Southland Insulators

had to request several times to get all of the firestopping done to pass inspection. Employee said it was too hard. Some of the air selant work was sloppy. extra provision on contract was to use sound attenuation insulation on ALL bathroom walls. they said that some of the bath walls adjoined to closets and didn't need attenuation. But the contract was explicit in saying all bathroom walls. I don't like to have to argue contract specifics. The proposal was vague.

Great! A ceiling was damaged (drywall), but they very quickly had that repaired. Team was on time and finished all of the work very efficiently, leaving the workspace clean.

While they did a good job on the insulation, on both occasions that they were supposed to come and do the work, they did not show up. The first time they were supposed to come to install wall insulation and partially finish the attic they did not show up and thus the county insulation inspection failed. After that, they finished that part of the job and it was done well. However, they forgot to blow-in insulation for the rest of the attic. After a couple of months, they were scheduled to come and finish the job, but again they did not show up, but insured us that they will on the next day. Most of the day passed, and at 4pm, they said their machine was broken, so they would do it in yet another day. That did not happen, and again a no show. Finally after a week, they came and finished the insulation. They do good work but their scheduling and organization is horrible. Thus, I would stay away form them in the future.

I called southland insulators and got the phone number from my General contractor. My gc told me that the existing insulation on the attic was not enough. The estimator came on time and gave me price with in a day. I didn't had the chance to compare the prices with any other company but price seemed ok. So we decided to hire them. They came with in a week after we signed the contract and completed all the work in a day. They were very professional and cleaned after them, i would recommend them to everyone. Great company.

The estimator never showed, and has never attempted to call to explain why or reschedule.

Everyone was terrific. The work was done promptly. I thought they did a great job with the work and I would definitely recommend them to anyone that needs insulation work done.

Their ?solution? was a HORRENDOUS DISASTER: When Southland sprayed the foam in our house they should have told us to leave the house for at least 24 hours. This is one of the first and foremost guidelines from the EPA. Instead, I worked in my office on the second floor keeping an eye on the installers and breathed the chemicals they sprayed. Southland should have provided ventilation after they sprayed the foam ? SPFs expel gasses that are very toxic as they solidify. They never told us this and let my pregnant wife, 1 year-old child, and me sleep among the fumes they?d trapped inside my house. My wife lost the baby three months later. Southland denied that there could be any foam smell in my house more than a day after the installation. Month after month I complained but they said it would go away. How could it when they had sprayed over any way for the smell to escape but into the second floor where we sleep? I rented two industrial fans with wide tubing to pull the air out of the attic and out my closet window. I had to do this throughout a very cold winter. My heating bill tripled and my family and I slept in the basement for seven months. We still smell the foam especially on hot days. What are we breathing? An air quality specialist found several toxic and carcinogenic gases, which we are now addressing. This has already cost us $1000. More than one roof specialist has told us that we have now shortened the lifespan of our roof rafters by covering them with foam and by closing the airflow from our soffits. We are remediating all of these issues to make the house habitable and safe, which has cost us time and money. Southland, a company we thought we could trust, made terrible recommendations and installed a truly deadly product in our house. They made no efforts to remediate the problem. They never owned any responsibility for not venting our house properly after installation. The president never responded to my questions. Ever. They never even offered as much as an apology.

We left messages with this company multiple times to get an estimate. The only reason why we tried more than once was because the company was recommended by our contractor. During the week and a half we were able to obtain 3 other quotes that were essentially in line with each other price-wise. We eventually gave up and selected a different company we found via Angie's list. They didn't even call back the first time we left a message. The only reason this company did not get a full on "F" is that they did attempt to call back, even if it wasn't in any sort of timely manner.

The entire experience was a nightmare. The sales person, who visited twice to provide a more accurate quote, "left" the company before the work was performed. There were items on the proposal that I specifically questioned and was told not to worry about them. Parking permits being my biggest concern given the fact we live in the District and street parking can be tricky -- we were told not to worry about it. Visit one from Southland - they arrive with a 28ft box truck. We did not secure parking permits because the sales person told us we didn't need them. Southland left because there was no place to park their truck. Visit two - the crew arrives to tell us that the rooms need to be ENTIRELY clear of all furniture - something our sales person should have told us but didn't. We were also told that the sales rep quoted ceiling removal for our garage - something outside the scope / capabilities of Southland. After moving as much furniture as we could and agreeing that they would need to come back for a thrid visit after our contractor removed the garage ceiling (that they were supposed to do), the team started their work. About 45 minutes into spraying the foam, the Southland equipment catches fire. Luckily, there was no damage to our house or their crew. After trying to swap out the original hoses (that caught fire) with spare hoses from their truck, they couldn't get generators/pumps in the truck restarted after they hit the emergency shut-off switch to help stop the fire. Visit three which was already scheduled was necessary to finish the upstairs as well as the garage. Visit three ? the crew arrived. No fires. Equipment worked but in the midst of spraying the foam in our garage ceiling the team knocked electrical wiring loose causing us to lose power in the back half of our house. Their field supervisor came out and informed us that the problem was beyond their scope and we needed to have our electrician look at the problem. One after-hours visit and several hundred dollars later, our electrician was able to resolve the problem. In all, a job that should have taken a day took over 3.5 weeks. This entire time, the back half of my house was without a ceiling or insulation. When a woman from the Southland office called to see how things went with the job, I told her the entire saga and she promised to drive this to resolution (she was actually pleasant and apologetic?and no longer with Southland). Once the electrician provided our GC with an invoice, the only consideration given by Southland was to deduct the cost of the electrician for the bill. When we tried to call the office to discuss the further consideration for our overall experience, we were routed to Wayne. Wayne proceeded to tell us that the fire was an act of god. He also ?explained? that the problems with the parking and the parts of the proposal that fell outside of Southland?s normal scope/capabilities were our fault not theirs. Customer service is clearly not Wayne?s strong suit?thus this lengthy post on Angie?s list. Southland came recommended to me by a friend. Unfortunately, I didn?t realize that her GC handled everything with Southland. Perhaps they?re nicer to GC?s?my experience was awful.

Southland Insulators were great. I have been in the energy efficiency industry for 15 years in New England and I've hired and overseen insulation contractors for large multifamily properties. However, our family is new to Virginia and I didn't know any insulators in this area. My friend had used them on her house and I decided to give Southland Insulators a try when insulating my attic on our 1950s house. I was very pleased with the job and they really stand out compared to some of the insulation/air sealing contractors I've worked with. A huge part of energy savings is air sealing and Southland Insulators team did an incredible job air sealing all the gaps in our attic. They did all the air sealing by the book. Their air sealing equipment actually broke during the job, so they needed to come back an extra day. I think many insulation contractors would probably just skip the air sealing piece (because most homeowners don't realize how inmportant it is) and just go onto the insulation in a situation like this. Instead, their team came back an extra day to get the work done right. Our house is much cooler this summer as compared to last summer, because of the insulation and air sealing. I would definitely recommend them.