The Insulation Man Inc

The Good: The Insulation Man arrived on time and performed the services within the time window specified. We had an initial energy audit performed which was an honest attempt at selling us insulation. We already knew we needed insulation so we weren't surprised or put off by the sales pitch. However, they did tell us all of our options and didn't try to sell us the most expensive solution, though that is what we went with in the end. The Insulation Man sprayed foam in our unfinished attic (hot roof) and along the rim joists in the basement as well as put batting in trickier spots. The overall result was that the attic is much much warmer now as promised. We had another energy audit after the installation and discovered that our house was much tighter and leaked much less air. The Bad: The crew worked all day and got the job finished on time. but left a huge mess in my attic. I spent a half day cleaning up foam bits, wrappers and other debris. Not spoiler but also not expected. I would use them again but would have a discussion about exit strategy and cleaning up after themselves.

The workers came on time in the morning , did their work and were gone by noon

They came out and did a thermal scan. Perfunctory. Purpose seemed to be to upsell services. What they did could have been done for free by any company trying to sell an insulation job. Waste of time and dollars. Silly.

The quote was competitive with others that I got. The sales person was professional and knowledgable when he came out to do the estimate. Setting up the apointment was easy and straight forward. The truck actually showed up a little earlier than expected and they got straight to work. I had all my exterior basement wall walls sprayed with foam and some batting added to an interior wall. The installation took a few hours. All the important stuff was covered in plastic to protect from overspray although most of my area was torn down and under construction.

Wow! What a difference. Scott and his crew were extremely accommodating; since we really wanted to get it done before some other big projects started, they were able to squeeze us in. As I mentioned, we have a 2100 foot "frankenhouse" with both a crawl space and basement, as well as a number of add-ons. No surprises from the home energy audit; we already knew the house was really poorly insulated. They got us done in under a day; encapsulating the crawl space, sealing up the basement joists, and insulating the different attics. Originally that house was DRAFTY! Some rooms heated well, while others were freezing cold. The master bedroom was 15 degrees colder than the rest of the house! Now, everything feels much more uniform and comfortable. We paid about $2000, but keep in mind that is after the rebates Consumers energy was offering. They were professional, AND cleaned up after themselves! The heater doesn't kick on nearly as much or as long; I'm actually looking forward to getting my next heating bill, just to see the difference in cost. They really did a terrific job; no complaints at all.

The gentleman were on time. Did a lot explaning. (because I ask a lot of questions) They were on time. They acidnently broke a lamp cover. I told them they didn't have to repace it. They insisted, went to home Depoit and replaced it. The were so profesional. I was please with the work. Now that it is cold outside I notice the results.

I appreciated their honesty.

Don't waste the money if you plan to do it yourself.

It went well. I received 3 estimates and they were all pretty close but the salesmen was honest and told me not to have something done because it wouldn't add that much savings to our energy bill. They were very responsive as opposed to the other 2 companies that provided estimates and they followed through. The gentlemen that did the work were professional and cleaned up afterwards. Overall, I ended up paying $1,100 as I received $400 in rebates from DTE. Insulation is not a 'sexy' home improvement (like an A/C unit) but it definitely was worth it for me.

Larry showed up on time, walked through the house with a infra red camera to see where there were temperature differentials in the house. He took pictures, ir and regular, for us to use in correcting the problems. At the end of the walk through he talked with us to give us options on correcting the issues and to inform us of the various rebates that were being offered by our utility. He did a great job, too bad we didn't follow up on the suggestions.

Excellent company to work with, would highly recommend.

Everything went well. They showed up a little early and were very friendly and professional. They identified numerous areas for improvement and provided an estimate for all of the recommended work, including what rebates I could expect from my utility companies through the Better Buildings program and other programs and provided information about financing as well. I will be using them for the recommended work in the near future.

Purchased coupon for $50 energy efficiency audit. They were very helpful in reaching out to me to schedule the audit, worked with me on scheduling an appointment, arrived on time, were down to the point and effecient, provided practical and accessible improvements/recommendations, were professional and courteous.

Estimator was on time and thorough. Job completed two weeks later. They are processing rebate papers for me. Very satisfied consumer.

Technician was there exactly on time. Very pleasant. Very knowledgeable and made a real effort to make sure I understood everything he was doing and why. He showed total patience with my many, many questions. We learned an incredible amount about how to make out home more efficient and found problem spots we would have otherwise never have known. Highly recommend.

The energy audit went reasonably well. Anything that was easy to do, I had already done. I didn't get much out of it other than I had done what I could. The technician was nice though and the service was good.

Audrey at insulation man was very responsive with emails and phone calls. The company came out pretty quickly and did a total house energy audit. They explained a rebate program going on right now for certain cities and explained how it would end up costing me hardly anything out of pocket to get my furnace tuned up and foam insulation added to my basement joists. Rebate paperwork was very simple, and a down payment was required. The company explained the down payment would be rebated to me via check from consumers energy around 4 to 6 weeks later. Spray foam insulation went well. The crew that came out was friendly and did a decent job cleaning up after themselves. They probably could have done a little better cleaning up, but they didn't destroy the place. They did show up a little later than the time we set up. I called Audrey to make sure nothing happened and I was forgotten. She called the crew and got an approximate time of when they would show up. Overall, great experience! I have already recommended them to friends and family.

Was professional. Emailed me the results of the audit the same day. Was very good about explaining the details of the energy audit, the implications, my options to fix the issues and theapprox cost. I appreciated the fact that there was no hard sell of his services Would defintely consider if I need to beef up my insulation.

The overall process went very well and as expected per the crew. Two members went into theo atic and two in the basement. The cans that were identified (for recessed lights of which there were twenty) were done first before insulation was sprayed or blown in. There were two cans that the crew could not reach. Areas over the front foyer were spray foamed with two inches of insulation as well as the bonus room stairwell. The older insulation that they had moved from the stairwell was used in a wat to prevent the celulose from coming back into the bonus room which was not insulated or finished. n The two members in the basement worked to spray foam the wood space above the pored foundation walls after they removed the old R-13 insulation which was identified as being inadequate. They were very fast and efficient. Plastic wqas placed over items to prevent being sprayed upon. When the areas were completed everything was cleaned up.

Excellent results. House was cooler this summer and saved on AC expense. They also assisted on qualification for rebates from Consumers Energy

For the most part, the audit confirmed what I suspected... which is a good thing. It confirmed specific things needed to increase house energy efficiency.

First, they rescheduled my appointment twice within 24 hours. My expectation of the energy audit was that I would walk around and they would point out issues. Their idea was to go around and assess everything and write up how they could provide services. When I told them I already had an estimate for another company to insulate my attic the representative got testy and asked for the company and contact and then disparaged them. He wanted me to sign contracts obligating me to do work with them. Part of the deal was joining a partnership with the state to get refunds but he would not give me info for that service and made it seem that the only way I could get the rebates was through his company. A report was to follow, but after sending 3 emails requesting it, I finally had to call the company for it after more than two weeks. In the meantime, I got an email from DTE offering the same service for $25 (half of their price) with the same opportunities for rebates. I was considering having the company do the remaining work other than the attic insulation (and even considered their estimate but it was high even with the rebate), but after the way they treated me, I would not use them or recommend that others use them even though they seemed like their work would be good. And it seemed the representative's attitude was that the rest of the work would not be worth their time even though it was quoted at over $2,000. I would recommend that anyone wanting this type of service (energy audit) go through DTE.

Bottom Line Up Front: They are professional, curious, and cleaned up after themselves. I HAD problem areas in my home and they were able to address all of my concerns. Highly recommended thank you Scott, Jerry, Tom and Audrey. Called and left a message, Audrey, promptly returned the call to schedule Jerry to come out. I inadvertently double booked two insulation companies for the same day, and Jerry was very professional. He provided a quote that was very reasonable to others i had received in the past relating to the amount of work to be performed. Jerry was able to point out what's called 'ghosting' where condensation builds on the drywall on the inside of the living space because there's no insulation, and over time dirt collects on the area. He reasoned this was due to a lack of any or very minimal insulation in that space. They would, if given the job, try and fix that area. There were three main areas of concern when calling them out to perform this work. First my child?s bedroom, was always cold in the winter, to the point we had to run a heater in her room and very hot in the summer. After using their tools, jerry was able to find some areas in the room that were lacking either proper insulation or needed to be investigated and address. Secondly our master bedroom had a corner that was way too hot and our bedroom never properly cooled. Jerry discussed that it's mostly air infiltration from the outside wall where we have a bay window roof and that they would fix that as well. Lastly the third area was a bedroom that extends over our garage, and the closet wall is in the attic space of the garage. While the floor of the garage did have the two sheets of required drywall, it was obvious, when looking in the garage attic space, and from having new paint beginning to peel that there was an issue with that space. After Jerry had finished with the upstairs, we discussed sealing the rim joists in the basement, and i was all for it. For two reasons, first keeps the heat and cool in the house, but also, anywhere there is typically and opening a critter likes to make its way through. This was a great way to kill two birds with one stone. Lastly, they noticed that the insulation installed in my attic was improperly done, so they would correct the issue as well. Finally, I had a leaky door seal that leads into my garage that showed up on the blower door test that they also fixed as part of this quote. Next after I had gone through some question and answer period, (I was inquiring about the foam, it's properties, the type of cellulose insulation they used and the bathroom vent covers they were planning on installing) all of which was provided within a couple of days and they didn't have any issues answering the various set of questions that I had. Then came the blower, Tom came out and did the assessment. This was essential to determine how much air gets into the house, and to ensure that the house is not sealed up too tight, which could be an issue. This took a few moments and it was interesting to see what worked well in the house and what did not. Overall the house could use some improvements and since they've finished the work we have seen a dramatic improvement and I?ll get into that in a bit. Then we schedule the work again with Audrey, and we get the day/time set up. The day the crew arrives promptly as scheduled, at 9am. Met Scott and the Crew for both the blown cellulose and the spray foam teams. They started by first introducing themselves, putting on their booties as they entered the home and laying down tarps in all the areas they were going to be working in and around. So the loose fill insulation in the attic was a no brainer, but they did take the extra time and care to make sure the baffles where properly aligned and placed a backing to make sure the blown in cellulose did not block the baffles. Scott also took the time in the living room attic space to correct the builders placement of insulation, correcting the placement and added baffles to extend as necessary to ensure proper insulation installation. They brought out a specially designed hose to fit in the small cavity behind the wall to insulate, as I mentioned before the ghosting, to correctly fill and pack as much as they could from the attic into that space. There wasn?t much excitement in the garage attic, they did exactly and had spray foamed and sealed the space, as you can see in the pictures, the yellow insulation was turning brown/black from all the air that had been moving in and out of that space over the garage. They did a great job sealing the whole wall top to bottom, and around both sides. Same with the rim joists in the basement, as you can see from the picture. Jerry did tell me and so did the crew prior to starting they would be spraying over the concrete wall as they did to make a proper seal. The door seal was a bit tricky, but Scott after some figuring out, was able to find the corresponding seals and weather stripping for the door leading to the garage. The most impressive work however was done with regards to insulating both my child?s rim and floor bond from the exterior (see the pictures). There was no insulation in that space to keep the living space separate from the outside. There was only a 3/8" rough saw cedar board and 1/4" insulation, nothing near what was necessary. This then explained why my child?s room was always either too hot or too cold in the summer or winter respectively. As you can see in the pictures they took the time and installed a proper backing and insulated not only the opening but also around the duct work to make sure it stayed insulated from the elements. After Scott found this out, he then also hypothesized that in our master bedroom, since we had the same over hang, had the same or similar issue, in that the builder did not insulate that space. He offered to investigate, but this time, instead of cutting out the cedar board, it would be more elegant to pull up the carpet and pad and dense pack with cellulose insulation, which according to Scott and crew when properly packed creates approximately a 95% air seal. This also explained why our master bedroom was always feeling drafty; there was no insulation on the bond with the exterior wall the length of the whole room. Scott dense packed the whole length of the room. Once they were all done, they cleaned up all the plastic they had put in place to protect the areas they worked in and picked up the tarps. Anything that was got into another area was vacuumed up by a member of the crew. When jerry first came out this is the type of work I had in my mind that was going to be done. To properly insulate and create a comfortable upstairs living space in our home which has now been achieved. The upstairs used to be about 6 degrees F, warmer than the living space downstairs. Now with this insulation work that was performed, it?s all within 1 degree (according to the three thermostats I have in place). In the few days that it?s been done we?ve noticed a great deal of improvement in the spaces we had concerns with. Happy that its how it should be and they made it happen.

I read many insulation reviews on Angies List and decided to have The Insulation Man come out and check out the house.Jerry Gaines came out and described the services they provide and what would benefit me.I decided on the full house report and have the attic, walls and basement beams insulated.Scott and his crew came out and performed the services. Since I was out of town during the work Scott explained via phone everything that was done . Thet are also assisting with the DTE energy rebate forms which is a great help.Audrey at the office was very helpful and pleasant to talk to on the phone.I am looking forward to the next electric bill being lower.

Very well, very thorough and helped us a lot and even gave a very good quotation for loft insulation. However we have only replaced the windows and sealed light fittings so far. Loft insulation will be done later date to fit our budget and we will be calling upon this company