Open-cell foam insulation in San Clemente CA - a sealed attic that can still dry out

Most people who call me have a room over the garage that bakes all summer, or an upstairs that never cools down, and they've heard foam fixes it. Sometimes it does, but foam costs more than loose fill, so if your ductwork isn't up in the attic, I'll tell you that attic air sealing, closing the gaps before insulating, plus a top-up of what's there usually gets you most of the way for less. When foam does make sense, the price turns on how many square feet we're covering, whether it goes under the roof deck or in the walls, how thick it has to be and whether old insulation has to come out first. The schedule mostly turns on that cleanout and on when your family can stay somewhere else for a while, and the estimate lays out each step in order so you can see what comes first and why.

I start in your attic or crawl space with a flashlight, because what's already up there decides the rest. If the old insulation is soaked or full of droppings, we take it out first, since foam sprayed over a problem just hides it. Then we find your ducts, can lights and eave vents, mask off the rooms below and spray the foam evenly out to the edges, which rushed jobs tend to leave thin. Open-cell costs less than other foam and seals air well, but it lets moisture pass through, so I explain where that matters in your house before we spray anything. When it's going under the roof deck, the estimate spells out how that attic will dry out, and once the foam is trimmed back and the space is cleaned up, I walk you through it.

Open-cell isn't only for houses, and we spray it in offices and shops as part of our commercial insulation work for property managers. Because it lets vapor through, it won't stop ground moisture under a raised floor, so if your crawl space is damp, we'll talk about a crawl space vapor barrier, a heavy plastic sheet over the dirt, before any insulation goes in.

Whether open-cell foam work needs a permit in San Clemente isn't something I'll guess at. The city's Community Development Liaison at 949-361-6100 answers permitting questions and can set up an in-person appointment, and if I'm not sure about a job, I check with the city before we start. When a job does call for a permit, we pull it as the licensed contractor and handle the inspections. The state energy code also sets its rules for a home's outer shell by climate zone, so what's expected of your walls and roof depends on the zone your house sits in.

A lot of what we see here is older houses with ducts running through hot attics, rooms over the garage and remodels that open up walls, which is where foam earns its cost. We see the same kinds of houses in Dana Point and San Juan Capistrano, and we work in cities across south Orange County beyond the ones on this site.