Furnace running nonstop and the house still cold? Do not buy a bigger furnace — call (555) 073-9152 and let the blower door show you where the heat is going.
The Audit
$175credited to any work
- Blower door — CFM50 baseline
- Infrared scan of the ceiling plane
- Written scope, room by room
- Fee credited to any booked work
The entry point. About ninety minutes.
The Day
$2,650houses to 1,800 sq ft
- Air sealing — every hole the camera names
- Dense-pack walls included
- Attic blown to a settled R-60
- Rim-joist foam, cellar side
- Both readings printed on the invoice
The van at eight, the test-out by four.
The Top-Up
$1,450flat, attic only
- Old loft vacuumed before it is filled
- Dams, baffles and the hatch seal
- Cellulose to R-60 over what is there
- Test-out reading included
For lofts that only need the loft fixed.
How the day runs
A weatherization day, eight to four
The same shape every day the van rolls — the Flat’s houses are more alike than their owners admit, and the bid is flat because the day is predictable.
8:00 — the van
Runners floor to attic, dust sheets over everything, and the first blower-door reading before the machine comes off the truck. The baseline prints while the coffee is still hot.
Morning — the seal
Top plates, chases, wire and pipe penetrations, the rim — every hole the camera named, foamed and caulked by lunch. On a Flat bungalow this single stretch is the whole ballgame.
Midday — the fill
Dense-pack through 2-inch holes in the walls, cellulose over the ceiling plane, plugged and patched as the crew moves. The sheets stay down and the house stays lived-in.
4:00 — the test-out
The blower door runs again and both numbers go on the invoice, beside the flat bid that has not moved once all day. That is the entire ceremony.
Counted since 2016
The Flat, on flat bids
Grangeholt & the Nether Flat, 2025 — 2026
Recent days
Six flat bids from last season, photographed at the test-out with the invoice still pinned to the hatch. Each caption is the number that moved and the number it moved to.
I braced for the upsell and got a reading instead — the blower door said 3,100, the camera showed me where, and the flat bid for The Day was the same at sunrise and at invoice. Two CFM50 numbers at the bottom of the page, 3,100 down to 1,500. I have told the entire street.
Three winters of ice on the north eaves and two roofers with opinions. Half Acre sealed the top plates, blew R-60 with real baffles, and the roof has shed snow like the new builds ever since. It cost a fifth of what a roof costs.
They vacuumed forty years of dust and one very upset squirrel’s estate out of the loft before they would put a hose in it, then blew it deep and printed the test-out the same afternoon. The upstairs stopped being a rumour that very night.
Quoted $2,650 on a Tuesday over the phone, van at the curb Thursday, and the Friday invoice read $2,650. The two CFM50 numbers at the bottom — 3,100 down to 1,500 — are the most satisfying line item I have ever paid. The flat bid is not a gimmick; it is what knowing the work looks like.
The flat-bid clause
The number printed on this page is the number on the invoice. If the job runs long, that is our day, not your money — and the only extra we ever quote is a skip, and only when the loft is full of the previous owner’s treasures.
The bid behind the clause
Why flat works on the Flat
Flat bidding works here because the Flat’s housing stock is honest: same eras, same walls, same leaks in the same places, a thousand times over. We have measured enough of them to price the pattern instead of the guess — and when a house genuinely breaks the pattern, we say so on the phone before anyone drives out, in a number that still will not move.
Before you call
Flat-bid questions
Is $2,650 really the whole day?
For houses to 1,800 square feet, yes — sealing, dense-pack, the attic, the rim, both readings, patching and the hall vacuumed. Bigger or stranger houses get a custom flat number on the phone, and the custom number obeys the same clause: it does not move after it is spoken.
What if you find something the bid does not cover?
You get a phone call and a separate price before it happens, never a surprise riding on the invoice. Most of what the camera finds on the Flat is exactly what the bid already includes — that is the point of having run it a thousand times.
Why an urgent strip about the furnace?
Because the most expensive weatherization mistake on the Flat is a bigger furnace replacing a smaller leak. If the house is cold and the burner never stops, the blower door will find where the heat is going for $175 — and that finding is credited to the fix.
Do you handle the rebates?
We file every utility program the work qualifies for and the invoice prints in the format they ask for. Where the program allows, the rebate comes off the top rather than arriving as a cheque in spring.
Can a house be sealed too tight?
Yes — sealed dumb is a defect. Every combustion appliance gets a spillage test after the work, and houses that need planned ventilation get it named in the scope, not discovered in January.
Weatherization days book one to two weeks out, October to March · (555) 073-9152 · bids@halfacreweatherization.example
Get the flat bid
Ten minutes on the phone fixes the number — the house’s era, its size, and what January feels like upstairs. The audit is $175 and credits against any work; the day is flat, printed above, and it does not move. bids@halfacreweatherization.example