Cold rooms in winter and a heater that never shuts off? We fill the empty wall cavities in older homes and patch the holes.
Wall insulation in San Rafael usually means drill and fill. We drill small holes, blow insulation into each empty wall cavity and patch the holes, so a cold room holds its heat without the walls coming down.
Most calls about walls start with a room that never warms up, an outside wall that feels cold to the touch, or a power bill that keeps climbing. In a lot of older houses around here, the walls were built with nothing in them, so heat goes right through to the siding. Topping up the attic helps, but it won't fix a hollow wall.
The price mostly comes down to how many walls we fill, what your siding is, whether we work from inside or outside, and what I find once I look, like old wiring or a house old enough to need lead-safe work. The schedule turns on the same things, plus any permit and whether new siding is coming. After I've seen your house, the estimate puts all of that in writing with your figure.
Three things decide how we insulate a wall in an older house, and I'd rather sort them out before anyone picks up a drill. Here's what I look at first.
If your house was built before 1980, lead safety rules can come into play, depending on how much the work disturbs the walls inside and out. That's why the year your house was built is one of the first things I ask, because it changes how we drill, patch and clean up.
The electrical code doesn't allow insulation to be packed onto or around knob and tube wiring, the old kind strung on little porcelain knobs. If you know or suspect you have it, tell me before we fill anything, because those walls have to be dealt with first and can't be filled as they are.
Blown-in insulation has to fill each cavity completely and go in dense enough that it won't settle, because settled insulation leaves empty spots in the wall. You can ask any installer whether they check coverage with an infrared camera, which shows gaps best when it's much colder or hotter outside than in.
Here's how a wall job goes from the first call to the walk-through, and who does what at each step, so you know when I'll be at your house and when the crew will.
Call (628) 234-2144 or send the form, and tell me when your house was built, whether new siding is in your plans and whether you know of old wiring. Those three answers shape the whole job.
I come out and check the walls, attic and crawl space for anything that has to be fixed first. Then I write up an estimate that lays out the method, the order of work and your price.
If you go ahead, we handle any permit, cover floors and plantings, and seal the leaks I found. Then our crew drills, fills each cavity and patches the holes.
Before we leave, I walk you through what we filled, how we patched it and anything we planned around, like wiring. The house is cleaned up, and you know what's in your walls.
Most walls we do by drilling small holes, filling each cavity and patching. Whether we drill from inside or outside depends on your siding and what's behind it, and I'll tell you which I'd pick and why once I've seen it. Before the walls, I look at where air is getting in, because a filled wall next to a leaky attic still leaves the room drafty.
Sealing those gaps is its own job, and our air sealing services usually come before or alongside the walls. If the cold you feel is in the floor and not the walls, the fix is often below you, and basement insulation may do more for that room than filling the walls. I'd rather tell you that than fill a wall that won't change much.
You can fill every outside wall at once, or start with the rooms that bother you most. Doing it all in one visit means one round of drilling and patching, while starting small lets you feel the difference first.
When we work from inside, the holes get patched, or covered with chair rail molding along the wall. Patching keeps the wall plain, and chair rail hides the line of holes in rooms where it suits the style.
Send the form with the year your house was built and any siding plans, and we'll reply within one business day. I'll come out, look at the walls, attic and crawl space, and write up a free estimate at your home. There's no obligation to go ahead.
(628) 234-2144Whether wall insulation needs a permit at your address is up to the City of San Rafael building division, which takes new permit applications online through its OpenGov system. When a job needs one, we pull it and set up the inspection, and if you're not sure about yours, I'll find out before we start.
If a remodel is in your plans, the city's notice for a building ordinance says it aims to encourage more energy efficiency and electrification work on remodeled homes. Ask the city how that applies to your remodel before you settle on the order of your projects.
We're based in San Rafael and work in cities across Marin and nearby, from Petaluma down to Strawberry and over to Richmond and Berkeley. The houses we see in San Anselmo and Fairfax are much like the ones here, older homes with empty walls and siding that's been painted many times, so the job goes the same way there.
Our crew does the install, and I'm on site running it, so the person who looked at your walls is the one watching them get filled. I spent my first years insulating new houses, where the walls are open and you can see every cavity, and that taught me what a properly filled wall looks like before I ever filled one I couldn't see into.
I started this business in 2023 to work on lived-in homes, and that's three years of older walls with surprises in them. California sets a separate license class for contractors who install insulation for heat or sound. We're licensed and insured. Our work is backed by our satisfaction guarantee.
If your walls feel cold and you're not sure anything is in them, call (628) 234-2144 or send us a message and I'll come take a look.
Closing the gaps where air slips in around the attic, pipes and foundation keeps freshly filled walls from fighting a draft.
If the floors stay cold after the walls are done, the space below is usually where that heat is going.
These are the cities with their own page on our site. If yours isn't one of them, call and ask, because we work in more places than this list shows.
Most older homes get drill and fill, a common way to insulate houses with empty wall cavities. Small holes go into each cavity, insulation is blown in through a hose, and the holes are sealed. The walls stay up, and I check what's inside them before I put a price on paper.
Blowing from inside leaves the house wrap behind your siding alone, while blowing from outside cuts through that water-shedding layer, so it has to be patched or replaced. Outside can still be the better pick when the siding comes off easily or that layer needs work anyway. I'll tell you which I'd choose after I see your walls.
Blown-in insulation in San Francisco usually costs about $3 to $9 per square foot, and that's a market figure for blown-in work in general, not our price. Your number comes from the estimate, after I've seen your walls, your siding and anything that has to be fixed first.
If you're planning new siding, that's the ideal time, because the walls can be filled from outside while the siding is off. It also opens the door to rigid foam board on the outside, in addition to or instead of filling the cavities, and the house wrap can be checked at the same time.
Mostly, move furniture and wall hangings away from the outside walls in the rooms we're working in. For outside jobs we cover shrubs and plantings, so point out anything growing close to the walls that you want protected.
Yes, MCE's Home Energy Savings program gives qualifying single-family homeowners and renters a home energy assessment and upgrades at no cost. It's worth checking whether you qualify before you plan your wall work.
We pick up every day from 8 AM to 9 PM, so you can call (628) 234-2144 or send the form after work and get your walls on my list.
