Guy from Home Depot came out Friday. I have about 1000 square feet of attic area with difficult access. Estimate was $2000. Way more than I had expected. I’ll schedule some estimates for the foam stuff as well. Access is a real problem. Very small access door combined with low pitch of roof make it a pain to work up there.
When we got heat pump quotes we included a bidder sent by Home Depot. Out of all the bids his was the highest. At $20K, it was 100% over the next bid down! The final job was done with a more efficient unit at $8.5K.
Go directly to blown-in insulation specialists in your area. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they quoted half the HD bid.
I’m hoping that HD was way high. I have calls in to two other outfits. We just redid the kitchen - cabinet estimate from HD was almost 2x over what we wound up paying, I guess I should not have been so surprised at the insulation estimate.
We just got a price to remove the old rock-wool with wood debris (from a recent re-roofing) and reinsullste with r38 blown in and the cost was $890.00 for about 700 sqft. That price included the draft vents between the rafters.
For my house now, I know the following sq’ prices.
Closed Cell Spray Foam (R-7 per inch) - $1.00 /sft/inch. You want 3” then it is $3.00 sft
R-19 Fiberglass Batts - $.65/sft installed. In eastern PA - they usually install it for the same price you can buy it retail. It never makes sense here to install your own.
I’ll look tomorrow for some more sft costs. Post a specific need if you have one and I’ll try and look up the price.
To the posters talking about running wires in walls after the spray foam is installed:
There are 2 kinds of spray foam - First Open Cell, that completely fills the void. That is the one that makes it hard to wire later. Second is closed cell and does not fill the void. Open cell is cheaper than closed cell, but not a lot.
For my house now, I know the following sq’ prices.
Closed Cell Spray Foam (R-7 per inch) - $1.00 /sft/inch. You want 3” then it is $3.00 sft
R-19 Fiberglass Batts - $.65/sft installed. In eastern PA - they usually install it for the same price you can buy it retail. It never makes sense here to install your own.
I’ll look tomorrow for some more sft costs. Post a specific need if you have one and I’ll try and look up the price.
To the posters talking about running wires in walls after the spray foam is installed:
There are 2 kinds of spray foam - First Open Cell, that completely fills the void. That is the one that makes it hard to wire later. Second is closed cell and does not fill the void. Open cell is cheaper than closed cell, but not a lot.
3” x R7 = R21 per sft/inch? 21 ain’t enough in PA. Double that and now your closer. Me myself, I am going 2’ Blown in attic, self install, done deal.
A link to this “closed cell” spray in foam, that does not fill voids would be appreciated. I’d like to read about it. If it doesn’t fill voids, what good is it?
The PUD’s energy auditor came by and we discussed attic insulation. He actually poo poo’d blown in cellulose in favor of blown in fiberglass. Claiming that there are fiberglass prodcuts that are not itchy and have similar R value per inch as cellulose. Then there is the fire issue. Cellulose insulation has been made that will burn, it is newspaper for drying out loud and if the anti-burn chemical is wrong or worn out then you can have a problem.
He assessed my existing attic insulation as R-11 but oddly prioritized my floor which has zero insulation on top of a veneted crawlspace. So I am better off iunsulating my floor than upgrading my attic if I can only do one of them. Of course the walls are the next priority and windows the last. I had already replaced my windows in typical ass-backwards fashion.
1$/SF/inch/R-7 and I need R-40 would get me say 5 inches over 1000 feet for 5000$ for this foam stuff? Phooey. Blown in is much much cheaper.
To the posters talking about running wires in walls after the spray foam is installed:
There are 2 kinds of spray foam - First Open Cell, that completely fills the void. That is the one that makes it hard to wire later. Second is closed cell and does not fill the void. Open cell is cheaper than closed cell, but not a lot.
3” x R7 = R21 per sft/inch? 21 ain’t enough in PA. Double that and now your closer. Me myself, I am going 2’ Blown in attic, self install, done deal.
A link to this “closed cell” spray in foam, that does not fill voids would be appreciated. I’d like to read about it. If it doesn’t fill voids, what good is it?
The 3” thing I was talking about walls. Sorry.
I don’t have a link for the closed cell. I will see if I can get one. The closed cell does make a tight seal on the exterior, but still leaves room on the inside (wall) for wires & plumbing. I maybe should have used the word cavity. It doesn’t completely fill the cavity.
For R-38 blown-in ceiling (or attic) insulation, installed in Eastern PA it is about $.65/sft. If you guys are getting prices higher than that - eastern PA is mostly rural labor. If you are in the city I would guess your labor cost is higher. Or you haven’t found the right installation company yet. The bigger guys purchase insulation for pennies on the dollar.
Thanks for all of the price feedback. I have a second outfit coming out Monday afternoon. Over the phone, based on square footage, they estimated $700. That was more of what I was thinking. $2k ... they must have inhaled a few too many fibers!
I just hired a guy for R-38 Blown-in, new construction, $1400 for 2,200 sft ($.636/sft). Existing homes will have a little higher labor factor. Not as easy to get into as a new home.
according to a little chart I made up in Excel… the material (Home Depot or Lowes) is about $9 per bag - at R30 - in would take about 45 bags or $405 of material - at R38 would be about $638. for the material
seems like $800 is alot for labor - would make a nice weekend DIY project.
I got my quote today to get from an R-7 (3 inches of compressed fiberglass batts) to an R-38 with blown in fiberglass is 800$ for 1300SF. On the floor to get from R0 to R-19 is about 1000$ for the same 1300SF again with FG but batts down there. The company is 6-8 weeks out so apparently business is good in the insulation trade.
Call USA insulation, I called 6 different installers and they were all over the place, but USA was the most informative, and the cheapest! HD was the highest at over $4000 for cellulose to blown in my attic, I almost through the guy out the front window. I think they are high on purpose to take advantage of people who won’t or don’t know how to go somewhere else. USA highly recommended the blownin fiberglass b/c the new pink blown in is almost as high as an R value as the cellulose, and it doesn’t burn, also, its not food for animals! Usa wanted $1300 to do my attic with 12” of Fiberglass, I opted to do it my self. I Bought all the pink blown in from home depot, they gave the machine to me for free, and my father loaded the machine, my brother carried the bags in and I crawled around in the attic. If I can find the pics I will post. In my four dormers, I blewn in 3+++ feet and in the main run I blew in 2 feet, I over estimated a little, but I thought I still beneifited with a total cost of $700 plus 2 hours of slave labor, and a steak dinner. Today it is one of the best “projects” I have done for the house.
Couldn’t find my pictures so went and took some more! The first pic is the opening to my attic with the door open. If you look just above the trim molding, is the joist, above that is a wall I built all the way around the opening of the attic. The wall is 2 feet high, this way when I blew in the insulation I got 2 feet even up to the edge of the attic opening!
The second pic is from the top of the opening looking down my main attic run. Sorry but I am not going to walk down blindly to take pics of my dormers but they are 3+++ feet deep in there. Also I noticed and forgot all about is if you look close there is a string that runs from the top of my little opening wall all the way to my back wall that is 2 feet high, that way I could be consistant. Well it also works good later to see how much settling i have, I don’t think it has settled at all!
The thired pic is just the other side.
Tim go for the insulation job, its one of the best things I have done!
I think they are high on purpose to take advantage of people who won’t or don’t know how to go somewhere else. USA highly recommended the blownin fiberglass b/c the new pink blown in is almost as high as an R value as the cellulose, and it doesn’t burn, also, its not food for animals! Usa wanted $1300 to do my attic with 12” of Fiberglass, I opted to do it my self. I Bought all the pink blown in from home depot, they gave the machine to me for free, and my father loaded the machine, my brother carried the bags in and I crawled around in the attic. If I can find the pics I will post. In my four dormers, I blewn in 3+++ feet and in the main run I blew in 2 feet, I over estimated a little, but I thought I still beneifited with a total cost of $700 plus 2 hours of slave labor, and a steak dinner. Today it is one of the best “projects” I have done for the house. 
