Southland Insulators

had to request several times to get all of the firestopping done to pass inspection. Employee said it was too hard. Some of the air selant work was sloppy. extra provision on contract was to use sound attenuation insulation on ALL bathroom walls. they said that some of the bath walls adjoined to closets and didn't need attenuation. But the contract was explicit in saying all bathroom walls. I don't like to have to argue contract specifics. The proposal was vague.

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Great! A ceiling was damaged (drywall), but they very quickly had that repaired. Team was on time and finished all of the work very efficiently, leaving the workspace clean.

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While they did a good job on the insulation, on both occasions that they were supposed to come and do the work, they did not show up. The first time they were supposed to come to install wall insulation and partially finish the attic they did not show up and thus the county insulation inspection failed. After that, they finished that part of the job and it was done well. However, they forgot to blow-in insulation for the rest of the attic. After a couple of months, they were scheduled to come and finish the job, but again they did not show up, but insured us that they will on the next day. Most of the day passed, and at 4pm, they said their machine was broken, so they would do it in yet another day. That did not happen, and again a no show. Finally after a week, they came and finished the insulation. They do good work but their scheduling and organization is horrible. Thus, I would stay away form them in the future.

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I called southland insulators and got the phone number from my General contractor. My gc told me that the existing insulation on the attic was not enough. 
 The estimator came on time and gave me price with in a day. I didn't had the chance to compare the prices with any other company but price seemed ok. So we decided to hire them.
 They came with in a week after we signed the contract and completed all the work in a day. They were very professional and cleaned after them, i would recommend them to everyone. Great company.

The estimator never showed, and has never attempted to call to explain why or reschedule.

Everyone was terrific. The work was done promptly. I thought they did a great job with the work and I would definitely recommend them to anyone that needs insulation work done.

Their ?solution? was a HORRENDOUS DISASTER:

When Southland sprayed the foam in our house they should have told us to leave the house for at least 24 hours.  This is one of the first and foremost guidelines from the EPA.  Instead, I worked in my office on the second floor keeping an eye on the installers and breathed the chemicals they sprayed.

 Southland should have provided ventilation after they sprayed the foam ? SPFs expel gasses that are very toxic as they solidify.  They never told us this and let my pregnant wife, 1 year-old child, and me sleep among the fumes they?d trapped inside my house.  My wife lost the baby three months later.

Southland denied that there could be any foam smell in my house more than a day after the installation. 
Month after month I complained but they said it would go away.  How could it when they had sprayed over any way for the smell to escape but into the second floor where we sleep?  I rented two industrial fans with wide tubing to pull the air out of the attic and out my closet window.  I had to do this throughout a very cold
winter.  My heating bill tripled and my family and I slept in the basement for seven months.

We still smell the foam especially on hot days.  What are we breathing?  An air quality specialist found several toxic and carcinogenic gases, which we are now addressing.  This has already cost us $1000.

More than one roof specialist has told us that we have now shortened the lifespan of our roof rafters by covering them with foam and by closing the airflow from our soffits.

We are remediating all of these issues to make the house habitable and safe, which has cost us time and money.

Southland, a company we thought we could trust, made terrible recommendations and installed a truly deadly product in our house.  They made no efforts to remediate the problem.  They never owned any
responsibility for not venting our house properly after installation.  The president never responded to my
questions.  Ever.  They never even offered as much as an apology.

We left messages with this company multiple times to get an estimate. The only reason why we tried more than once was because the company was recommended by our contractor. During the week and a half we were able to obtain 3 other quotes that were essentially in line with each other price-wise. We eventually gave up and selected a different company we found via Angie's list. They didn't even call back the first time we left a message. The only reason this company did not get a full on "F" is that they did attempt to call back, even if it wasn't in any sort of timely manner.

The entire experience was a nightmare.  The sales
person, who visited twice to provide a more accurate quote, "left"
the company before the work was performed.  There were items on the
proposal that I specifically questioned and was told not to worry about
them.  Parking permits being my biggest concern given the fact we live in
the District and street parking can be tricky -- we were told not to worry
about it.
Visit one from Southland - they arrive with a 28ft box truck.  We did not
secure parking permits because the sales person told us we didn't need
them.  Southland left because there was no place to park their truck.
Visit two - the crew arrives to tell us that the rooms need to be ENTIRELY
clear of all furniture - something our sales person should have told us but
didn't.  We were also told that the sales rep quoted ceiling removal for
our garage - something outside the scope / capabilities of Southland.  
After moving as much furniture as we could and agreeing that they would need to
come back for a thrid visit after our contractor removed the garage ceiling
(that they were supposed to do), the team started their work.  About 45
minutes into spraying the foam, the Southland equipment catches fire. 
Luckily, there was no damage to our house or their crew.  After trying to
swap out the original hoses (that caught fire) with spare hoses from their
truck, they couldn't get generators/pumps in the truck restarted after they hit
the emergency shut-off switch to help stop the fire.  Visit three which was already scheduled was
necessary to finish the upstairs as well as the garage.
Visit three ? the crew arrived.  No fires. Equipment worked but in the midst
of spraying the foam in our garage ceiling the team knocked electrical wiring
loose causing us to lose power in the back half of our house.  Their field supervisor came out and informed
us that the problem was beyond their scope and we needed to have our electrician
look at the problem.  One after-hours
visit and several hundred dollars later, our electrician was able to resolve
the problem.
In all, a job that should have taken a day took over 3.5
weeks.  This entire time, the back half
of my house was without a ceiling or insulation. 
When a woman from the Southland office called to see how
things went with the job, I told her the entire saga and she promised to drive
this to resolution (she was actually pleasant and apologetic?and no longer with
Southland).  Once the electrician
provided our GC with an invoice, the only consideration given by Southland was
to deduct the cost of the electrician for the bill.  When we tried to call the office to discuss
the further consideration for our overall experience, we were routed to
Wayne.  Wayne proceeded to tell us that
the fire was an act of god. He also ?explained? that the problems with the
parking and the parts of the proposal that fell outside of Southland?s normal
scope/capabilities were our fault not theirs. 
Customer service is clearly not Wayne?s strong suit?thus this lengthy
post on Angie?s list. 
Southland came recommended to me by a friend.  Unfortunately, I didn?t realize that her GC
handled everything with Southland. 
Perhaps they?re nicer to GC?s?my experience was awful. 

Southland Insulators were great.  I have been in the energy efficiency industry for 15 years in New England and I've hired and overseen insulation contractors for large multifamily properties.  However, our family is new to Virginia and I didn't know any insulators in this area.  My friend had used them on her house and I decided to give Southland Insulators a try when insulating my attic on our 1950s house.  I was very pleased with the job and they really stand out compared to some of the insulation/air sealing contractors I've worked with.   A huge part of energy savings is air sealing and Southland Insulators team did an incredible job air sealing all the gaps in our attic.  They did all the air sealing by the book.  Their air sealing equipment actually broke during the job, so they needed to come back an extra day.  I think many insulation contractors would probably just skip the air sealing piece (because most homeowners don't realize how inmportant it is) and just go onto the insulation in a situation like this.  Instead, their team came back  an extra day to get the work done right.   Our house is much cooler this summer as compared to last summer, because of the insulation and air sealing.  
I would definitely recommend them.

After visiting my home in late April 2013 to review the work we wanted done, Tom Ward of Southland Insulation arranged to have two of his men work independent of his company on April 27, 2013, to remove old fiberglass insulation in our basement. He also arranged for me to have a dumpster come to haul the  old insulation away. The two workers showed up promptly and did a fine job. The arrangement with the dumpster company also worked out well. Then things went downhill. Mr. Ward, after a number of phone calls finally paid a second visit to our home to again take measurements and assess the work to be done. He assured me he knew what we wanted done and he could do it. Unfortunately, he never did anything. Several times he promised to give me a written quote but never did so. After repeated calls, many unanswered, he finally assured me he would have a quote for me right away and would have the work done on May 8. That day came and went with nothing done. Again, repeated phone calls went unheeded until May 17 when I finally reached him and we agreed he would produce a contract and have all work completed durning the week of May 27-31. He assured me this was a firm commitment.  After staying home that week waiting for him to appear nothing happen. I called his office on the afternoon of May 31 and was told he was on vacation! That did it for me. My patience had run out and I told the woman answering the phone that I wanted nothing more to do with him. He gives a good sales pitch but was unresponsive. I would not recommend his services to anyone.

I called and the receptionist said she'd have a salesman call me back. Two days later I received a call and set up an appointment.  The salesman never showed up and never called to say he'd be late or needed to reschedule.

The crew arrived just after 8 AM on the date specified and proceeded to put down plastic sheeting everywhere their various hoses would be placed. I really appreciated that. They worked all day and left the house neat. The next day they worked outside in spite of the rain and finished up on the third day. I am impressed by the professionalism of our whole experience with Southland. I expect to have a much cooker house this summer and a much warmer one next winter.

After thoroughly researching insulation companies and methods, I decided Southland was the right company to insulate our house because they helped me through the process and explained their lingo and methods and gave me options and time to consider what made sense. Our salesman Adam was very friendly and helpful through the whole process. I ultimately chose Southland because I knew they would be honest, responsive, and clear with what we would be getting and would be flexible and reasonable if we needed to change something. Shopping around for insulation is not straightforward because the methods are complicated, the industry lingo is confusing, and each company has a different opinion on which method to use, especially in the crawlspace. When we talked with , I couldn't follow what they were talking about (e.g., "foam" can mean that fancy purple spray foam insulation or "rigid foam board" or just those gap sealing stuff that comes in spray-paint cans.). It was hard prying these details out from other companies because other companies weren't patient explaining the choices. Very good work by Southland.

Two young men arrived at 8:00 a.m. and started work.  All was completed by 10:30.  They additionally installed weatherstripping around my back door, and included a sweep at the bottom to seal doorway from air leakage.  Together, the work performed has made a big difference in the temperature of the downstairs area.  While still cool, it is much warmer than before the work was completed.  I would definitely use this company again.

Great- very professional.  both sales and execution teams.  fast, very neat and most importantly my home is warmer.  Thanks.

Great, no real issues

The short story:  Tom and Juan are fantastic.  They each possess a level of knowledge and expertise that is often hard to come by these days.  They spent over two hours with me and were genuinely interested in helping me solve my problem.  I will use them for all my insulation needs and happily recommend them.
The long story:
Tom and Juan came out to look at my basement and discuss the possible cause of, and solution to, a basement mold problem.  Over the past few months I've had many different contractors look at this problem including mold remediators, HVAC technicians, building engineers and basement waterproofers and none of them could provide as thorough an explanation as to the precise cause of the problem.  Tom, on the other hand, was able to explain how condensation was building up in my finished basement wall due to a combination of water vapor passing through the foundation wall and warm air coming through the band joist. 
After identiying the cause, Tom and Juan helped me plan how to partially rebuild the finished basement walls so the problem will not reoccur.  After I've rebuilt the walls I plan to use Southland to sprayfoam insulate my basement.