Adding new insulation over old is normal and often fine. It is wrong when the existing material has been contaminated, soaked, or lived in. Covering any of those makes the problem invisible without making it go away, and it means paying twice when somebody eventually has to pull all of it back out. Removal is its own job, with its own equipment, labor, and disposal.
The most common reasons for removal in Wasatch Front homes are rodent activity, water from a roof or plumbing leak, and material disturbed so thoroughly by past work that it is no longer doing anything. A contractor should be able to tell you which of those you have, and show you the evidence, before removal appears on a quote. Photographs taken in the attic are a reasonable thing to ask for.
Removal is priced separately from installation, and it should appear that way on the bid. The drivers are area, attic access and headroom, how far material has to be carried, how much of it there is, and whether contamination requires extra handling and cleaning. Rodent involvement usually adds cleaning and sealing of entry points on top of the removal itself. If a roof leak caused the damage, the leak has to be resolved first or you will be doing this again. Expect a quote that shows removal, any remediation, air sealing, and new insulation as distinct lines rather than one figure.
No. Clean, dry, undisturbed material can usually be added to. Removal is for contamination, moisture damage, rodent activity, and material so displaced that it is not doing anything. If a contractor recommends removal, ask what specifically they saw that makes covering it a bad idea.
Removal, cleaning, and closing the entry points, in that order, before any new material goes in. New insulation over contaminated material traps it and hands anything still getting in a fresh place to live. Finding and sealing the entry points is the part that keeps the problem from simply repeating.
Sometimes partly, but that is not the question worth asking. What matters is whether the leak is fixed, what the water touched, and whether the material and the framing under it are in usable condition now. Somebody should go look rather than waiting to see whether the stain stops spreading.
It is dusty work, and old material has to travel from the attic through your house to a truck. A contractor who does this regularly will cover the route and contain the work area. It is a fair thing to ask about before anyone starts, and the answer tells you something.
The attic is where most of your heat goes, which is why it is usually the first place a contractor looks. Older Utah homes often have coverage that has settled, thinned near the edges, or been pushed aside by past work.
Learn more →Insulation slows heat moving through materials. It does not stop air moving through gaps. Sealing the openings between your living space and the attic is a separate job, and doing it after the insulation goes down is far harder.
Learn more →The band where your floor framing meets the foundation gets skipped more often than any other part of the house. If your floors never feel warm and the furnace seems fine, this is worth having somebody crawl under and look at.
Learn more →Walls are closed assemblies, so the question is how a contractor gets material into them and whether the cavity can take it. Blown-in, batt, and foam each suit different framing, and foam is not automatically the better one.
Learn more →Cold rooms, drafts, ice at the eaves, or an attic you have never been in. Any of it is a place to start.