Hot upstairs, drafty rooms or thin old insulation? We seal the gaps and add insulation to the house you already live in.
Retrofit insulation in Lake Charles is insulation added to a finished house, laid over the existing attic floor or packed into the wall cavities, so less summer heat gets in and less winter heat gets out, which lowers the power bill.
Most calls start with a room that won't cool down, usually upstairs or over the garage, or a power bill that keeps climbing. In those attics I usually find a few inches of old insulation, open gaps around lights and pipes, and ducts running across the ceiling. Fixing it is rarely one product. It's sealing the gaps, adding insulation where it's thin and keeping what still works.
The price moves with the size of the space, how easy it is to reach, how much old material stays or comes out, how much sealing the ceiling needs, and whether we're adding loose fill or foaming the roofline. Walls add their own work. The schedule turns on the same things, plus any permit check. Your estimate writes down what I found and what we'd do about it, so you can see where the cost comes from.
Before anything gets added, a few facts about your house decide the plan. These are the ones I check first, because getting them wrong is what keeps added insulation from doing its job.
Insulation slows heat but doesn't stop air, so a gap around a can light, a pipe or the attic hatch keeps feeding hot attic air into your rooms. In a vented attic, every opening through the ceiling should be sealed before new insulation goes over it. That work uses sealant, one-part spray foam or rigid blocking, and it comes first.
If a gas furnace or water heater sits in your attic and pulls its air from there, that changes the plan. One spray foam maker's guide says those conventional appliances can't run safely in an attic sealed at the roof. Going that route means sealed-combustion or power-vented equipment, plus a safety inspection before and after the work.
Older walls with little or no insulation don't have to be torn open. Dense-pack, which packs loose insulation tight into each wall cavity, goes in through small holes drilled from the outside or the inside, so the mess and patching stay small. It's worth doing when a room stays uncomfortable after the attic is right.
From the first call to the walk-through, you'll know who's coming out and what they're doing. Here's how a retrofit job runs with us, start to finish.
Call (337) 474-1146 or use the form on this page. It helps to tell us where your attic access is, whether ducts or gas appliances sit up there, and whether you're an Entergy Louisiana customer.
I come out myself, get into the attic, measure, and write down what I find, including any leak, wet wood or wiring that needs a look. Then I go over the estimate with you and show you what I saw.
If you go ahead, we first check permit needs with the office that covers your address. Then our crew does the work the estimate describes, with me or a lead installer on site.
When we're done, we walk you through it. You'll see the sealed spots, the depth across the attic floor and the vents left clear at the eaves, and we'll tell you when the space is ready to use.
Adding insulation to a finished home starts with one decision. Either the attic stays vented, with insulation on the attic floor and the vents under the eaves and at the ridge or gable ends left working, or it gets sealed at the roof, with foam under the roof sheathing and gable walls so the ducts and air handler sit inside the insulated part of the house. Gas appliances up there can change that answer, as noted above.
I also look at how your ducts sit before we bury anything. In humid attic air, ducts covered in new insulation can collect moisture on their surface, and leaky ducts make that worse, so they get sealed and planned around instead of simply covered. When the ducts run all over the attic, spray foam insulation under the roof is often the better plan.
On a floor job, the edges matter as much as the middle. Baffles, small guards at the roof edge, keep the eave vents open so insulation can't spill in and block them, and we aim for a depth as even as we can get across the whole ceiling, because thick in the middle and thin at the edges is backward. Our attic insulation page covers that work in more detail.
We seal the ceiling gaps, protect the eave vents and blow in loose fill through a hose over what's there. It costs less than foam, and for most houses without ducts in the attic, it's the one I'd pick.
Foam goes under the roof deck and on the gable walls, and the vents get closed off. It costs more and seals air while it insulates, so it earns its price when your ducts and air handler live up there.
We reply within one business day. I come out, look over your attic and walls, measure and write down what I find, then give you a free estimate with no obligation to go ahead.
(337) 474-1146Whether insulation work needs a permit here isn't settled by the city's list alone. The city's Permit Center lists building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing work, not insulation, and Calcasieu Parish requires a permit before any construction or remodeling project. Before work starts, we check with the city or parish office that covers your address, and if the job needs a permit, we apply for it and keep you posted.
Around Lake Charles, the attics I climb into usually have ducts and an air handler running through them, insulation that's settled or gone thin at the edges, and a hot room over the garage somewhere below. We're based in Lake Charles and do the same work in the cities around it, including Sulphur and Moss Bluff, plus Jennings, Prien and Orange, TX.
I learned this work on a municipal crew, where every job got written up and checked before anyone signed off, and I started Lake Charles Insulation Company here in 2023 to work the same way. I come out to look at your house and write the estimate myself. Our crew does the work, with me or a lead installer on site.
If I find a roof leak, wet wood or wiring that needs a look, I point it out before any insulation goes in, and we plan around it. Louisiana's contractor licensing board has a license class for residential insulation work, so it's fair to ask any contractor you're considering about licensing. We're licensed and insured.
Your satisfaction, guaranteed. I'd rather you understand the plan than take my word for it, so I explain each choice in plain terms. When you're ready, call (337) 474-1146 or send the form, and I'll come take a look at your attic and walls.
Foam fills odd spaces and seals air in the same pass, which helps in an attic crowded with ducts or a room over the garage that never cools.
If the attic is the only space that needs work, this page explains how we handle the floor, the hatch and the eave vents on their own.
We're based in Lake Charles and work in the cities around it. The cities below have their own pages, and if yours isn't listed, call and ask.
There's no set price, because every attic starts from a different place. The biggest jumps come from removing old material, foaming the roof instead of topping up the floor, and adding dense-pack walls, while a small, easy-to-reach attic with sound insulation costs least. I'll give you a figure once I've seen and measured the space.
Usually not, if it's dry and clean. In one field study of retrofits in hot, humid climates, ceiling jobs typically added blown-in fiberglass right over the existing insulation instead of pulling it out. Material that's been soaked or is full of droppings is different, because new insulation over it keeps the problem, so that comes out first with insulation removal.
It might, so we don't guess. As covered in the Lake Charles section above, we check with the city or parish office for your address before work starts and handle the application if one's needed. If you'd like to ask yourself, the city's Permit Center takes permit questions at 337-491-1294.
You may. Louisiana's Weatherization Assistance Program can include insulation and air sealing, with household income setting the minimum requirements, though the program says help isn't guaranteed. Entergy Louisiana customers, owners or renters, may qualify for ceiling insulation and air sealing through Income-Qualified Solutions if the household meets LIHEAP income requirements or the head of household is 65 or older.
For sealing and blown-in work on the attic floor, you can usually stay home and just keep kids and pets away from the work area. Spray foam is different, because the maker sets a re-entry time, how long before you can come back inside, and I'll tell you what it is before we schedule.
Clear a path to the attic hatch or pull-down stairs and move anything stored right around it, so the crew isn't carrying hoses past your things. If you keep boxes in the attic, plan to pull the ones near the edges, since that's where we need room to seal and set baffles.
Call (337) 474-1146 or send the form any day of the week, from 8 AM to 9 PM on weekdays and from 6 AM to 9 PM on weekends.
