Discount Energy Services

Customer Service was great. Finished job looked good and completed to my satisfaction

The work here in 2023 was a re-do of work done in 2016, of the top floor of this house, with a Mansard roof. It was basically uninsulated in 2016, and the work then had a big impact because at least some insulation was blown in. But large regions which I was told had been filled were not. I borrowed an IR camera, which showed that one wall that had been filled in was losing its fluff. The work this time here in 2023 was to fill in the parts of the wall not filled in last time, and restore any insulation lost during the pandemic years. They also added additional insulation to parts of a wall not covered the first time. It's had a very noticeable effect. The temperature before the re-do was sometimes sweltering—I couldn't keep chocolate up here, lest it melt—but after filling in the walls fully, even on those days that tell us climate change is looming, the upstairs is comfortably habitable. The total I gave of $3,800 includes the full project, including $1,500 for this round.

After my call to Discount Energy Services, I knew who was coming and when to evaluate my attic insulation. The estimate was prepared on-site with pricing. The workers arrived and knew exactly what they were to accomplish, which they confirmed with me. They prepared the entire path with clean drop cloths and created a plastic drape around my attic stairs. The foreman was glad to explain any aspect of the procedure. My attic was upgraded to R-49 and the difference is notable.

It was amazing, took all day to get the old insulation out, seal the holes, and refill with new insulation. Would recommend this company to anyone looking for a professional service to improve insulation and save money on heating and cooling costs.

THESE GUYS ARE ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. DO NOT USE THEM AND SAVE YOUR MONEY. THE INSULATION THEY USED MADE THE PROBLEM WORSE AND NOT BETTER. THEY WILL DO NOTHING TO FIX THE PROBLEM EXCEPT SAY SORRY. THEY LEFT DUST AND DIRT EVERYWHERE AND DID NOT FIX THE HOLES IN THE CEILING. DO NOT USE

I believe our home is more comfortable. My only issue is that cellulose fiber coated everything in our attic and I'm still cleaning it off our stuff.

It went smooth from Pricing to Installation. The price from Discount Energy Services was better compared with other vendors.

I have mixed feelings about Discount Energy Services: Pros: they came and insulated our back room. It does feel warmer, and the price was reasonable. Cons: you need to be ready to repaint the room (see photos). They are quite slow and a bit amateurish. It tooks almost 4 weeks to just *schedule* them to come after I sent the $200 deposit check and they cashed it in. They already came 2 or 3 times, as opposed to the just one time they said they would. Finally, almost 6 months after start, there is still one part of the work that remains to be done, despite my many email requests. I'm giving up and will finish myself.

Was I able to turn my thermostat down 3 degrees? YES. I got what I paid for. That said, would I recommend, or ever do this again, absolutely, 1000% not. It ruined the house. My husband has spent the last two weekends properly spackling and sanding the walls, and I am working on painting every room in the house. So, is it worth the $3k difference than foam which would have preserved the interior because they worked from the outside? Nope. We would have spent the difference in a handyman and professional cleaning service to make up the difference, easily. Yes, this option is green. Yes, the workers who were on site were super polite. But overall, I have told everyone I know, this is NOT the way to go. Honestly, we had a friend over Friday and she was flabbergasted by the sight of the walls, like how could a company leave them in that condition??? Agreed, but then again, we paid $3k less than the competitor, and technically got what we paid for. Was it "spackled" and "paint ready"? Absolutely not. That is the biggest sticking point. The onsite workers told us this was what they were instructed to do and it would take too long to full-on spackle and make paint ready. Bottom-line: If you have a month to repair the damage, and don't have double-the-price to spend, do this. They accomplish what they said they do. Except it's not really what you want. The house is covered in dust. My mother in law is coming mid-April and I will be surprised if we get this all finished by then. This is just not a realistic way to leave someone's home. It's like a discount home building site and not hooking up the plumbing or electric - sure, it wasn't in the contract but it's sort of necessary...and FYI, "spackling" was in the contract but beware. They insert a foam plug in all of the 300 holes in the house with a light glue-stick like swab over top which is literally nothing worthy for paint-ready. I held off two weeks for writing this because I was so mad and I guess I'm still angry! Sorry all, but can't in good conscious recommend, not this company, but this product. Spend more up front and it will be worth the month's manual labor that you will otherwise be doing or paying for in addition to fixing your temperature situation.

Kevin and Nicole are the owners of this small company that insulated hundreds of homes in the DC area for a fraction of what larger companies are charging. They are also both quite personable and knowledgeable. It was easy to reach Nicole by phone and arrange a time for Kevin to come give an estimate. Kevin came and stayed while he worked up his estimate, chatting for a bit about the neighborhood. This compared to the gruff responses I got by other companies that wouldn’t even come look at my space until I was ready to sign a contract was one of the major reasons I chose Discount Energy Services. The other was, as the name implies, the incredibly low cost. It was less than half what I had received from at least two other companies. The day before or the day of, I would recommend DES call their customers. I called them the day of, unsure of the start time as well as parking. Everything worked out though, and Kevin’s two guys worked all day until about 8pm to finish the job. The main guy showed me the work and answered my questions upon completion. He also told me that it takes a little time for the insulation to settle, which I found to be true. We noticed more of a difference after a day or two. I would also recommend that DES call customers after the job to follow-up. I did this myself and had a nice talk with Nicole about other things we can do to minimize sound transferrance between our first floor and our English basement apartment. The insulation provided by DES does not completely cut out vibrational sound, nor would any insulation anyone could provide. Nicole had some great ideas for how I could take further steps. Overall, I would recommend Discount Energy Services. They do solid work with friendly, professional communication at affordable cost. Support small local businesses!

Went very well they were on time and had actually came several days earlier than originally quoted. House was kept clean and nothing noted after completion

The company was wonderful. We always request estimates from multiple companies before hiring any contractor. Compared to the other companies with which we inquired, this company was one of the most responsive. They called us to set up the initial consultation within 48 hours, and was at our house to provide an estimate 24 hours after that. We set up the actual installation for later that same week. Price-wise, this company was VERY competitive. The quality of the work was excellent, as well. We live in a house that is almost 100 years old. As such, there was almost no insulation in large portions of the attic. It was a large job, and they were able to complete it in a single day. Overall, we highly recommend them.

We had a situation in our attic that you may also have in yours and not even know it. We were experiencing excess condensation on our master bathroom walls and couldn't figure out why. We were in the midst of getting paint estimates to paint the bathroom and the painters recommended we consult an electrician to see if we needed a new exhaust fan. One of the electricians suggested we have somebody come out and check the insulation in our attic. I contacted Discount Energy Services and, as it turns out, they offer free estimates. So far so good. They also turned out to be very responsive, reasonably priced and a pleasure to deal with! After looking in our attic, Kevin told us that we had some areas of our attic where there was NO insulation at all and other areas where the insulation had fallen down from the walls. The code has also changed since the insulation was originally installed in the early 90's. So we had it all remedied yesterday. They repaired the areas where the insulation had fallen down and upgraded to R49 insulation throughout our entire attic. Now it's up to code again. HUGE improvement already and no more condensation on our bathroom walls! The money we will save on our electric bills alone will pay for the new insulation within 4-5 years. We're only sorry we didn't do this sooner. Kevin, the owner, came out on installation day and walked his workers through the entire job. He also came back at the end of the job to make sure everything was done to our satisfaction. Kevin is a real stand up guy who is honest, personable and has great workers who were very respectful of our home and our belongings. They left no trace of ever being here and I have absolutely no reservations about recommending them highly!

Kevin was knowledgeable and explained the process well. Estimate was reasonable. Installer showed up on time and were very neat.

Discount Energy came to my house and I discussed with him that the basement was cold and the house was drafty, so I wanted an insulation solution. He insisted that the injection cellulose on the first floor and crawlspace was enough to correct the issue as his company had extensive experience dealing with houses such as mine. Some of their competitors even vouched for them so I was convinced. That was all well and good, but it turns out that the basement was still cold afterwards. Additionally the holes they placed in the walls were not fully filled and patched so I had to hire someone (at the cost of $1500) to come behind them to complete the repairs even though they said they would spackle them. I attached some photos of the end result. I thought they were very professional; however, I got the sense I did not receive a complete job. I also had to hire another company to seal the basement properly and now it is much better.

Customer service was great, Kevin answered all my questions and his wife was friendly and responsive in scheduling. The crew was professional and courteous and they did a great job. I would hire them again. Thank you!

The job itself went well, because the installers were excellent individuals and very kind and professional. I do ask that the consumer beware of the after-the-job situation. I now have an adjacent attic that is basically ruined with insulation dust from the job performed in the adjoining attic. I have storage of many valuable items as well as papers and clothing that are covered completely with dust. This could have easily been blocked off with plastic or some fabric. The real issue is that I was told up front that the area would be ok and protected, thus I did not personally do anything before the job started, but now I am left with a mess that I am not sure how to tackle. So I warn all of you just to clarify this up front at the time of contract exactly what is to be done to protect anything that is valuable adjacent to the job being performed.

The workers arrived on time and they explained everything they were going to do. They covered my floors. They took pictures through out doing the work. They put jump suites on and covered their faces and off they went cleaning all the old product out of the attic. They cleaned the attic out completely. They took pictures before and after. Then they took thick padding up to the attic. I also saw them take the baffels in the attic and heard them installing them. Then i saw them bring in the long tube to install the loose cellulose insulation. When they were done more pictures were taken and i peaked in to the attic after they finished. I've never done that before. They took their time to install the insulation and didn't rush. There was one minor issue, but not enough to cause me to say i wouldn't hire them again. The past days have been cold and i can definitely feel the difference now i can't wait until summer to see how cool it stays upstairs. So far for the couple of days of having the insulation it's been good. Oh my reason for getting the insulation was because it would get extremely hot up stairs in the summer and very cold in the winter.

The estimate was good, he was thorough and explained everything well. I felt like he wasn't getting that the walls were lacking insulation and we knew this because our inspector took pictures using an infrared camera so we knew how many places more than likely had no insulation (the inspector warned us to only use a company that had technology that allowed them to see heat in the walls, our fault for failing to do so). He explained his team would consist of workers and a project manager and someone would speak English (thought it was weird that it was mentioned) and it would take a few hours. We were expecting several people but there were only 2. One man spoke no English at all but that was fine, the other communicated well and explained all the steps they were going to take. We agreed to everything that was recommended and I don't feel like it was all completed. We notice NO difference at all upstairs, it's just as hot as before. There was talk of blowing in insulation, I never saw a machine but the texture does look like the pictures and images I've looked up. He recommended putting these boards where the roof goes out, I never saw those come off the truck, and they were supposed to open the vents to the outside but I have no idea if they did. But they did show me steps along the way so I know the knee walls were at least covered in the silver liner that was recommended and some fluffy stuff was in the attic. I mentioned several times that I felt like no one understood the walls needed insulation and the worker was going to contact his boss but it was never addressed. Over all I got stuck with a huge mess, it was super dusty and chunks of insulation were on the floor, carpet, and out on the grass in front of the house- someone mentioned they vacuumed for them, that never happened here plus they removed these little doors to the knee wall and never reattached them-- and our problem isn't fixed but we're out $1600.

The crew was great. They were thorough, worked hard, and did an excellent job with the new insulation. They vacuumed and swept up after their work and left the room in great condition. I only needed to do a little dusting and mop the floors. The attic is noticeably cooler now. I am so happy!

The two installers were respectful of my house. They spread clean drop cloths everywhere they were. We noticed the difference in the temperature of my 2nd floor almost immediately. I should not have waited so long to get this done. They were great workers!

They showed up late for the estimate, but their price was so competitive we proceeded with the job. The team performing the work was great. Showed up right on time and clearly explained what they were going to do and how they were going to do it. Kept me posted throughout and even honored my request to take an "after" picture since this was a home inspection report discrepancy. They were extremely clean and conscientious. I have pets so I asked them to ensure the front storm door closed firmly behind them and they were great about it.

The work was decent. There is a notable improvement in the heating and cooling in the home. It took a full extra day to complete the work than initially planned and began one day late. This resulted in a loss of 4 weekdays for my renovation schedule. Additionally to get the quote Kevin the owner was almost an hour late for our appointment. To collect payment initially I had planned to meet Nicole the owner's wife at the property however she also was over an hour late and I just left payment for her in a secure area. Insulation was not properly cleaned up from the floor. This was less of an issue since the home was undergoing renovation however my other contractors did complain about having to clean up that mess. One scuttle hole was insulated with sheet insulation around it while the other in the main living area had blown insulation all around it. This results in a giant mess if I ever open that scuttle hole. For the price these guys did a good job. They need to be better at estimating how long the job will be and be on time to their appointments. If that means telling their customers that their chosen meeting times are not going to work that is better than being late.

Workmen were professional and knew what they were doing. Upstairs bedrooms were much warmer in the cold months of winter.

Great! There was some confusion on scheduling but the installers and the office worked thru it all. They did their best with the drywall and plaster dust but it was still messy, remove as much furniture, rugs and stuff as you can. They carefully draped plastic everywhere but the drywall dust was still all over. Everyone was really helpful to work with.