A Cellulose Weekend

[Yuriatin]

So this wknd, it was all about the Cellulose – insulation that is.

This past winter was the first in this house.

We barely survived.

Sometimes, it felt like it was warmer outside than in!

This house was built in the ‘50s and back then, in this area, nobody was thinking too much about insulation.

Exactly why – I don’t know but suffice it to say, there was next to nothing of insulation inside the exterior walls of our house.

Building homes was a bit different back then and also, people didn’t worry too much over heating costs.

And after all – oil and gas were nowhere close to way people pay nowadays.

We had insulated our attic (hubby did it on his own) some months ago and that help a bit – but we knew more had to be done.
<span style="font-style: italic">
So off we go ... !</span>

[Yuriatin]

Re: A Cellulose Weekend

The heart of this endeavor actually started last year.

We knew straight away after moving in, that the house didn’t do too well retaining heat.

After we settled in a bit, we had an energy audit.

The state has a rebate program where you get back X amount of $ if you do the repairs/upgrades/recommendations they give.

$125 for the audit.

You also get that $125 back if you do the repairs/upgrades/recommendations.

I did a lot of research on this program.

In order to get the rebate, you have to use companies that they recommend to do the work.

Already, I didn’t like that game, but – whatever ...

[Yuriatin]

Re: A Cellulose Weekend

After my own research, we found that the main, or only solution that could help us, was blown in insulation for the exterior walls. They’d told us this after the audit but I’d been skeptical.

I got in touch with one of the contractors on their list.

We had them come out, check over the house and give us an estimate.

Nice enuff people, I guess – but some little things about them bugged me.

Every single time I would talk to them, they would ALWAYS have me on speaker phone.

Every single conversation was all,

<span style="font-style: italic">“... huh – what was that?”</span>

<span style="font-style: italic">... delay, delay ...

.. dead air, dead air ...

... talking over one another ... hollow sound, hollow sound ...</span>

It was maddening!

Finally one day I had to just tell her to pick up the dang phone.

[Yuriatin]

Re: A Cellulose Weekend

Anyway, they gave us an estimate – to blow the insulation and do the needed air sealing:

$6100

After I woke up from my fainting spell, we decided to move forward.

Of that $6100, we’d get back an amount of $2100.

We had to put down a deposit of half after we scheduled a time.

We signed the papers and moved to try and schedule a date.

This was difficult – trying to find a date where we could both be home at the same time and a date that the company could fit us in.

This lead to the 2nd matter the irked me about them.

Now, you KNOW how Mr. Yuri is.
<span style="font-style: italic">
Seerus as a judge!</span>

Now way, no HOW, is he going to let ANYBODY do ANYTHING to his house without him being there.

This contractor kept saying that we didn’t need to be there at all for them to do the work.

This shoulda been my first red flag.

[Yuriatin]

Re: A Cellulose Weekend

The sticker shock was painful.

Do we do the work or freeze this coming winter?

I tried to get them to come down a bit – no go.

We had to sit, simmer and think this over a bit.

Then it dawned on us, “Why are we not getting other estimates?”

We decided to go outside of the rebate program and proceeded to call 4 other peeps.

TONY $3700 negotiated down to $3400
Real great guy – you could tell he knew his stuff. We loved him. Plus, they’d done some other types of work for several people in the neighborhood – they had glowing recommendations. Dude was hungry for the job.

PETER $3600
This guy moved slower than molasses. Nice enuff fellow but we just weren’t feeling him. First off, he wanted to do the work from INSIDE the house. No way.

MIKE $3680 negotiated down to $3200
Sharp! Loved him. Totally knew his stuff. Great recommendations.

Then and there, we decided weren’t going with the state recommended guy. By now it was clear how the program worked. They charge a whole heapa money so that they can get their pocket lined. No thanks.

We were torn between Tony and Mike. BOTH were extremely competent and could do the job with no problem. Were were going to go back and try and neg more with Tony but in the end, decided to go with Mike $3200.

Tony was absolutely crushed – brah man seemed to be counting on the job – times are hard.

So next thing you know ... funny enuff ...

[Yuriatin]

Re: A Cellulose Weekend

The 4th guy who I’d called – we kept playing phone tag for a couple days.

After a while, I finally got him and told him that it was too late – we’d already decided on someone.

He kept saying that we should at least let him give an estimate. He was very, vey nice over the phone so I said yes.

It was hard to coordinate a time for him to come by without one of us taking off work, blah, blah, blah, so he said no problem – he’d just drive by this house and walk around it, if we gave our permission.

He did.

And guess what his estimate was ...

When I heard the $, I thought that I needed to get some qtips or something or maybe I was on candid camera.

Surely this was a scam.

We asked him to come by the next Sat and talk with us.

In the mean time, I checked him out good and plenty.

I checked to see if he had any judgments against him
I checked his state license
I checked that his insurance was current and history of claims
I found out where he lived and how long he’d lived there <span style="font-size: 8pt"><span style="color: #FF0000">
(I have this thing that I need to KNOW where u live if ur doing work for me – after all, you know where I live – if things go south, I want to be able to find you)</span></span>
I checked him out on the Better Business Bureau
I checked his references

All came back sterling and clean.

It also was interesting to me that on his website, he talked very briefly (just one sentence) about how he likes to go to church on his down time and spend time with his children.

So when he came to talk to us, I was looking forward to meeting him.

[Yuriatin]

Re: A Cellulose Weekend

Let me back up a second – so on existing housing with this problem, it calls for blown in insulation.

Clearly you can tear down the house to reinsulate it so you have to pump insulation INTO the walls.

There’s basically 2 types of insulation that can be blown in: fiberglass and cellulose.

There are 2 methods of doing so: you can blow it in from the outside of the house or from inside.

You have to know exactly what you’re doing.

One false move, one wrongly drilled hole and you can just call it a day.

Video here shows what the process looks like:

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,20047052,00.html

We don’t have shingles but the process is the same. You can do this on any house – brick, shingle, siding – whatever ...

[Gen]

Re: A Cellulose Weekend

why mi did think yuh seh cellulite

[kia027]

Re: A Cellulose Weekend

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Gen</div><div class="ubbcode-body">why mi did think yuh seh cellulite </div></div>

[Stormmey]

Re: A Cellulose Weekend



waiting on Yuri getting to winterize cottage.

[Seveen]

Re: A Cellulose Weekend

i would love to see a before and after pic

[Yuriatin]

Re: A Cellulose Weekend

Gen - yuh no seh yuh sick, bad, bad!

[Yuriatin]

Re: A Cellulose Weekend

So about 2 weeks ago, the 4th guy - Dave - comes and meets with us. He walks the outside of the house and again, and now comes inside and checks out the basement and a few other places.

Right away, I'm ready for the bait and switch.

He writes up the estimate.

SHOCK AND AWE!

$1500 - TOTAL for an 1800sq ft house.

Not just shock and awe - skepticism.

Then - he proceeds to tell us that he <span style="font-weight: bold">DOESN'T TAKE DEPOSITS</span>!!!

He says he wants his customers to trust him and he hasn't taken deposits for the last 15 of his 30 years in the business.

<span style="font-weight: bold">(Be still my heart - I'm weak in the knees - I'm in luv )</span>

We let it all hang out and we share all our doubts.

Why's this so much lower than all the other costs we've gotten ...

[Yuriatin]

Re: A Cellulose Weekend

He tells us that the other guys were just plain overcharging us what the job was worth.

He explains that it'll only take him 1 day with him and his 2 workers, to do the job.

He says all the other guys take 2 and 3 days for the job because they stretch it out to make it APPEAR, that it's a long drawn out affair. The other contractors take day 1 to remove your siding or shingles.

They then take day 2 to drill the holes and fill.

Or they stretch it out further and just fill on day 3.

And sure enuff, that's how the others basically quoted it to us.

Dave told that he was doing a job the following week about 5 or 6 miles from our house and that he'd clear it with this customer, and if we wanted, we could come by and watch him work.

Say no more ...

[Yuriatin]

Re: A Cellulose Weekend

So the next weekend, we go out to the address he gave us and met his customers and we watched him work for about 2 hours.

It was a thing of beauty and we hired him the very next day.

But wait - it gets better ...