Air sealing services in San Clemente CA - fewer drafts and rooms that hold steady

Most people call us about a drafty bedroom, a hot upstairs or the room over the garage that never feels right, and the leaks behind those are rarely where you'd look first. The price depends on how many leaks we find, how easy your attic and crawl space are to get into, and whether old insulation or a wet spot has to be dealt with before we seal. The schedule turns on the same things, plus any insulation you want done at the same time. I write every estimate out step by step, so you'll see your own price and what comes first, and if the attic needs more insulation after the sealing, attic insulation is the natural next step.

Before we seal anything, I look at your gas appliances, like the furnace, water heater and stove, and at how the house gets its fresh air, because a tighter house changes how those appliances vent. We plan a drafting check, a quick test that shows the exhaust is going up the flue, before the work and again after it. Then our crew goes hunting, mostly up in the attic and down in the crawl space, for the gaps around can lights, pipes, wires and the attic hatch, and seals each one with caulk, foam or gaskets that fit the gap. Only once the leaks are closed does any new insulation go in, and we keep the eave vents clear so the attic can still breathe.

Sealing often leads into connected work. If your ducts run through the attic, closed-cell foam insulation, a dense foam that also blocks moisture, can be worth its higher price because it seals air and insulates in one pass. Otherwise I'll usually steer you toward sealing the gaps and topping up loose fill, since that costs less and does the job. In a house with a lower level, we can pair the sealing with basement insulation so the leaks down low get the same attention as the ones up top.

The city's Building and Safety Division handles permits and inspections for new construction, additions, renovations, alterations and remodels in San Clemente. When a job calls for a permit, we pull it as the licensed contractor and handle the inspections, and if I'm not sure about a job, I check with the city before we start. The city strongly discourages homeowners from pulling permits as their own contractor, because you'd then carry the liability for bad work by anyone you hire. If a remodel is coming up, plan the sealing into it, since California's Energy Code requires the building shell to be air sealed and limits air leakage in additions and alterations to existing houses.

On jobs around town we often find can lights cut through the ceiling, a hatch with nothing sealing it and a room over the garage leaking on three sides. We see the same mix of older houses and newer tracts in Dana Point and San Juan Capistrano, and we seal them the same careful way.