Insulation Before & After in Inglewood, CA
Most Inglewood homes built before 1980 are sitting on a patchwork of fiberglass batts that have settled, compressed, or been chewed through by rodents. The attic can be 130 degrees in August while the living room thermostat never quite catches up. These transformations show what changes when insulation gets pulled out, air leaks get sealed, and the right materials go back in. The before-and-after difference shows up on energy bills, in room-to-room comfort, and in how quietly the house holds its temperature overnight.
Recent Transformations
Attic Insulation Replacement in South Inglewood
This 1962 ranch near Centinela Avenue had original rock wool that had compacted to about R-11 in most bays, with bare spots above the hallway where a previous pest infestation had scattered it. We vacuumed out the old material, verified the joist bays were dry, and blew in Owens Corning fiberglass to R-38 across the full attic floor. The first night after the install, the homeowner called to ask if we’d also replaced their furnace because the house held 68 degrees without cycling on every twenty minutes.
Crawl Space Encapsulation in Morningside Park
Every winter this home’s hardwood floors in the back bedrooms felt damp and cold, and the homeowner was fighting a musty smell that kept coming back no matter how many dehumidifiers they ran. The crawl space under the rear addition was open dirt with fiberglass batts falling out of the floor joists, holding moisture against the subfloor. We removed the failed insulation, laid a 12-mil vapor barrier across the dirt, sealed the foundation vents, and reinstalled clean insulation with proper supports. Within two weeks the musty smell was gone and the floor temperature in those bedrooms rose seven degrees.
Blown-In Insulation Retrofit in a 1950s Stucco Home
Walls in this Inglewood home had zero insulation, just empty stud cavities behind plaster and stucco. On summer afternoons the west-facing bedrooms were unusable until well after sunset, and the air conditioner couldn’t keep up even when it ran continuously. We dense-packed GreenFiber cellulose into every exterior wall, working from small access holes that we patched and painted to match. The homeowner’s cooling load dropped noticeably within the first month, and the difference between front rooms and back rooms disappeared.
Spray Foam Air Sealing in an Attic Hatch and Chase
The attic access in this split-level off Manchester Boulevard had a half-inch gap all the way around, and the plumbing chase from the water heater was wide open to the attic. The homeowner was paying to cool attic air while conditioned air escaped straight up. We sealed the hatch perimeter with weatherstripping and sprayed Icynene closed-cell foam around the chase opening, then added an R-14 foam board hatch cover. The immediate result was measurable: the hallway below the hatch no longer felt like a drafty tunnel in winter, and the pressure test confirmed the house was holding air significantly better.
Attic Cleaning and Rodent Proofing Before Reinsulation
The homeowners in this 1940s bungalow thought they had a squirrel problem, but the real issue was rats that had been nesting in the attic for years. The insulation was saturated with droppings and urine, and there were visible entry points where gable vents had rotted out. We removed all contaminated material, sanitized the attic deck, repaired the vent screens, sealed every gap larger than a dime, and blew in fresh Johns Manville fiberglass to R-38. Six months later, no signs of reentry, and the home’s energy usage was down nearly 20 percent compared to the previous spring.
Radiant Barrier Installation in a Hot Attic
This homeowner’s ceiling in the upstairs hallway hit 96 degrees on a hot August afternoon. The attic was insulated on the floor, but the roof deck was radiating heat straight down into the living space. We installed a radiant barrier on the underside of the rafters, creating a reflective surface that bounces heat back out before it ever reaches the attic floor insulation. The hallway ceiling temperature dropped eleven degrees the following week, and the second floor stopped feeling like a different climate zone from the first. Neil Ashford checked this job personally, because a radiant barrier installed wrong is just expensive wallpaper.
Want Results Like These?
Every project in this gallery is a real Inglewood home with a real before-and-after difference. We’ll come out, look at what’s going on in your attic or crawl space, and tell you exactly what needs to happen and what it costs before any work starts. Most jobs are completed in a single visit, and every one is covered by our 90-Day Done Right Promise. Call (424) 622-5846 and a live person answers every time.
Written by Neil Ashford, Owner at Warmline Insulation Co., serving Inglewood since 2011.