Attic insulation in Davenport IA - an even layer from the eaves to the hatch

Most people call us because a room upstairs is cold, the house feels drafty or the heating bill keeps climbing. Before anything goes up there, I want to know the attic is ready, because insulation over a roof leak or a wet spot just hides the problem. The price depends on the size of the attic, how much insulation is already up there, how many gaps need sealing and whether old material has to come out first. The schedule turns on the same things, plus anything that has to be fixed before we start. The estimate I write after looking at your attic gives you your own number.

I start by looking at what's already up there and where it's thin or crushed, which is usually at the edges and around wiring and lights. Next we do the air sealing, closing the gaps around can lights, pipes, wires and the hatch. Insulation laid over a draft just has air moving through it, and sealing first also helps keep moisture out of the attic. We keep the eaves open so air from the soffit vents can still get in and keep the roof deck dry over the edges. Then we bring the whole floor up even, with the edges as deep as the middle. We insulate and seal the attic hatch too, because a bare hatch lets warm air straight out.

Most attic floors get topped up with blown-in insulation, loose fill blown through a hose that settles around joists and wiring where batts leave gaps. If the cold floors and drafts go past the attic, our home insulation work looks at the walls and floors too, so you're not fixing one room at a time.

Permits here come from the city's Building Counter. The City of Davenport list of permit work names remodels, roofing and electrical, plumbing and heating work, but it doesn't name attic insulation. That list doesn't settle whether your job needs a permit, so the Building Counter is the place to ask. The city says building and specialty work generally goes to a licensed and bonded contractor, who takes out the permit for the owner. If your job needs a permit, we take care of it with the city and tell you about it up front. If you hold legal title to a single-family house and want to do the work yourself, the city lets you remodel without a contractor license, and you take out any permits yourself at the Davenport Public Works Center. Mechanical, electrical and plumbing work isn't covered by that exception, so old wiring in the attic is usually where owners stop and call someone.

A lot of the houses we get into here are older, and the attics usually look alike. The loose fill is packed down in the middle and thin at the eaves, batts are shoved aside around wiring and can lights, and a bathroom fan is blowing straight into the attic. We're based in Davenport and work in cities on both sides of the river, and we find the same attics on jobs in Bettendorf and Rock Island, plus plenty of cities that don't have their own page here.