Two months after buying my "fixer upper," I realized that the bad smell in the house just wasn't going away. Further inspection revealed that the 60-year-old attic insulation (fiberglass and cellulose) had been fouled up by critters, and needed to go.
I called Ed with Addict Insulation on a Saturday morning about 8:30, expecting to leave a message. I was shocked when Ed (the owner) answered the phone, and even more shocked when he said he gave me an estimate (based on square footage) over the phone! His price was less than half of what I'd expected. What a relief! He said that he could be there the following Saturday to do the work!
The next Saturday, he showed up as promised and worked like a dog for more than eight hours. When he emerged from the attic of my brick ranch he said, "This turned out to be a bigger project than I anticipated!" In that attic, he found two layers of fiberglass batt insulation and another layer of old cellulose on top. It was a mess.
Ed returned on Sunday, for another eight hours of work, and finished up Sunday night, well past sunset. He literally vacuumed the tops of those sheetrock ceilings clean. It looked great, and I was tickled pink.
He stuck with his quoted price, despite the fact that this took him so many hours to finish.
Ed returned about 10 days later (per my request) to put in fresh insulation and he did a masterful job. He stayed away from the soffit vents, installed baffles in the right places, and built a box around my air handler. He spent four hours making it all "just so."
It looks perfect, and that lingering funky odor is gone - hallelujah! When Ed came in the house to give me the bill, we chatted a bit. He's a very impressive fellow and obviously knows his business inside and out. In the end, I paid him a little extra as a thank you for being so conscientious and thorough.
It's nerve-wracking to find a contractor through the internet, but I can tell you, this guy won't disappoint. I am an architectural historian, and I am extremely persnickety, and if you google my name, you'll find that I write books on old houses. I literally picked Ed out of the blue, and I am so pleased with his work. Highly recommend him! read more