Before a Denver winter, open the attic

Denver winter does not sneak up. The first week of real cold tells you what the attic has been doing since summer. A bedroom that will not warm. A hallway that feels like the porch. A furnace that runs and runs and the bill still climbs.

That is usually not a failing furnace. It is a ceiling with almost nothing on it. Blown insulation settles. After fifteen or twenty Front Range summers the loft is often a few inches, dirty, and pulled back from the edges. The roof deck above it is open to the weather. The fill on the ceiling is the only barrier you have.

What homeowners notice first

You feel it in the rooms before you see it on the bill.

• The upstairs is cold by morning even when the thermostat says it should not be.
• The furnace short-cycles or never quite shuts off once the nights drop into the 20s.
• Ice forms at the eaves. Warm air is leaking up, melting snow, and freezing again at the edge.
• One room is fine and the one over the garage is not. The bay above that ceiling was never filled.

What we find in a Denver hatch

Most of the attics we open before winter were insulated once and then left. Two to four inches is common. Sometimes the joists are proud of the fill and you can see drywall between them. That is not an R-49 attic. It is a memory of one.

The Front Range target is R-49 to R-60, on the order of 16 inches or more after it has had time to settle. A skim on top of a settled, leaky attic does not get you there. Air leaks at the top plates, the cans, and the chase stay open, and the new fluff just sits on the draft.

The job to do before it locks in

Pop the hatch while you can still schedule the day. We measure what is left, photograph it, and say whether the attic is the leak. If the R-value is too low, instant rebates are often available. We only say that after we have seen it.

The work is air-sealing first, then a builder-grade blow deep enough that the joists disappear. Most attic days are one day. No walls opened. The living space stays yours. A new furnace can wait until you stop heating the sky.

If the house is already cold

You do not need to wait for spring. Winter is when the missing insulation costs you every night. Book the inspection now, before the first stretch of single-digit mornings, and we will tell you if the attic is the upgrade or if it is not.

Call (720) 784-4444, text (720) 784-8333, or book a free look. Denver, and the rest of the Front Range.