Blown-In Insulation for Existing Walls
Your walls don't have to come down to get insulated. Abraham dense-packs them from the outside, or from the inside when the outside won't work, and most houses take one to three days.
4.9 stars from 136 Google reviewsFree estimate
- About a 10 to 15 minute visit
- Your bid, usually within 24 hours
- Abraham calls or texts back within one business day.
Estimates are free within a half-hour drive of Des Moines.
- Owner on site for every job
- Same crew for 16 years, no subcontractors
- Over 2,000 homes since 2008
- Insured up to $2 million
Filling a finished wall in one to three days
- 1
Pick the side to work from
Abraham fills walls from the outside when he can, which keeps the work out of your living space, and from the inside when the outside won't work. You'll know which before the job starts.
- 2
Dense-pack every cavity
Insulation is blown into each cavity between the studs and packed tight, so it fills the space completely instead of sitting loose at the bottom. Packed that tight, it also slows air moving through the wall.
- 3
Patch the holes
Every hole is patched with a filler that won't shrink or crack, so the patches don't open back up later.
- 4
Done in one to three days
Wall jobs usually run one to three days, depending on the size of the house and how many walls are being filled.
Free estimate
- About a 10 to 15 minute visit
- Your bid, usually within 24 hours
- Abraham calls or texts back within one business day.
Estimates are free within a half-hour drive of Des Moines.
Old houses, newer houses, and walls that already have batts
Wall insulation works on homes of any age. Older houses are the obvious case, since many were built with little or nothing in the exterior walls. Poor sidewall insulation is one of the three problems Abraham runs into most, along with poor attic insulation and poor ventilation.
Newer suburbs are a different story. About 8 in 10 Waukee homes and about 6 in 10 Ankeny homes were built since 2000. Even walls that already have fiberglass batts can be improved. Batts get cut and squeezed around wiring and outlet boxes, and fiberglass is porous. As Abraham puts it, fiberglass "allows for air movement to work its way through the insulation." Dense-packed insulation fills the whole cavity, gaps included.
Where Central Iowa's older walls are
| Town | How old the housing is |
|---|---|
| Windsor Heights | Roughly 9 in 10 homes predate 1980; about half predate 1960 |
| Des Moines | About half built before 1960, and about a quarter in 1939 or earlier |
| Carlisle | About 6 in 10 built before 1980, and almost half of all homes in the 1960s and 1970s |
| Indianola | About half built before 1980, and about a quarter before 1960 |
| Ames | About 4 in 10 built before 1980 |
| Urbandale | About a third built before 1980 |
| West Des Moines | About 1 in 8 built before 1960 |
Find out whether your walls are empty, thin or full
Abraham will look at the house, tell you which side he'd fill the walls from, and give you a bid for the job. If the walls already have batts, he'll tell you whether dense-packing them is worth it.
Cold outlets and cold corners: signs the walls need filling
Wall problems show up in the rooms along the outside of the house:
- Exterior walls that feel cold to your hand in winter
- Drafts at outlets and switches on outside walls
- Corner rooms that run colder than the middle of the house
- A bedroom on an outside corner that needs a space heater every winter
- Rooms that still don't hold temperature after the attic has been insulated
If the walls don't improve the way you agreed
If the job doesn't make the improvement you agreed on, Abraham comes back and reworks it at no extra cost. The material carries a 20-year warranty from Insulate Iowa.
Existing-wall insulation questions
Is any house too old for wall insulation?
No. Abraham works on homes of any age, and older homes are where empty or thin walls are most common. He fills them from the outside when he can and closes every hole with a filler that won't shrink or crack.
What affects the price of blown-in insulation for existing walls?
Mostly the size of the house, how many walls are being filled, what's in them now, and whether the work can be done from outside. There's no set price because no two houses are the same, so Abraham gives you a bid after he's seen yours.
What does dense-packing mean?
The insulation is blown into each wall cavity tight, so the cavity is packed full rather than loosely filled.
If the attic is already done, are the walls still worth insulating?
Usually, yes. They lose heat in different places: the attic covers the ceiling, while the walls wrap every outside side of the house. Poor sidewall insulation is one of the three problems Abraham sees most, and a well-insulated attic won't make up for empty walls.
Will wall insulation cut down outside noise?
It can help some, since a filled wall carries less sound than an empty one. For noise between rooms inside the house, Abraham's sound work goes into interior walls and floors.
Get a free estimate
Tell us about the house and what's bothering you. Abraham calls or texts back within one business day.
Estimates are free within a half-hour drive of Des Moines.
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