Insulation Scam Alert

WEBVTT
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All right, Laura.
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Jim.
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Alright, every now and then I hear about scams?
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Yeah, it's a scam.
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But let's call it what it is.
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It's a scam.
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It's not always a scam if there's a good reason.
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But I'll hear where somebody says, hey, this company says I need to get new insulation because my insulation is over 20 years old.
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Okay, that's a scam.
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That's a scam.
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Because insulation does not have an expiration date.
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And I don't I don't know.
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Maybe maybe it's irritated.
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It doesn't wear out.
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Now, so there's a couple areas where insulation could justify replace re ripping it out.
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But not just because of its age.
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Never just because of its age.
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Now, all right, so there's R value, which is the level of insulation.
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R is for resistance of heat transfer, is what that stands for.
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So anyway, if you have an older house, insulation's been up there for 30 years.
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Well, probably 30 years ago, the the recommended amount of insulation was quite a bit less than it is nowadays.
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Isn't it like 35 now?
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Well, sometimes I see 38, I see her 49.
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Some places want R60.
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Really?
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Yeah.
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Oh no, Canada, the one something like that.
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But I used to do remember I did the energy audits.
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Yeah, I remember those.
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That's cool.
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It's been a while.
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It's been a long time since I did that, like 15 years maybe, but I had calculated our old house, adding insulation, the the return on it, okay.
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It was like 20 years out to break even on the cost.
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Yeah.
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So really, once you get past R 3036, it's a long stretch until you break even for that extra cost.
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Yep.
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So not always worth it.
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Need to do the math on that one.
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But if that's the case where your insulation is the level is low for today's standards, you do not need to take out that old insulation and add new.
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Just add some on top of it.
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That's all you need to do.
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If you have an insulation contractor or uh a pest remediation company, like let's say like rodents or something like that, tell you you need to get rid of the insulation because it's old, that's not correct.
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Now, if it's contaminated with say a ton of rodent urine, raccoon poop, bat guano.
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That is a good reason to get it out.
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But you don't need to get rid of all of it, just the parts that are contaminated.
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But age is not a factor on getting rid of the insulation.
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Now, my compact is not a deficiency.
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Age is not a material defect.
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Like we have seen water heaters 50, sometimes 60 years old.
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And those things still work.
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Still working fine.
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It's not a material defect.
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Now it would be a smart thing to go.
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I need a budget.
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I need to have the money put aside because this is probably going to go.
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But you know what?
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It is probably gonna go Christmas Eve when I've got a whole bunch of people here.
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Yeah, but on that 60-year-old water here, it was probably gonna go for the last 40 years.
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So you're like, all right.
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So, but yeah, yeah, have the money aside for that.
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But unless your insulation is contaminated, do not remove it.
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Like you're talking about urine, you know, droppings, you got a squirrel's nest in there.
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Yeah, get rid of the squirrel's nest, block the holes where they are coming in.
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But if any contrast says, Yeah, your insulation is like 20, 30 years old, it's kind of used up, it's useful life.
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No, but that's bullshit.
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You can just add more onto it if it's lost, lost, it's loft.
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Say that again.
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It's lost, it's loft.
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It's not fluffy anymore.
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Now, sometimes like here's another thing.
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Cellulose.
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There's different types of insulation.
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There's a cellulose, which is really just ground-up newspapers, really.
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And they put borate in it so it doesn't catch fire.
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I think that's what they put into it.
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It is dusty, but it's not gonna automatically make your house dirty.
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If you're getting air from your attic into your house, you need air sealing.
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You need you have a problem.
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You just need to get rid of that access from the attic to the house.
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Yeah, just block off the little gaps or letting it come in.
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That's what you need to do.
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You don't need to rip it out and put in fiberglass to have a cleaner house.
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No, you need to seal up the gaps that you have.
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Habitation investigation is the way to go.
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Cellulose is good because actually, cellulose, when it settles, it kind of blocks some of those air gaps a little bit.
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It's a weird little spot.
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So cellulose, totally cool with that.
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And contaminated attic air should not make you sick because it should not be entering your house in the first place.
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So, once again, air seal, seal up those gaps between your ceiling and your attic space, seal those things up.
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That's all you need to do.
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Now, if your insulation is wet, moldy, you know, dirty from some other physically ruined for something, that makes kind of that makes sense to get rid of it that way.
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But if it was just like got wet from like a leak, but it's not moldy, and it especially if it's fiberglass where it's not a food source for molds, dude, maybe just fluff it up and add some more insulation on top of it.
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That's all you need to do.
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Any other thoughts you have regarding the insulation, Laura?
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This is not a very uh long one here, but but I think it's important so that people aren't getting scammed.
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Just because insulation is old does not mean it needs replaced.
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Correct.
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And I remember talking to uh an animal control guy, and there I think we sent a quote to him to look it over for a client.
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I think I remember this.
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And he's like, Yeah, you probably don't need to remove all this, because I think one they want to charge like$13,000 to pull out the insulation and put new in.
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And he's like, You probably could just spray it with a disinfectant, maybe, and that would work.
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So, yeah, just be careful if somebody wants to just automatically replace things.
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So that's not always necessary.
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It is necessary for that for that for their profit margin.
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Here's what you should do: get three separate quotes and then contact us to go over those and review what is essential for your house and what isn't, and then go with the quote that does the best job of being honest.
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Yeah, yep.
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Or talk to the talk to one of the contract contractors you feel uh really more comfortable with.
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But may I gotta tell you though, some cheaters can be very smooth in how they talk.
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Yes, they can.
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Think politicians.
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So that's about it, I think.
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Yeah, so just age does not is not a factor when it comes to insulation.
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Now, it won't be as lofty and provide as much insulation as it gets older.
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You just add more on top of it.
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That that's that's that's all you do.
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Yep.
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And that is not that's not a problem.
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I mean, depending upon your abilities, it's pretty much a do-it-yourself job, really.
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However, if you do it, make certain that you keep your attic ventilation open.
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That is important because we see that a lot where it hasn't been left open, and then you get a lot of condensation, you get a lot of moisture and mold up in the attic.
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Well, right along the if they have soffit vents, which those are the vents that are underneath the uh overhangs of your roof, the bottom edge.
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Often there'll be uh soffit vent there, let the hot let the cool air come in.
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But they're supposed to be it's called a baffle.
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Often it's like a foam board or maybe cardboard.
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But what that does, that keeps a gap between the soffit and the insulation.
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So that way the insulation can't roll over and block the soffit vents.
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So you gotta make certain those are there, or that the whoever sprayed the I was saying they blew in the fiberglass insulation and they don't block your vents.
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Right.
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Make sure that they unblock before they leave.
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Yes, yes, because that will here's what happens.
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If you if your vents are blocked, your attic space will get hotter than normal, hotter than you want.
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It's common for it to be warmer anyway, but the kind of a general rule of thumb is if your attic temperature about halfway up one of the uh wooden members is 30 degrees hotter than the outside air, you don't have enough ventilation.
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You have a problem.
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Yep.
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So and when we do that, we don't measure the underside of the roof, the sheathing.
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We don't measure that.
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That's gonna be hotter basically just because of the uh color of the shingles will make it hot.
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So that's why we measure up um halfway about halfway up the height on a piece of wood going up there.
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So that is important because if you don't have proper ventilation, your ad will get hot.
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You could get condensation issues up there.
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Your roof won't last as long.
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You your shingles, you lose about I heard three to five years life on your shingles because if they're excessively hot, I think the highest attic temperature we ever had was 165 degrees.
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That's insane to me.
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Those shingles are bacon, they're gonna be done in like 10 the and the I remember this.
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This was three-dimensional shingles, go for 25 years, probably 15, 20.
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They they they probably cut the lifespan about half on these things.
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It was that bad, eh?
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It was it was stupidly hot.
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So that's crazy.
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I did not go to work that day to be in a sauna.
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I do I like to do sauna my own time, especially when I'm not like fully dressed or work gear, and then I gotta go back in the house and I'm drenched with sweat.
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Yeah, well, that's not healthy for you either.
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It's not the safest thing to do.
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Not at least not for long.
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No.
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So I think that's it on this one.
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So yeah, insulation salesman tells you your insulation's past this useful life.
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Get a new uh insulator, just let them talk, get the get the information, get get the measurements, and then send it.
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Send them on his way.
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Send it those measurements and information to another contractor and and and tell him upright.
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I know that's bullshit that he wants to sell me because the installation is old.
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This is what and tell him what you're looking for.
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Yep.
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Sounds like a plan.
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Thanks, everybody.
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Bye.
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Bye bye.