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How to price attic insulation (by attic area, depth/R-value, removal and air sealing)

A light cellulose top-up on a clean attic and a full strip of contaminated insulation with air sealing are not the same job. A flat "insulate the attic" price hides that. Here's a structure that separates them: blown-in priced per square foot of attic floor, depth/R-value as a multiplier, old insulation removal as its own line, air-seal and venting as flat add-ons, and a minimum ticket—all built from your own jobs.

About the numbers here: every figure in the examples is hypothetical and only shows the method. They are not market rates. Check your local market and your own costs.

Why price by attic floor area

Homeowners know "the attic," not bag counts. What drives material and blower time is the attic floor square footage you actually cover, plus how deep you go and whether old material comes out first. Ask for attic area (or conditioned floor area as a starting estimate) and confirm with a laser or sketch on arrival. Baffles and kneewalls add time; capture those in your pace or as scoped notes.

Step 1: Log your next 10 attic jobs

For each job, note attic sq ft, target depth / R band, whether you removed old insulation, air sealing / venting extras, bags used and crew minutes (blow team and remove team separately if you split crews).

Hypothetical log for illustration.
Job	Sq ft	Depth band	Removal?	Crew minutes (blow)	Sq ft per crew hour (blow)
A	1,200	~R-38	No	180	400
B	1,000	Top-up ~R-19	No	100	600
C	1,400	~R-49+	No	250	336
D	1,200	~R-38	Yes	180 + 200 remove	400 blow
E	900	~R-38	No	150	360

In this made-up log, a bring-to-~R-38 blow lands around 360–400 sq ft per crew hour. Top-ups are faster; deeper fills and cluttered attics are slower. Removal is its own pace entirely.

Step 2: Turn the mid depth pace into a per-square-foot range

Use the mid band (for example bring to ~R-38) as the base. Divide your hourly target per crew hour (see the general method) by your fast and slow mid-band pace, then add material per square foot.

Hypothetical example. Hourly target $95 per crew hour. $95 ÷ 400 sq ft/h = $0.24/sq ft (fast). $95 ÷ 360 = $0.26/sq ft (slow). Cellulose or fiberglass for that depth band adds about $0.90–$1.40/sq ft in this example, so the installed mid-band range is roughly $1.15–$1.70 per sq ft before removal and add-ons. Your material quote will dominate—update it when bag prices move.

Step 3: Depth / R-value is a multiplier on the blow-in line

Going from a top-up to ~R-49+ changes material and blower time on every square foot. Put depth in the calculator as a select scoped only to the blown-in line (for example top-up ~R-19 ×0.75, ~R-38 ×1, ~R-49+ ×1.25). Derive factors from bags-per-square-foot and minutes in your log, not from a brochure's "average cost."

Step 4: Old insulation removal as its own line

Tear-out, bagging and disposal do not scale the same way as a virgin blow-in. Make removal a separate per-square-foot line with its own minimum so customers who only need a top-up never subsidize full strip-outs. Contaminated or pest-damaged material may need a site quote on top—say so in the notes rather than inventing a hidden multiplier.

Hypothetical example. Removal paced at 250–300 sq ft per crew hour with bags and dump fees: at $95/h that's about $0.35–$0.50/sq ft labor plus disposal, for a removal band in the ballpark of $1.00–$1.80/sq ft depending on density and access. Treat those as method numbers only.

Step 5: Air seal and venting as flat add-ons

Air-sealing penetrations before the blow-in is the add-on that prevents callbacks from conditioned-air leaks. Bath-fan and kitchen duct venting fixes are scoped extras. Both work well as flat add-ons rather than burying them in the per-square-foot rate. Related comfort work often sits beside insulation: HVAC tune-up and dryer vent cleaning.

Step 6: The minimum ticket

Staging the blower, protecting stairs and living space, and cleaning up cost nearly the same on a small attic as on a large one. Set the blow-in (and removal) minimums from your shortest realistic visit × hourly target, plus a material floor if you open bags for every job.

Hypothetical example. Shortest realistic blow-in visit: 6 crew hours × $95 = $570, plus enough material for a small attic. A rounded $800 minimum on the blow-in line (sample only) stops tiny top-ups from losing money after mobilization.

Step 7: Check it against reality

Run three past jobs through the calculator: area × depth band, plus removal and add-ons if used. If the ranges cover what you charged and earned after materials and disposal, publish. If they land low, fix bag cost or pace—not a claimed "average price in your area."

The result, as a customer sees it

This is the attic insulation template with sample numbers (not the hypothetical ones above). Open it in the builder to enter your per-square-foot ranges, depth factors, removal line, air-seal/venting add-ons and minimums.