Air sealing services in Mount Pleasant SC - rooms that stop feeling drafty

Most people who call me have a drafty room, a hot upstairs or an attic they aren't sure about, and many expect more insulation to fix it when the real trouble is air moving through gaps underneath. The price depends mostly on how many leaks we find, how hard they are to reach, whether old insulation has to be moved first and how much of the easy work you'd like to do yourself. The schedule turns on attic and crawl space access, what turns up when I look the house over and whether the building office needs a permit. If the old material turns out to be soaked or full of droppings, insulation removal may need to come first. At the estimate I look over the spaces, explain what I found and what I'd suggest, and give you a figure for your own house.

Before we seal anything, I look over the house for trouble, such as old wiring, signs of water and fuel-burning appliances, because sealing a house tighter changes how it breathes. An older attic air sealing guide lists live knob and tube wiring, vermiculite insulation, bathroom fans venting into the attic and roof leaks among the things to check first, and it calls for stopping work if any turn up, so if I find one, we stop and talk it over with you. Then we hunt for leaks, because many of them hide where a homeowner can't easily reach, under the attic insulation and around can lights, pipes, wires and the hatch. We seal the sources we find with caulk, foam and weatherstripping and keep the eave vents clear so the attic can still breathe. If you'd like to handle the easy gaps yourself, I'll point them out and our crew will focus on the hidden ones.

Air sealing often sits next to other work. If air comes in where your house meets the foundation, we can seal it as part of basement insulation. Closed-cell foam insulation, a dense foam that blocks moisture, seals air while it insulates, but it costs more, so I usually suggest sealing the gaps and topping up loose fill unless your ductwork runs through the attic.

In Mount Pleasant, a building permit is required for construction valued above an amount the Building Official sets or work that needs a structural inspection, and for installing, altering, repairing or replacing any electrical, gas, mechanical or plumbing system. Whether a given air sealing job falls under that isn't settled ahead of time, because the Town of Mount Pleasant's plan reviewers decide what permits, if any, a project needs once they see its details. Before work starts, we send those details to the building inspection office, and if your job needs a permit, we handle the application and keep you informed.

Many of the houses I see here are lived-in homes where insulation has been added over the years, and the leaks sit underneath it, around old light fixtures, plumbing runs and the attic hatch. We move that material carefully, check whether any of it is soaked or full of droppings before anything goes back, and we meet the same kinds of attics on jobs in Charleston and Summerville.