Getting into the attic safely, and getting the heat out of it

Questions we get asked about this

Have you installed an attic fan before?

Not on any job in our records, and we are not going to claim we have. The adjacent work — cutting and framing an opening, running a switched circuit, carpentry and ladder work in an attic — is invoiced work we do every month. A fan would be quoted as new work, and the one-year craftsmanship warranty on our labour applies to it exactly as it does to everything else.

Can you put a pull-down ladder where there is only a hatch?

Often yes, and the question is what is around the opening. A ladder needs a framed opening of a particular size and enough swing space below it to come down without hitting anything. Where the existing hatch is smaller than the ladder needs, the opening has to be enlarged — which means checking what is being cut before anything is ordered. That check happens at the quote, not on the day.

Something is living in my attic. Can you seal it up?

After a wildlife operator has confirmed it is empty, yes. Before that, no — sealing an animal inside turns a nuisance into a dead animal in your ceiling, and it is not the saving it looks like. In fairness we should say we have been asked to do this once, on a rental with a raccoon, and the job never went ahead; the carpentry and sealing involved is ordinary work for us, but we are not going to describe a job we did not do as experience.

My upstairs is ten degrees hotter than downstairs in July. Where do I start?

With a look in the attic rather than a purchase. Insulation depth, whether the soffit vents are blocked by insulation pushed into them, whether ducts or bathroom fans are venting into the attic instead of outside, and where air is leaking up from the house. Those four account for most of it, three of them are cheap to fix, and a fan fitted before they are addressed pulls cooled air out of your living space.

Is a bathroom fan venting into the attic a problem?

Yes, and it is one of the most common things we find. It puts the moisture from every shower into the roof space, which is how you get damp insulation, stained ceilings and mould on the sheathing. The fix is ducting it through to outside with a proper termination. We have quoted exactly this correction on a Lansing property.

Do you charge a call-out fee or a trip charge?

No — and no diagnostic fee and no charge for a return visit either. Attendance and diagnosis of the items you reported are included in the job price, and there is no minimum charge and no call-out minimum on any of the 84 written quotes this company has issued. Where a job is far enough out to need several days of round trips, a mobilisation figure is agreed with you in writing before anything starts, or the schedule is compressed into fewer longer days instead.

What happens if the job turns out to be bigger than the quote?

It becomes a written change order, priced and agreed before the work goes ahead, and it appears on the invoice by name. Anything outside the written scope is $65 an hour plus materials, and only with your approval — that rate is printed on every quote this company issues.

Do you mark up materials?

No. Materials are supplied at cost with the receipt attached, and the invoice record says so rather than the marketing: across eleven months, materials are $10,080 of $210,693 billed on labour-and-materials lines, which is 4.8% of it. On larger projects plenty of customers buy the materials themselves, and those are shown on the quote at no charge.

Are you insured, and do you hold a contractor licence?

Fully insured, and a W-9 and a certificate of insurance go out with every signed quote without being asked for. On licensing we are direct, because it is the question that matters and the one most trade websites blur: the Michigan residential builder licence is not held and no contractor licence is claimed or implied. Electrical and plumbing work here is repair and like-for-like replacement on what already exists — new circuits, panels, service upgrades, water-heater replacement and anything else requiring a licensed trade is referred out and named as such on the quote.