Cold rooms along the outside walls of an older house? We fill each empty wall, pack it full and patch the holes for paint.
Yes. Wall insulation in Seaside, CA, is usually done by drilling a small hole into each wall bay, blowing insulation in until the hollow space is packed full, and patching the hole, so walls that were built empty finally slow down the heat leaving your rooms.
Most people who call about their walls live in an older house where the rooms on the outside walls never warm up and the power bill keeps climbing anyway. I'll look at the attic too, because if the upstairs runs hot or cold that's often where the heat is going, and attic insulation may do more for you first. The price moves with how much wall we're filling, how many stories the house has, what the siding is and which side we drill from. The schedule mostly turns on whether an older house needs checks before we drill and whether you're planning new siding soon. Your own figure comes from the estimate, once we've seen the walls.
I come out myself to look at your walls and write the estimate, so nothing gets guessed from a phone call. Our installers do the drilling and filling, and when they're finished I walk through the job with you and show you what we did and why.
I spent years doing upkeep for a property management company and started this business in Seaside in 2023. Insulation laid over a leak or old wiring just hides it, so if I see one, I'll tell you to fix that first, even if it means a smaller job for us.
We're licensed and fully insured, and every job is backed by our satisfaction guarantee. When you're ready, call (831) 204-4546 or send the form, and we'll set a time for me to come look at your walls.
We reply within one business day, and the estimate is free, done on site and comes with no obligation. After you call or send the form, we set a time for me to come out, look at your walls and write the estimate myself. It helps to have the year your house was built handy and to tell me if you're planning new siding.
Seaside's Building Department recommends checking with it before any building project or major repair to find out whether the work needs a permit, and I can't tell you from here whether wall insulation by itself does. So before we start, we check with the city or county building office for your address, and where a permit is needed we take care of the paperwork and set up the inspections, asking the city 48 hours ahead since that's the notice it wants to make sure an inspector is free. California also has a license class written for contractors who install insulation, the C-2, so it's fair to ask anyone you're comparing which license they hold.
A lot of the wall jobs we're called to are older houses with outside walls that were built hollow, and on those a couple of checks come before any drilling. For homes built before 1980, one federal guide says to keep lead safety rules in mind, and whether they apply turns on how much of the inside and outside wall surface gets disturbed. Some projects also need an independent California Certified Asbestos Consultant to inspect before work starts, under federal and local air district rules, so on an older house that's something we look at before the first hole. We're based in Seaside and work across Monterey County, into Santa Cruz County and over to Gilroy, so the same steps apply in Marina and Monterey, and if you're not sure we come your way, just ask.
Across the US, blown-in wall insulation usually costs about $3.90 to $4.60 per square foot, installed. That's a national average, not our price, so treat it as a rough guide. Your own figure comes from the estimate, once I've looked at your walls.
Inside is usually easier on the outside of your house, because drilling from outside cuts through the drainage plane, the house wrap behind the siding that sheds water, and that layer then has to be patched or replaced. Working from inside leaves it alone, so the choice comes down to which side is easier to reach and what shape that layer is in. If you're planning new siding soon, outside starts to make more sense.
It helps, because densely packed cellulose, a loose fiber insulation, can cut a good deal of the air moving through a wall. It only works inside the stud bays, though, so leaks between floors or up at the roof line need sealing on their own, which is why we look for those first.
Move furniture and pictures away from the outside walls and point out any plants tight against the house. One federal installer checklist calls for covering shrubs outside and using drill shrouds to keep dust down inside, so ask me at the estimate how we'll protect your rooms and garden.
Settling happens when the fill isn't packed densely enough, so over time it slumps and leaves empty pockets in the wall. Blown-in insulation has to fill each cavity completely and be packed tight enough to resist settling, so it's worth asking any crew how they pack each wall. That's why we keep filling each bay until it's full, as described above.
