Insulation removal in Simi Valley CA - a clean attic, ready for new insulation

Most removal calls I get come from people who just bought an older house and want to know what's above the ceiling, or who have a hot room upstairs that more insulation never fixed. The price depends on how big the attic is, how deep and what kind of material is up there, how hard it is to reach and how much mess the old layer holds. The schedule depends mostly on whether anything needs testing before we start. I walk the space with you and put the scope in writing, and once the old layer is out and the gaps are sealed, we usually follow with fresh attic insulation.

I start at the estimate, up in the attic with a flashlight, checking how deep the old layer is, what it's made of and what's gone wrong with it. If anything looks like vermiculite or another material that might hold asbestos, we stop and have it tested before it's disturbed, because once it's stirred up there's no undoing it. If whatever ruined the insulation is still there, like a roof leak or old wiring, I'll tell you to get that fixed first rather than cover it up again. On removal day our crew protects the path from the hatch through your house, vacuums the old material out through a hose into bags and cleans the attic down to the framing. With the space clear, we close the gaps around pipes, wires, lights and the hatch, the air sealing that keeps new insulation from fighting a draft. Then the new layer goes in at an even depth all the way to the edges, with the eave vents left open so the attic can breathe. I look it over before we pack up.

Removal is often part of a bigger fix. If the floors are cold or the room over the garage never warms up, the problem may be under the house, and crawl space insulation handles it from below. In older houses the walls are sometimes nearly empty, and wall insulation fills them so the attic isn't doing all the work.

If old insulation might hold asbestos and it's damaged, or the work could disturb it, the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District advises hiring a California state licensed asbestos abatement contractor. When 100 square feet or more of asbestos material is being removed, the district has to get written notice before work begins. For homes with four or fewer units, there's no waiting period and no fee. Homeowners who remove it from their own primary residence themselves don't have to send that notice, but the district still strongly recommends trained, licensed professionals, and so do I. That isn't work our crew does, so if your attic needs an abatement firm, I'll tell you plainly, and we'll come back for the new insulation once the space is clear.

Much of what we pull out around here has been topped up more than once, with newer fill laid over older material and sometimes over old nests near the eaves. We see the same thing in older houses in Thousand Oaks and Moorpark, so we clear the tight edges as carefully as the middle.