Monday, October 08, 2012

seeking referrals for insulation contractors

See this request:
                              
I`m hoping you can forward a request for neighbors - "We`re looking for a contractor who works with blown insulation in attics of our old row houses. It`s easy to find rolled insulation, but we`d like to just keep our blown insulation and are having trouble finding contractors who work with this material.  Has anyone in the neighborhood had experience with blown insulation and can recommend a contractor for us to work with?"

8 comments:

Jonathan Tomer said...

We used Discount Energy Services (http://discountenergyservices.com/) last January. They were affordable, professional, and fast, and the insulation has definitely made a difference in our power bills.

Ryan Eades said...

Many thanks. Just contacted them.

Joe said...

Do you currently have vermiculite insulation in your attic?

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

I am a friend of John Sallati and work in DC often. I live in North Carolina and have experience blowing in insulation. I rent equipment in DC and purchase insulation in DC. If you are interested call or email me (Joe) at 828-385-1885 or cuseami@gmail.com

Ryan Eades said...

Just to close the loop on this in case others find it for a reference, we contacted 3 companies. Discount Energy Services as mentioned above. The others were Davenport Insulation (A Masco Company) in Manassas and Long Fence & Home from Beltsville.

Long Fence turned out to have a minimum $2k to do any job, which the person on the phone DOES NOT tell you. The salesman that comes out for the estimate tells you this, essentially wasting all of our time with their $2,100 estimate.

Davenport/Masco was very reasonable. They were our first estimate and the guy seemed knowledgeable and they gave an estimate for $808 to bring us up to R-38 (code) of blown cellulose insulation. He knocked $100 off b/c he was late for our estimate for personal reasons, which was nice of him to offer, so their actual quote was $708.

Discount Energy Services was our third estimate and in my head I was already going to go with Davenport. But Discount came in for the estimate, they are a family owned business for 37 years working in DC and elsewhere, so they know older row houses well, the guy who did the estimate said it's his sister who answers the appointment line, I always like the family owned. He also talked about bringing us up to R-38, but where he separated himself was talking about wrapping all of our extraneous areas upstairs like the access panels, skylight, AC unit and everything else in R-19 fiberglass rolls in order to maintain access to areas that need service and to provide best insulation everywhere (skylights allow colder air in, our closet where one access panel is has always been excessively hot or cold, that will now be solved). So maybe Davenport does that too, but they were my first estimate and I didn't know any better in order to ask. So Discount Energy Services set themselves apart here. And their estimate came in at $1,048. Got it scheduled within just a couple of days and the job was completed last weekend in just four hours. Very good experience with them, well worth the extra couple of hundred for the reasons mentioned above of how they set themselves apart. (Especially since our budget was $1,200.)

For reference or comparison for anyone who wants to get this done themselves, our house is a 1910 row house approx 40' deep x 20' wide.

This link should take you to a before and after picture to see the amazing difference:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/104219168005574384758/albums/5805134329013185313/5805134335125892210

Unknown said...

I need some insulation contractors to come and evaluate my attic for the amount of insulation that I will need. Thanks for posting this here.

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