Buck531 Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Guy came out today from "Dan's Insulation". Nice guy. About my age. He rounded it off to 1300 sq feet he'd need to insulation my bi-level house. Upper half. $950. That doesn't seem like that bad of a deal either. He'd take off a strip of siding, drill a 1" hole, fill it up (yeah, that sounds dirty), and put the siding back up. There aren't many companies that blow insulation in houses around here. I had USA insulation come out and they wanted to charge me over 5k to do it. I politely told him to eat my ass. I know I could do this for about half of what he's going to charge, but I really don't want to fuck with buying the cellulose, getting the equipment, and etc. Has anyone here done it to their house? Like a before/after comparison if their gas/electric bill? Right now it's close to $200. My furnace kicks on every 10-15 minutes on a cold day. I know damn well I'm losing a TON of heat just by not having jack in the walls. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evan9381 Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 you have absolutely no insulation on your exterior walls? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bam Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 dude, $200/mon in gas like for last month? my bill last week for december was $63, and i keep the house at 70/71. It sounds like you really need to do it, but how do check he does it everywhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evan9381 Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 i dont pay our gas bill, but the latest one was $93. i didnt think it was too bad being that it was so cold so many days last month and we keep it at 69 24/7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buck531 Posted January 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Nope.. pretty much no insulation. When I tore down the paneling late last year I had to patch in a few holes (big ones). ZERO insulation in the family room. Yea, he'll do the entire exterior of the house. Hell, my basement I finished last year i warmer than upstairs (furnace is upstairs too). I studded, framed, and insulated it. As soon as you walk upstairs there's like a 5 degree difference in temp. it sucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buck531 Posted January 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 btw, when you put your hand on an exterior wall upstairs, you can just feel it being really cold. Downstairs.. not nearly as cold to the touch. It sucks.. We've been living like this for the past 10 years with $150-$200 a month gas bills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evan9381 Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 wasnt someone on here telling you about how to go about doing it yourself, with drilling a 2-3" hole on the stud and blowing in insulation? im sure it'd be a job for a couple people, but when i was looking at a couple things, bags of insulation was cheap and with so many bags, you can rent the machine for free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richcreek Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 That doesn't seem like a bad price, but doing it yourself is really easy. We did it to my parents attic a few years back, literally just keep feeding the machine and point the hose where you want it to go. I cant imagine walls being that much harder to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xyster101 Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 In my old rental I blew insulation into the attic area on about 1,000 square feet. I put in 13" on top of the ~6" of fiberglass that was already up there. The total cost was around $450 including the cellulose and the blower rental for the evening (landlord paid me back). It took my friend and I about 4 hours total and I had paper boogers for 2 days after. Over all not hard. For what you are having done, that seems like a great price. To take off a piece of siding, drill holes, blow it in, just easier to pay a professional. You don't have to worry about tearing any siding or making things line up again. If you damage your siding and it is old, could be hard to replace and then it might not match. Plus the rental machine only has a 4" hose on it, so you would have to fabricate an adapter. This machine also did not "throw" the insulation, it just sort of fell out of the pipe so I don't know if it would go into a wall easily. Some things we can do, but pros are just worth it (like mudding drywall). I was paying about $150 a month in oil heat. Unfortunately we did it in November and then that winter it was about 15 degrees colder then the winter before, so comparison was not in the cards. I know our bill did not go higher though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boosted98gst Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 someone was telling me on here that you can buy the stuff at 10$ bucks a bag and if you buy 30 bags you get the machine free for 24 hours from homedepot. I never looked into this so its just hear say , but I do not have any reason not to believe them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BloodRed Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 I blew in insulation in my attic in fall of 2008 and it was dead simple. I got everything from HomeDepot (Lowes has the same deal). Buy 20 bags and get the machine to blow it in for free for 24 hours. The 20 bags added about 12" on top of the roll on stuff that was in there. I had just moved into the house that spring so I had not had the heat turned on at all to that point. Last year the highest gas bill I had was $70. I also have programable thermostat, and keep it at 66 when we are home and 58 when we are away. It took my wife and I about 4 hours and we were done. Now of course blowing it into the walls will take more time, but it is so dead simple to do, I wouldn't pay anyone to do it for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokinHawk1647545499 Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 i just put more insulation in my attic a couple of months ago. I have a 1300 SF house. cost about $300 for the cellulose insulation, blower rental was free from home depot. took about 4-5 hours, not hard, but it sucked. my heat bill last year was $220 for the coldest month, I havent hit the coldest month yet but highest bill so far has been about $150 so i am guessing about $50 saved a month.(though natural gas has come down some) the original insulation was about 2-3" high and now its about 14-16" most of your heat comes out of the attic as hot air rises, as long as you dont have any air holes in the walls or windows your money is spent best in the attic. i dont really have any insulation in the walls, just some R5 foam panels i put up when i resided my house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buck531 Posted January 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 The siding is pretty much new. Only a few years old. And I have a bunch of extra if they mess it up. I've already done the attic. I did it back in 01/02 and also rented the machine myself and my brother and I did it. Blowing it in wasn't hard at all, I just don't think I want to pull off the siding, drill 100 holes, etc. Also, when the idiots did my siding, they didn't wrap it in anything. where the A is on the house (above the ceiling line on both sides), it's nothing but open. They didn't put any board up or foam padding or nothing. I was pretty pissed they didn't do it, but oh well. The windows are new champion too (back in 01/02). If you came over to the house today and felt the wall, you can just feel the coldness radiate off it. Then if you did the downstairs, it's night and day difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wnaplay1647545503 Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 $950 seems like a very fair price buck if they know what they are doing. Like has been stated you can save yourself some money doing it yourself, but theres always mark-up for labor whenever you have someone else do something. Sounds like the material to labor ration is around 50/50 and thats typically standard for alot of contractors. A rule of thumb is a contractor who does work themselves is around 50/50 labor /materials. A contractor who subs their work out is broken out into 3rd's(material/labor/companies take). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AWW$HEEET Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 just make sure its insulation, not hampster chips or some bullshit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1qwk767 Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Guy came out today from "Dan's Insulation". Nice guy. About my age. He rounded it off to 1300 sq feet he'd need to insulation my bi-level house. Upper half. $950. That doesn't seem like that bad of a deal either. He'd take off a strip of siding, drill a 1" hole, fill it up (yeah, that sounds dirty), and put the siding back up. There aren't many companies that blow insulation in houses around here. I had USA insulation come out and they wanted to charge me over 5k to do it. I politely told him to eat my ass. I know I could do this for about half of what he's going to charge, but I really don't want to fuck with buying the cellulose, getting the equipment, and etc. Has anyone here done it to their house? Like a before/after comparison if their gas/electric bill? Right now it's close to $200. My furnace kicks on every 10-15 minutes on a cold day. I know damn well I'm losing a TON of heat just by not having jack in the walls. Thoughts? Bucky did my house around this time last Feb and have noticed a difference in the heating bill, furnace kicks on maybe 5times a day to keep the house at 69*. Home Depot sells the blow in for 9.89/bag, they also rent the machine, I believe after the first 20-25bags you get the machine for 24hrs. I insulated the house from the inside, just drilled a hole at the top of the wall 8" in between each stud filled it, patched and moved in. Took my uncle and I about 6-8hrs to do the hole house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87GT Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Buck I am in the same boat as you. No insulation and bad windows. Gas bill is around $100-120 a month in winter and the electric bill is the same. Stupid electric heaters cost a lot. That sounds like a good deal to me. You should do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 my neighbors had there house done. since its a ranch it was bigger and she only paid $1300. so your in the right area cost wise and they did the same thing as your guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitrousbird Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 I wish my heating bill was $200 last month. All electric with a 5 ton heat pump (brand new, highest efficiency Carrier makes), newer home...$436. That was a swift kick in the pants! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRN96WS6 Posted January 23, 2010 Report Share Posted January 23, 2010 I'm with Joe and my house is smaller than his is...$406 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T Rex Posted January 23, 2010 Report Share Posted January 23, 2010 If I may say a few things on the subject of the type of insulation. I would stay away from Cellulose especially in the walls. While it is "green," it is still treated with chemicals that are not. Unfortunately, once these chemicals degrade or worse, wash off it is simply paper. Paper is actually a source of food/shelter for small animals and insects. I personally use and recommend blown in fiberglass insulation. It is completely inert and in 20 years it will still be fiberglass insulation, still doing the same job and just as well as the first day it was installed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clifford Automotive Posted January 23, 2010 Report Share Posted January 23, 2010 Man you guys... current gas bill was 250 and that was heating 6000 square ft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xyster101 Posted January 24, 2010 Report Share Posted January 24, 2010 Heat pumps suck when the weather is below 35 degrees. I have one and if the temp outside is below 35, I have to put it in "emergency mode" which is basically a giant space heater in my furnace, never warms the house. After running for 3 hours when it is 17 out, the temp only goes up 5 degrees. I would never put a heat pump in a house I own. My electric bill goes up about $60 in the coldest months with the heat pump for about 1,000 square foot place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qtr_pndr Posted January 24, 2010 Report Share Posted January 24, 2010 give parkfeild insulation a call they might be able to beat the price Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qtr_pndr Posted January 24, 2010 Report Share Posted January 24, 2010 If I may say a few things on the subject of the type of insulation. I would stay away from Cellulose especially in the walls. While it is "green," it is still treated with chemicals that are not. Unfortunately, once these chemicals degrade or worse, wash off it is simply paper. Paper is actually a source of food/shelter for small animals and insects. I personally use and recommend blown in fiberglass insulation. It is completely inert and in 20 years it will still be fiberglass insulation, still doing the same job and just as well as the first day it was installed. your a tard nothing wrong with cellulose insulation and it stay's packed tight unlike fiberglass. Also the chemicals do not wash off they do use water to blow it in this is coming from my 3 years exp. working with the shit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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