Retrofit insulation in Hawthorne CA - a cooler house without opening the walls

Blown-in insulation in the Los Angeles area usually costs about $1,600 to $3,600 per job, which is the going rate around here, not a price of ours. Where your house lands depends on how much attic and wall space gets filled, whether old material has to come out, and what needs fixing first. Your own price comes in writing after I've looked at the house.

Drill and fill is the usual way, where the crew makes small holes near the top of each wall cavity and blows insulation in until it's full. Going in from outside cuts through the drainage plane, the layer behind the siding that sheds water, if the wall has one, and that layer then has to be patched or replaced, while working from inside leaves it alone. Which side we go in from depends on access and the shape that layer is in, and if you're re-siding soon, that's an ideal time to do the walls from outside.

The gaps in the ceiling get sealed first, around can lights, pipes and the hatch, and the blown insulation goes in after that, at a depth that meets or beats what current building codes call for. It should cover the whole ceiling out to the top of the outside walls, as deep at the edges as in the middle. Baffles, short channels at the eaves, keep the vents open so insulation doesn't spill into them and the attic can still breathe.

Homes that old often have little or no insulation in the walls, so there's usually more to gain and more to check first. Federal guidance says to be aware of lead safety rules when walls in homes built before 1980 get disturbed, and how much we open the walls decides which of those rules matter, which is why I ask for the build year up front. If you have knob and tube wiring, the old kind strung on ceramic knobs, tell me before work starts, because one federal guide reads the electrical code as not allowing insulation on or around it.

Most families stay home for blown-in work, since the crew is in the attic or at a few spots along each wall rather than all through the house. How long we're there depends on how much wall and attic we're doing and on any repairs that come first, and the estimate lays that out before we book a day. Keep kids and pets out of the rooms we're working in, and if your job calls for spray foam, I'll tell you the re-entry time, when everyone can come back in, before we start.

Yes, your address decides which state energy rules apply, because California's energy code splits the state into climate zones and each zone sets its own minimum efficiency requirements. You can look up yours with the state's climate zone finder. Los Angeles County's Equitable Building Decarbonization Program also lists Hawthorne among the communities it plans to prioritize first, chosen for high pollution, economic hardship and climate risk. We're based in Hawthorne and work in the cities around it, including Inglewood, Lawndale and Torrance.