The estimate is free, it takes about an hour, and nobody is going to close you at the end of it. Paul comes out, gets into the attic and under the floor, looks at what your house is actually doing, and gives you a written spec with a straight number on it. If the honest answer is that you do not need spray foam, that is what you will hear.
We say that because of how the rest of this industry behaves. Most people who call us have already had someone at the kitchen table with a tablet and a price that expires at 8pm. That is not what this is. There is no closer, no discount clock, and no financing pitch before anyone has seen the house.
The short version
Free. About 45 to 90 minutes at your house. We go into the crawl space and the attic, not just the driveway. You get a written spec that says what we would install, how thick, where, why, and what it costs. You keep it whether or not you hire us.
What the estimate actually involves
A real estimate is an inspection with a price attached to the end of it. A fake estimate is a square footage number times a rate, worked out from the curb. You can usually tell which one you got by whether the person ever got dirty.
We get into the spaces
In a Seattle house the two places that matter are almost always the attic and the crawl space, and both of them are unpleasant to enter. That is exactly why they get skipped. Paul goes in. He brings a light, coveralls, and a tape measure, and he comes back up able to tell you what is down there: how deep the existing insulation is, whether it is wet, whether it has been compressed or chewed, whether the vapour barrier is intact or shredded, whether there is rodent activity, and whether the subfloor above it is doing alright.
In the attic he is looking at depth, coverage at the eaves, whether the bath fans and the kitchen fan are actually vented outside or just dumping into the attic, and whether the can lights and the top plates are leaking conditioned air upward. In a lot of Craftsman and mid-century houses around here, that air leakage is the real problem and the thin insulation is just the visible one.
We look at the house as one system
He will also want to see your heating equipment, your ducts if they run through unconditioned space, and the rooms that are actually uncomfortable. If you have one cold bonus room over the garage, that is a different conversation from a whole house that will not hold heat. Bring up the specific rooms. It changes the recommendation more than anything else you can tell us.
We ask about the bills
If you have your last twelve months of PSE or Seattle City Light statements handy, pull them up. It is not required, but it makes the payback conversation real instead of theoretical. A house on electric baseboard heat and a house on a modern heat pump get very different numbers out of the same insulation work, and we would rather show you your own arithmetic than quote you an industry average.
How long it takes
Plan on 45 to 90 minutes for a typical single family home. A small job with easy access can be quicker. A larger house, a difficult crawl space, or a job where insulation has to be removed before anything goes in takes longer, because there is genuinely more to look at.
You do not need to be home for the whole thing, but the first ten minutes and the last fifteen are worth being present for, because that is the walkthrough and the explanation. Most of the middle is Paul in a crawl space with a flashlight.
What you get at the end
A written spec. Not a single number on a business card, and not a glossy folder. It lays out the work in enough detail that you could hand it to another contractor and ask them to bid the same scope, which is exactly what we would want you to be able to do.
- Which product, and why. Closed-cell, open-cell, or something that is not spray foam at all, with the reasoning written down next to it rather than left in someone’s head.
- How thick, and where. The inches, per assembly. This matters. Thickness is the easiest thing in this trade to quietly shave, and putting it in writing is how you hold anyone to it, us included.
- What has to happen first. Old wet insulation out, a rodent cleanup, a vapour barrier, a bath fan actually vented to the outside. These are separate line items, not surprises on install day.
- The price, broken out. Materials and labour by area of the house, so you can see what each piece of the job costs and decide to do part of it now and part of it later.
- The schedule and the re-entry time. How many days, and how long you need to be out of the house afterwards for the specific product going in.
- What we are not recommending, and why. Usually the most useful paragraph in the document.
What it costs: nothing
The estimate is free, for everybody in our service area, with no deposit and no trip charge. We are not going to send you an invoice for the visit and we are not going to roll it into the job if you hire us. Paul has been doing this for 15 years and a fair amount of that time has been spent pulling out other people’s bad foam, so an hour spent looking at a house properly is just how the work starts.
And here is what will not happen
- No closer at the kitchen table. The person who inspects your house is the person who prices it and the person who does the work. There is no second appointment with a sales specialist.
- No expiring discount. The price we write down is the price next week. If a number drops the moment you hesitate, it was never the real number.
- No financing pitch before we have seen the house. Nobody should be talking to you about monthly payments before anyone has established what the work actually is.
- No pressure to decide on the spot. Take the spec, get another bid, think about it through a heating season if you want. We would rather you compare.
- No selling you foam you do not need. If a few hundred dollars of air sealing fixes most of your problem, we will tell you that, even though it is the smaller job.
The numbers, so you arrive informed
We publish our ranges because a homeowner who already knows roughly what this costs has a much better conversation than one who is bracing for a surprise. These are real Seattle-area figures, not national averages.
| What | Typical Seattle-area range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Closed-cell spray foam | About $1.00 to $2.00 per board foot installed | Roughly R-6 to R-7 per inch. Crawl spaces, rim joists, roof decks, tight cavities. |
| Open-cell spray foam | About $0.50 to $0.70 per board foot | Roughly R-3.6 to R-4 per inch. Generous cavities, interior walls, sound. |
| A typical project | About $2,200 to $5,400 | Based on 1,000 square feet at three inches. Yours may be smaller or larger. |
| Skilled trade labour here | Roughly $95 to $175 per hour | Why access and difficulty move a price as much as square footage does. |
A board foot is one square foot at one inch thick, which is why thickness changes a price so much. What we cannot do is give you a firm number for your house without looking at it. Anyone who does that over the phone is guessing, and the guess is usually low so they can revise it later. For the full breakdown of what moves a price, read what spray foam insulation costs in Seattle.
How it works, start to finish
You call or send the form
Tell us the city, the part of the house, and what is actually bothering you. Cold floor, cold room, high bill, wet crawl space.
We book a window
Usually within a few days. Weekday mornings and afternoons, with some early evening slots. We confirm the day before.
Paul inspects the house
Attic, crawl space, the rooms that are uncomfortable, the equipment. About 45 to 90 minutes, then a walkthrough with you.
You get the written spec
Usually same day or next day. Product, thickness, prep work, price, schedule, and what we are not recommending.
Request your free estimate
Fill this in and we will get back to you to book a time. If you would rather just talk, call (253) 766-5145 or email support@seattlesprayfoampros.com.
Questions about booking one
How soon can you come out?
Usually within a few days of your call, and we will confirm the day before. Spring and early autumn are the busiest stretches around here, so if you are aiming to have work done before the cold sets in, calling in September or October beats calling in December. Emergencies like a flooded crawl space get moved up.
Do I need to be home for the estimate?
Someone over 18 needs to let us in and show us the access points, but you do not have to follow Paul into the crawl space. The parts worth being present for are the start, when you explain which rooms are uncomfortable, and the end, when he walks you through what he found. If you have to leave in the middle, that is completely fine.
How do I prepare for the visit?
Clear a path to the attic hatch and the crawl space door, move anything fragile out of the way underneath them, and put pets somewhere they will not slip outside. If you can find your recent power or gas bills, have them up on your phone. That is genuinely all of it.
Will you give me a price on the phone instead?
We will give you the published ranges on this page, and we will tell you honestly which end of them your description sounds like. What we will not do is commit to a firm number for a house nobody has looked at. Access, existing insulation, moisture, and prep work move a real price by thousands of dollars, and a phone quote that ignores all four is a number designed to be revised upward later.
Which areas do you cover for free estimates?
Seattle first, plus Bellevue, Renton, Kent, Everett, and Federal Way, and we take jobs elsewhere in Washington depending on the week and the size of the work. There is no trip charge inside the main service area. See the full list on our service areas page, or just call and ask.
What if the answer is that I do not need spray foam?
Then you get that in writing too, along with what we think you should do instead. Sometimes it is air sealing. Sometimes it is fixing a bath fan that has been venting into the attic for 20 years. Sometimes it is blown-in insulation at a fraction of the price. We would rather be the people you call back in five years than the people who sold you the expensive version of the wrong thing.