Attic problems: start from what you're noticing
Most people don't search for "attic insulation." They search for what's bothering them: an upstairs that bakes, floors that chill your feet, scratching after dark, a smell nobody can place. This page starts there.
Too hot, too cold
Comfort and the bills that come with it.
3 pages
Hot upstairs
The bedrooms bake by late afternoon and stay warm past bedtime. Five things in the attic cause it, and the order you check them matters.
Cold, drafty house
Drafts with the windows shut, floors that chill your feet, one bedroom that never warms up. The cold usually gets in somewhere you aren't looking.
High heating bill
The January bill landed and it's bigger than last year's. A ten-minute way to tell whether the house actually used more gas, and why.
Animals, smells and smoke
Some of these mean leave first.
3 pages
Rats or mice in the attic
Scratching after dark, droppings by the hatch, a chewed wire. What's living up there, what not to touch, and which of four steps comes first.
A smell from the attic
Ammonia, musty, smoky, rotten egg or something dead. Each points somewhere different, and two of them mean you leave the house first and ask questions later.
Wildfire smoke in the attic
The fire was miles away, but the attic still smells like a campfire. What the official guidance says to do first, and where the attic fits in.
Water, mold and stains
Find the water before anything else.
3 pages
Mold or condensation
Black stains on the roof boards or drips on the nails? Four ways water reaches a Bay Area attic, and how to tell which one is yours.
Wet insulation after a leak
The storm's over, the ceiling has a brown ring and the insulation above it is soggy. The order of repairs, and what EPA says about wet insulation.
Dark lines on the ceiling
Faint grey stripes across the ceiling, or a dark halo around the heating vent. What the pattern tells you about the attic above it.
Each symptom below has two or three usual causes, and they aren't always in the attic. A hot bedroom can be the attic, the ducts or a west-facing window. A smell can be rodents, moisture or, now and then, something that means you leave the house and call for help. Each page goes through the causes in the order worth checking, says which ones are a job for someone other than us, and only then gets to the fix.
If something smells like gas or burning, don't read further: leave and call 911.
Before you pick a page
Two questions come up before almost any of these: is attic insulation worth it, and are rodent droppings dangerous. If your problem isn't listed, book a free inspection or browse our services.
Let's go look at your attic.
Start with your ZIP code. A few questions later you'll have a Bay Area market range, and you can pick a time for a free inspection.
What happens next
- 1
Price range online. The estimator gives you a Bay Area market range in a couple of minutes.
- 2
Free inspection. In your home, or from photos or video you send if you'd rather skip the visit.
- 3
Written quote. What comes out, what gets sealed, what goes in.
- 4
Install day. Done by our own crews.
- 5
Cleanup. Old material bagged and hauled away, the work area cleaned.
- No deposit until you sign, and never more than 10% of the contract or $1,000, whichever is less.
- Every customer gets five business days to cancel after signing.
- Materials carry the manufacturer warranty.
Rather talk it through?(760) 655-5959