the form, and we respond within 1 business day to set up a visit. The quote is free and done on site, and there's no pressure to book once you've read it.
(949) 619-8040If your insulation is level with or below the floor joists, so you can easily see them, you should add more. Once it sits well above the joists, you probably have enough, and adding more may not be worth the cost.
The usual way is drill and fill, where small holes go in near the top of each wall cavity and the space gets filled with blown-in insulation. It's one of the less invasive ways to do it, and you get to choose whether the holes go in the inside wall or the outside wall.
Every opening through the attic floor gets sealed first, with sealant, spray foam or rigid blocking as needed, which is the air sealing step described above. Live knob and tube wiring has to be replaced or properly boxed before insulation covers it, and if the old insulation turns out to be vermiculite, which may contain asbestos, the work stops. I look for both at the estimate so you can plan for them before the crew shows up.
Yes, in most cases. The state licensing board counts installing any kind of insulation for temperature or sound control as insulation contractor work, and an unlicensed person can only take on a job under $1,000 that needs no permit and uses no hired workers. If the job needs a permit of any kind or has a crew on it, a license is required no matter how small it is.
The city lists Zone 6 as its climate zone, and the state energy code it builds by has a section that covers insulation added to existing attics. Whether your job needs a permit is a question for Aliso Viejo Building & Safety at 949-425-2540, and we check with the city's building office about your job before we start.
Around here we mostly see houses a few decades old, with attic insulation that's settled or been flattened by cable and solar installers, and rooms over garages that run hot through summer. We do the same work in Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo and plenty of other cities across Orange County.
If you tell us at (949) 619-8040 whether you can see your floor joists and whether there's knob and tube wiring or vermiculite up there, I can plan the visit around what you've found.
If you're not sure your attic needs anything, send a quick message and I'll tell you what I'd look at first.
Tell us about your project
