Attic air sealing in Hanahan SC - upstairs rooms that hold their temperature
A hot upstairs, drafty rooms or a power bill that keeps climbing? We seal the gaps into your attic so the house holds its air.
- Service
- Attic air sealing
- Call
- (843) 278-0353
How can you tell your attic is leaking air?
Rooms that won't stay even
One bedroom runs hot while the room next to it feels fine, or you feel a draft with every window shut. That's usually attic air finding its way down through gaps you can't see, and as long as it goes on, your system runs harder to keep up.
Power bill keeps climbing
Your bill creeps up summer after summer even though you set the thermostat the same way you always have. Cooled air leaking up into a hot attic is a common reason, and you keep paying for that air every month until the gaps are closed.
Dust in top-floor rooms
You dust the rooms right under the attic and it's back in a few days, sometimes with gray marks along the ceiling edge or around vents. Air moving through attic gaps carries that dust with it, and the same path lets damp air up into the attic, where it can work on the wood over time.
What does attic air sealing fix in a Hanahan house?
Attic air sealing in Hanahan closes the gaps between your attic and the rooms below, along the tops of walls, over dropped ceilings and around pipes, wires, can lights and the hatch, so the air you pay to cool stays in the house. Done right, it lowers the power bill and keeps damp household air out of the attic framing.
Most people call us at Essential Hanahan Spray Foam Insulation because one part of the house never feels right, and they want to know if the attic is the reason before they spend money on it. The price turns mostly on how many big gaps are up there and how easy your attic is to get into and move around in, and the schedule turns on what we find underneath, like wet insulation from a roof leak that has to be fixed first or old material that needs insulation removal before we can reach the gaps. Your written estimate spells out what we'd fix first, what comes after and why. Most of Hanahan sits in Berkeley County and a small piece lies in Charleston County, so we check with whichever office covers your address before we start and take care of any permit the job calls for.
Details to note before an estimate
- Rooms that feel drafty or uneven
- How you get into the attic
- Inches of insulation up there now
- Rough age of the house
How we handle attic air sealing
I go up and look before anything gets touched, because doing this in the right order matters more than doing it fast. We go after the big holes first, the open tops of walls and the spaces over dropped ceilings, since that's where most of the savings are, and we close them with solid blocking and foam instead of stuffing insulation in and hoping it stops the air. Then we work through the smaller gaps around pipes, wires, can lights and the attic hatch, keep the eave vents clear so the attic can still breathe, and settle the insulation back evenly so the edges end up as deep as the middle.
Sealing is the step that comes before more insulation, so if your attic is thin, we usually follow it with retrofit insulation, most often blown-in loose fill sent up through a hose. You'll hear that spray foam insulation does both jobs at once, and it does seal air while it insulates, but it costs more. For most attics, sealing the gaps and topping up loose fill is the better use of your money. The exception is when your ductwork and air handler live up there, and that's when I'll tell you foam is worth a look.
Work that often goes with attic sealing
Retrofit insulation
Once the gaps are closed, a thin layer of old insulation still won't hold back attic heat, so adding more to the existing house finishes the job.
Spray foam insulation
If your ducts and air handler sit in the attic, foam on the roof deck can seal and insulate in one step around them.
What happens after you call about your attic?
Call and set a visit
You call or send a request, and I come out to look at the attic with you and show you what I find. If you'd rather not climb the ladder, I'll bring photos down and walk you through them at the kitchen table.
Go over the written estimate
You get a written estimate that says what we'd fix first, what comes after and why, so you can see exactly where your money goes. We go over your questions until the plan makes sense to you, even if that means answering the same one twice.
Seal it and walk through
On the day of the job our installers protect your home, do the work in the order the estimate lays out, and I'm usually up there with them. Before we leave, we walk you through the finished attic so you can see what was sealed.
What people ask about attic air sealing
How much does attic air sealing cost in Hanahan?
There's no set price, because the cost comes from how many big gaps your attic has and how hard they are to reach, and I can only see that once I'm up there. The biggest savings come from plugging the large holes, so you pay for sealing those rather than chasing every small crack, and the price goes up if wet insulation, a roof repair or new insulation joins the plan. Your written estimate lays out each part so you can decide what to do now and what can wait.
What should be fixed before sealing an attic?
Wet insulation, moldy or rotted rafters, vents that blow moist air into the attic, and little or no attic ventilation should all be fixed by a professional before any sealing starts, along with access that's hard to get through or too little room to work. Wet insulation often points to a leaky roof, so that repair goes into the plan first. We fix wet insulation and rotted wood before we seal, because sealing over them only traps the problem.
Is attic air sealing safe if I have gas appliances?
It can be, as long as any gas or oil furnace or water heater that vents naturally gets checked, because in some cases sealing can cause it to send combustion gases back into the house. ENERGY STAR suggests having a Home Performance Contractor test those appliances before and after sealing. If I see one at the estimate, I'll point it out so you can set that up before we start.
What if my attic has old flaky gray insulation?
Leave it alone until it's tested, because pea-size, flaky gray insulation is usually vermiculite, and vermiculite may contain asbestos. The advice is to keep it undisturbed until an approved lab tests it, and your local health department can name a lab. We won't seal around it or move it until you have the results.
How long does attic air sealing take?
ENERGY STAR puts a contractor job at about 1 to 2 days, and rates it a difficult project for a homeowner doing it alone, at about 1 to 3 days. The time in your attic turns on how many big gaps there are and whether a repair has to come first, and I'll tell you what to expect for your house when I write the estimate.
How do I check that an insulation contractor in Hanahan is licensed?
Check with the state licensing board, since South Carolina treats anyone hired for skilled trade work on a home as a residential specialty contractor once the job is over $500. When a job's total cost, labor and materials together, runs over $5,000, the state also requires a $5,000 surety bond, a kind of financial guarantee. We're fully licensed and insured, and I'm glad to talk it through at the estimate.
Get a written plan for sealing your attic
We reply within one business day to set a time, and the on-site estimate is free with no pressure and no obligation. I come out, look at the attic with you and show you what I find. Then you get a written estimate that says what we'd fix first, what comes after and why.
Explore our services and areas
Services
- Spray foam insulation
- Attic insulation
- Blown-in insulation
- Home insulation
- Insulation removal
- Crawl space insulation
- Wall insulation
- Air sealing services
- Basement insulation
- Closed-cell foam insulation
- Open-cell foam insulation
- Commercial insulation
- Crawl space vapor barrier
- Vapor barrier installation
- Retrofit insulation
Get the gaps in your attic found
Call (843) 278-0353 any day of the week until 9 PM, or use the form and tell us which rooms bother you most.