Insulation Before & After in La Habra, CA
Photos don’t lie. A blower-door reading of 4,800 CFM50 dropping to 2,200 tells one story. The thermal camera image showing 34°F attic air leaking through a kitchen soffit tells another. We’ve documented every job since 2016, and this gallery shows what sealing first, then insulating actually looks like in La Habra homes.
Recent Transformations
Attic Air Sealing + Blown-In Fiberglass, La Habra Boulevard Corridor
The homeowner on La Habra Boulevard had added blown-in fiberglass twice before calling us. The attic read R-19 on paper, but the blower-door test showed 4,200 CFM50, meaning conditioned air was escaping faster than the furnace could replace it. We pulled back the existing insulation, sealed every top plate joint with fire-rated caulk, boxed the can lights with airtight covers, and foamed the wire and pipe penetrations. Blower-door retest: 2,100 CFM50. Then we blew in GreenFiber cellulose to R-38. The documented photo record shows the sealed deck before insulation went back down. Wes Okafor signed off on the written scope himself.
Crawl Space Encapsulation & Vapor Barrier, West La Habra Near Whittier Border
This 1952 ranch near the Whittier border had a crawl space that smelled like mildew every time the Santa Ana winds shifted. The existing vapor barrier was shredded in three places, and the fiberglass batts were sagging, collecting moisture from the clay-heavy La Habra soil. We removed the wet insulation, graded the soil, laid a 12-mil reinforced polyethylene liner seam-sealed with vapor-barrier tape, and installed a Santa Fe dehumidifier set to 55% relative humidity. Rim joists got two-part closed-cell spray foam. The after photos show dry joists, sealed piers, and a hygrometer reading of 52% RH three weeks post-install. The homeowner’s written scope included a 10-year vapor-barrier warranty under our 365-Day Done Right Promise.
Spray Foam Insulation, La Habra Heights Adjacent
A homeowner just below La Habra Heights had a 400-square-foot addition that was unusable in July and January. The walls were open studs, and the roof deck had a half-inch of degraded board insulation. We applied Demilec open-cell spray foam to the stud cavities at 3.5 inches, giving an R-13 wall assembly that also air-seals as it insulates. The roof deck got 5.5 inches of open-cell for R-20 with an ignition barrier coating per California Title 24. Blower-door on the addition alone: 1,850 CFM50 before, 420 after. The thermal camera image in the documented photo record shows the wall cavity holding 72°F while the exterior stucco reads 94°F. Written price was $4,800 before work started. No surprises.
Radiant Barrier + Attic Cleaning, Central La Habra Near Imperial Highway
The attic in this 1964 tract home near Imperial Highway was a textbook case of what La Habra’s inland heat does to unprotected roofs. The dark asphalt-shingle deck measured 148°F on an August afternoon, radiating downward through R-11 batts compressed to R-6 by thirty years of foot traffic. Worse, roof rats had tunneled through the fiberglass, leaving contamination that made the insulation a health hazard, not a thermal barrier. Our crew HEPA-vacuumed the entire attic, removed 1,200 pounds of soiled material, sealed all entry points with 1/4-inch hardware cloth, and installed Owens Corning AttiCat blown fiberglass to R-38. The roof deck got a perforated radiant barrier stapled to the rafters, dropping the deck surface temp to 112°F. The after photos show clean joists, new insulation with even depth markers, and the hardware cloth patches at the eave returns. Documented photo record included 47 images. Written scope, written warranty, 365-Day Done Right Promise.
Insulation Removal & Replacement, South La Habra Near Beach Boulevard
A roof leak near the Beach Boulevard corridor had been fixed six months prior, but the insulation underneath was still damp in pockets and stained across 40% of the attic floor. The homeowner’s allergy symptoms had started right after the leak. We removed all compromised material, treated the attic deck with an antimicrobial, ran a moisture meter until every joist bay read below 16% wood moisture content, then air-sealed the full deck before blowing in new Knauf EcoFill cellulose to R-38. The moisture-meter readings at each stage are in the documented photo record, along with the before-and-after blower-door numbers: 3,800 CFM50 pre-sealing, 1,900 after. The written scope specified the moisture-content threshold that had to be met before new insulation could go in. Haven Standard Clause 1: flat price, written scope, written warranty before anyone lifted a tool. Total was $3,400.
Home Energy Audit with Full Envelope Upgrade, East La Habra Near Idaho Street
This energy audit started with a homeowner complaint: “The back bedroom is always ten degrees off.” The thermal camera showed exactly why. Air was streaming in at the soffit-to-wall junction and pouring through the unsealed rim joist band in the crawl space. The blower-door test read 5,100 CFM50 for a 1,680-square-foot house, which is roughly what you’d expect from a home with a 400-square-foot hole in the envelope. We air-sealed the attic floor completely, foamed the rim joists with closed-cell spray foam, dense-packed the exterior walls with GreenFiber cellulose through drill-and-fill, and added R-38 blown fiberglass over the sealed deck. Final blower-door: 2,400 CFM50. The back bedroom now tracks within 2°F of the thermostat setpoint. The documented photo record includes the thermal images, the blower-door printouts, and the depth markers in the attic. Written price before work started: $6,200. The homeowner brought us a competing quote at $5,400 for insulation only, no air sealing. Our Free Second Opinion walked through why that quote would have left the 5,100 CFM50 leak rate unchanged.
Want Results Like These?
Every job starts with a written price, a written scope, and a written warranty before anyone lifts a tool. Call (562) 267-3291 to schedule your assessment. A live person answers 24/7. Ask about our Free Second Opinion if you already have a competing quote, we’ll read it with you line by line.
Written by Wes Okafor, Owner at Topside Attic Insulation La Habra, serving La Habra since 2016.