The AC Was Running All Day. The Attic Was the Real Problem.

We were out at a house in Columbia recently because the homeowner couldn’t figure out why the AC never seemed to stop running.

Especially at night.

That part caught my attention because usually people expect things to cool off after the sun goes down. In this house, it wasn’t really happening.

Nothing looked terrible at first

Honestly, when we first got there, I wasn’t sure this was going to be an insulation job.

The homeowner was talking about warm bedrooms, higher electric bills, the usual stuff. Sometimes that’s ductwork. Sometimes it’s airflow. Sometimes it’s a little bit of everything.

Then we got into the attic.

There just wasn’t enough insulation up there

You could see it pretty quickly.

The insulation had settled way down over the years and was nowhere near what we’d want to see in a Columbia attic. We see this a lot. A house gets built, years go by, nobody ever looks in the attic again, and eventually the insulation just isn’t doing much anymore.

Not great.

The homeowner actually laughed

When we showed him the depth of the existing insulation, he kind of laughed and said, “Well I guess that explains a few things.”

Probably did.

He told us the upstairs had always been warmer than the downstairs. Not sometimes. Always.

That’s usually a clue.

We pulled the old stuff out

The attic was warm even though it wasn’t one of the hottest days we’ve had yet.

That stale attic smell was there too. If you’ve been in enough attics you know exactly what I mean.

We removed the outdated insulation so we could start fresh. Took a little time, but it needed to happen. Once everything was cleaned up, it was easier to see what we were working with.

Actually…

For a minute I thought there might be another issue contributing to the problem. After looking around a bit longer, it really came back to the same thing.

The attic simply didn’t have enough insulation.

That was it.

Sometimes the answer is boring

People expect some big discovery.

A failed AC unit. A major leak. Some complicated repair.

Sometimes the answer is just insulation.

Kind of like driving with one tire half-flat. The car still moves. It just has to work harder than it should.

That house was doing the same thing.

Bringing it up to R-38

We installed new fiberglass blown-in insulation and brought the attic up to R-38.

The coverage came out nice and even across the attic floor. We checked the depth markers as we went to make sure everything landed where it needed to be.

Nothing fancy.

Just the right amount of insulation where it belonged.

And honestly that’s what the house needed from the start.

One random thing

I always notice how much quieter attics get once the work is finished.

Not sure why I notice that every time.

Maybe because during the install you’ve got hoses moving around, equipment running, people talking back and forth. Then suddenly it’s done and everything is still.

Anyway.

The homeowner was happy, the attic was properly insulated again, and the AC won’t have to fight that battle alone anymore. If your home feels hot upstairs, your energy bills keep climbing, or your AC seems like it’s working overtime, call us or visit our website for a FREE evaluation!