Insulation, Radiant and Vapor Barriers - How much should insulation cost?

I have three estimates in hand for insulating my 1950's 35' x 25' dormered cape. Two of them are in the $1500 range, the third is for almost $4000. The expensive guy seems to know his stuff best, explained most thoroughly exactly what they'll do, and his estimate includes going up into the area above the ceiling in the finished upstairs, which the other guys are not doing. The project is blown-in cellulose in all exterior walls (taking off siding, drilling holes and blowing it in, then sealing holes and replacing siding, half-basement foam insulation sealant, battens along the eaves above the soffits, and blown-in elsewhere in the attic crawl, for an R-value in the high 40's. Does that sound out of line?

One of the other estimates is for fiberglass, which I don't want, and the third is for cellulose blown into all walls from the inside and into the attic crawl only, but not into the ceiling.

In short, the expensive guy is talking about more work, but does anyone have any idea if it's $2000 more work?

I am no pro or contractor, but I insulated my whole house for less than 1500 bucks, matter of fact it was even less than 1000 dollars. That is even for the gas for my V8 truck to go get the supplies, and rent the cellulose machine. What kinda siding do you have?? Vinyl/wood/aluminum? I have wood, and took off a section drilled a 1 7/8" hole, blew in the insulation, and used a 1 3/4" dowel cut about 1 1/2" long, caulked it, put it into the hole, and put the siding back up. Took me 2 weekends. I drilled sat. and sunday put the siding back up(tacked it w/ 2 nails not driven all the way in) and the following weekend did the insulating. TO be honest w/ 4 people you could do it in a weekend. I had me, my dad, and my brother. I would recommend that. If you have vinyl or some other siding it might be a bit more difficult. That would save you a lot of money. It is easy to do.
I had a guy give me an estimate of about 2000 dollars just for the walls. I have a 2 story 1940's house that had NO, NOTHING, NOT A LICK of insulation anywhere. In some studded cavities I blew in starting w/ the second story and it filled the first and second floor w/ just one hole. Hope this helps. 4000 seems like a lot to me but I am not a pro, I just have experience w/ this stuff and I love it. I have saved the amount I spent on it in 2 yrs. easily. It will even act as a sound insulator and keep traffic noise down which I noticed that night setting in the living room as a car would go by and I couldn't even hear it. The stuff does settle so I technically should go and fill the cavities back up but I am going to do vinyl siding soon and have blue foam installed for extra insulation. GOOD LUCK> By the way I still have the adaptor for the hose for the cellulose machine if you want it, you pay for s/h. I have no use for it. Lowes made me buy it b/c they rented out the other one. I was ticked, but I had my dad and bro coming to help so I had to pay 23 bucks to get it!! Let me know!! GOOD LUCK

Here in the NE, I paid $3000 for blowing in the walls of a 2-storey colonial. I paid $700 for all materials and rentals to blow insulation into the attic, as well as for batts of R-38. So, all together, that's nearly $4000.

And that's do-it-yourself? How big is your house? Mine is a dormered cape, but the upstairs is 3 floors up in the back.

No, sorry. The walls were a professional job. Two guys and one gigantic blowing device.

The ceiling was a DYI job. Pretty tough, but it slashed my gas bill by one-third (just in time for when gas prices rose by one third in winter 2007!)

J

I take it you were able to rent this cellulose machine from Lowe's? Where are some other places you could rent one of those machines and did they have the cellulose there for you to purchase? Because I just got quoted about $12,000 for the spray foam insulation and $2,000 for good old fiberglass - and if my math is correctly on my 1,110 sqft home, I can spray insulate myself for under $1,500 by ordering online.

I got the machine at Lowe's, although not every Lowe's had it for rent. The closest one had the cellulose in cube shaped bales for sale, but did not have the machine for rent.

I called several rental places but none of them had the machine. Only Lowe's carried it in my area, so I rented it from them, and it took precisely one day. I had to reserve it, too. They have a reservation book for the busier times of the year.

Yeah, the "ice" foam is outrageously expensive! The guys who were doing the wall job bragged to me how they did a fancy beachside house in Greenwich for $50,000! And, they said the house is exclusively used for the owner's plants! Nothing like keeping one's sumptuous tropical ferns warm in the winter!

Anyway, I think it'll take 40 years for me to pay off the job in terms of heat savings. Insulating the walls seemed like a critical job, since they were so cold in the winter. After the insulating job, they are not so cold to the touch, but the gas bill did not decrease by much. Its true, then, that heat loss is less than 10% through the walls.

Maximizing insulation in the ceiling is by far most important, followed by windows, then walls, and floors last.

J