Drafty rooms, hot upstairs or a power bill that keeps climbing? We find the hidden leaks and seal them so your house stops leaking.
Air sealing services in Carson City close the gaps that let your heated and cooled air slip out of the house, mostly up through the attic. We do it before any new insulation goes in, so that insulation isn't fighting a draft.
Most people point to the front door, and sure, those gaps count. The bigger leaks usually hide where you'd never look, around the pipes, wires and can lights that poke up through your ceiling and around the attic hatch, often buried under the insulation that's already up there. That's why a house with plenty of insulation can still have a cold hallway or a hot upstairs, because the air is going right around it.
What moves the price is how many of those openings there are, how much old insulation we have to pull back to reach them and how easy your attic is to get around in, along with the age of the house, since older homes tend to collect more holes over the years. The schedule mostly turns on what I find up there, because wet insulation or insulation full of droppings has to come out before we seal anything, and on whether your address needs a permit. I'll give you your own number after I've been in the attic with you.
I spent my early working years behind a desk, which is a fine place for paperwork and a terrible place to find an air leak. I started this business in 2017, and here's how a job with us goes.
I do every estimate visit myself, and I'd like you at the hatch with me while I point out where the air's getting through. If your house doesn't need much, I'll say so, because sealing what isn't leaking is just money spent.
Before you decide anything, I go over what I found, which leaks we'd seal and anything up there that has to be dealt with first. You'll know what the work covers and why each piece is on the list.
Our installers do the work, with a lead installer in charge of your house from prep to cleanup, and we're fully licensed and insured. When we're done, I walk you through what we sealed so you're not left wondering what we did up there.
We go after the leaks you can't see, not just the ones by the doors. That means getting up in the attic, pulling back the old insulation where things pass through the ceiling, sealing each gap with foam or caulk that fits the opening, and only then putting insulation back over it. The doors and windows get their turn too, but they're usually the smaller part of the job.
Some houses call for more than gaps and caulk. Closed-cell foam insulation, a dense foam that blocks air and moisture, seals and insulates in one pass, but it costs more, so I usually recommend sealing the gaps and topping up the loose fill, the fluffy insulation blown in through a hose, unless your ductwork runs through the attic, where foam earns its price. Air also sneaks in where the house sits on its foundation, and we can seal those spots while we're doing basement insulation.
Doing things in the right order matters more than any one product, so we run every air sealing job in this sequence.
Before anything gets sealed, we look the work area over for live knob and tube wiring, the old cloth-wrapped kind, vermiculite insulation, bath fans that blow into the attic and roof leaks. Sealing over any of those just locks a problem in, so they get dealt with first, and if there's vermiculite, we stop and talk with you before anyone disturbs it.
We pull back the insulation at the usual leak spots, around pipes, wires, lights, the hatch and the tops of walls, because that's where air moves even when the attic looks fine from below. Dark, dusty streaks in old insulation often show us exactly where it's been going.
Most gaps get foam or caulk, but around a metal flue or a masonry chimney, building codes usually call for a gap between the hot surface and anything that can burn, insulation included. The right way to close that space is lightweight aluminum flashing and heat-resistant caulk, not ordinary sealant.
Once the gaps are closed, the insulation goes back, or gets topped up if you're adding more, at full depth out to the edges instead of piled in the middle. Then we clean up the attic and the path through your house before we leave.
Send a request or call (775) 227-5588, and tell us which rooms feel drafty, where your attic access is and which appliances in the house burn gas. We respond within one business day, and most of the time it's me calling you back to set up a visit. The estimate is free and done on site, with no obligation.
(775) 227-5588Yes, you can seal the obvious leaks yourself, like gaps around door frames and the spots where pipes, vents and wires pass through an outside wall. The small, hard-to-find leaks are another story, especially in the attic under layers of insulation, and that's where it's worth bringing in a pro. If you've already handled the easy ones, tell us when you call so I can focus on the rest.
Energy assessors usually use a blower door test, a big fan set in an outside doorway that pulls air out of the house so the leaks give themselves away, along with thermal camera images that show where air is slipping through. That testing finds leaks you'd never spot by eye, so it's fair to ask whether a quote includes it. When I'm up in your attic, I'll also show you the dirty streaks in old insulation that mark where air has been moving.
Yes, as long as your gas appliances get checked afterward, because a tighter house can make it easier for carbon monoxide to build up if a furnace, water heater or dryer isn't venting properly. Once we're done, we'll ask you to have a heating and cooling technician check the venting on each one. It's a normal last step on a careful job, not a sign anything went wrong.
In Carson City, applications for altering an existing house go to the city's Building Division, which takes documents through its portal and can help with filling out or submitting one. Only the property owner, an authorized agent or a licensed contractor can legally sign and submit that application. The rules differ between Carson City, the counties and the cities around us, so we check with the office that covers your address, and if your job needs a permit, we take care of the paperwork.
Size matters on the licensing side too. Nevada's State Contractors Board lists repair or maintenance work under $1,000, labor and materials counted together, among its handyman exemptions, but that exemption has limits, such as when a building permit is required, so it's worth checking where your job falls before you hire. We're based in Carson City and work across the cities around it, from Reno and Sparks down to Gardnerville and up to Incline Village, and the hidden leaks we chase show up in older homes and newer builds alike.
Sealing is easiest while the attic floor is still open, so if you're planning new insulation, a call to (775) 227-5588 now saves pulling it all back later.
If one room in your house never feels quite right, send us a note and we'll talk it through.
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