Insulation Removal in Davenport IA - A Clean Attic Floor Before New Insulation

Most people call D&K Davenport Insulation Company about a cold room or a high power bill, and when I go up the ladder, the old insulation is often flat, stained from an old roof leak or full of droppings. If yours is dry and clean, it can usually stay, and sealing the gaps and topping it up with blown-in insulation, loose fill blown through a hose, beats tearing it out. If it's damaged, it comes out first, because new insulation over a wet or dirty layer just buries the problem. The price moves with the attic's square footage, how fouled the old material is and how hard the space is to get into, and the schedule turns on the same things plus any repair we find underneath, so you'll get your own number on the estimate I write at your house.

I start by looking at what's up there without stirring it. If it looks like vermiculite, we leave it alone and I point you to an asbestos abatement contractor for that part. If it's wet, moldy or full of pests, our crew pulls it out with an insulation vacuum, and then I look over what it was hiding, like roof leaks, damp or stained framing, holes where mice got in and the gaps around can lights, pipes and the hatch. A leak gets fixed before anything new goes in, even if that means you call a roofer first, because insulation over a wet roof deck hides the problem until it shows up in your ceiling. Then we do the air sealing, closing those gaps so warm air can't slip through, keep the eave vents clear so the attic can still breathe, and lay the new attic insulation full depth out to the edges, where it's usually thinnest. The crew cleans up behind themselves, so the only thing you should notice afterward is that the drafts are gone.

Removal sometimes points to work below the attic too. A damp attic can go with a damp crawl space, and crawl space insulation takes care of the cold floors over it, while a room that stays cold after the attic is done may need wall insulation in the stud bays.

In Davenport, the city generally has a licensed contractor do building and specialty work and take out the permit for the owner, though an owner who holds legal title to a single-family house can do their own remodeling or renovation without a contractor license, as long as it isn't mechanical, electrical or plumbing work. Whether pulling out insulation by itself needs a permit is the city's call, not mine, so I won't guess, and you can check the City of Davenport's permit list or ask me at the estimate. If your job needs one, we take care of it with the city and tell you about it up front.

Asbestos is where disposal gets strict. The Waste Commission's rules say friable asbestos, a group its list says includes ceiling and wall insulation, needs special handling, special transport and the Commission's approval before disposal, with lab testing for pre-approval and loads taken by schedule on weekdays only. That's work for an abatement contractor, which is one more reason we hand vermiculite off. Otherwise what we find in older houses here is ordinary, like layers added over the years, old roof leaks and mice that moved in, and we see the same on jobs in Bettendorf and across the river in Rock Island.