Cal-West Insulation

We hired Frank to insulate our home. The day he came was crazy hot and his brother/​coworker had flaked on him so he had to do the job alone. He worked all day and left at 8:00pm, leaving one (small) wall not insulated.
When he was getting ready to leave he agreed to come back early the next week to finish the wall (he had another job the next day) and we agreed. He also added that he had miscalculated the number of bags of insulation he’d need to complete our house and that he’d used 2 additional bags at an added cost of $ 200. My husband pointed out that this was his error (later in the same conversation Frank had let slip that he had actually «extra insulated» the walls to ~R17 instead of the quoted R13) but that we would split the cost with him.
Frank then asked if we would be able to pay him that night. Regrettfully my husband agreed to this. Frank had worked hard, we felt bad that it was so hot, we really had no problem with his work (except the «mis-​estimate» which was really his fault for over insualting). MInd you, I had served him cokes and made him iced espresso throughout the afternoon…
Two weeks pass, and no word from Frank. So we contact him and he agrees to come out the following week to do the final wall. This is a tiny wall, with french doors. MAYBE 90 minutes of work — including hauling the machine into our back yard. Frank is two hours late and then announces that he’s only checking to see if the wall is insulated, not actually doing the work that day.
Great. Appt made the next Tuesday afternoon to finish the work. He’ll call when he’s on his way. Tuesday we text him to remind him to call us first. Frank’s response (at noon) «Sorry. Have to reschedule to Thursday morning at 9». We’d already had the conversation that mornings dont work as we have jobs and we need to be home. We let him know that Thursday doesnt work. Give him some options over the next two afternoons. Let him know our house is being painted THAT Friday. No response. A zillion phone attempts (to a number that he doesnt answer and has a full voicemail box) nand texts. Still no response. Finally a text reminding him that he cashed our check but had not completed the job. No response. FINAL text warns that if the job is not completed before painters come on Friday morning then we’re taking his to small claims court. Its Thursday pm. Still no word from Frank (and he didnt show up for the proposed 10am appt this morning).
Lesson learned. BUt please do NOT use him, Wish I’d read the Unilocal reviews before we hired him. We are not the person person he has «mis-​quoted» nor the first client he has flaked on. Cal West Insulation and Frank are not trustworthy. Spread the word!

We hired Cal-​West to improve the insulation in our attic.
Frank assessed our current situation and found that our existing insulation was installed incorrectly and came up with a thoughtful plan of action to minimize the cost associated.
He gave us a reasonable estimate that we accepted and he came back a few days later to do the job himself.
Overall we found him to be friendly and very hard working. The job ended up taking a lot longer than he anticipated but instead of doing a half-​assed job, he came back the next work day to finish the job properly.
I inspected his final work and everything looks neat and professional. We would recommend his work to anyone who needs to improve the insulation in their attic.

Hired Frank with Cal-​West for insulation in the walls of our recently moved-​in home in Willow Glen. He and his helper showed up at the time expected and completed the job at the time promised. Very professional and price was great! We would definitely refer him to others.

We were referred to Frank by a very good friend. We called and Frank scheduled us in for Saturday at 5pm. At 5pm, Frank called to cancelled because it was getting late and it was his girlfriend’s birthday. So we rescheduled it for Tuesday at 2pm. At 2:30pm, Frank called to say he was too far away and couldn’t make it back to Fremont. Fine, we decided to give him a final chance because it was a referral. Frank said he would come by Weds. at 10am. We called and left a message on his cell phone at 10:40am to see of his whereabouts. It is now 2:46pm, still no phone call from Frank.
Today is Thursday, still no words from Frank… Very disappointed!!!

I recently used these guys to blow insulation into the exterior walls of my house. They were professional, fast, clean, and priced very competitively. On three sides of my house, they cored from the outside. While, on the front wall of the house, they cored from inside the house. When other insulators would either not touch my interior wall or charge me substantially more due to their plaster surface, Cal-​West was able to carefully core through my plaster walls; not cracking the surrounding plaster… and stay well within my budget.
After the job was done, the owner welcomed any follow-​up calls or questions. He even came by later in the week to offer advice on prepping the plugs for paint.
They do other insulation as well; attic, etc. But, since I had that work already done, I used them for the more intrusive exterior wall insulation work.
My only caveat is to ensure that all plugging and patching they do is as level to the surface of your surrounding wall as possible; otherwise you’ll be spending some time with a grinder with a masonry wheel; feel free to ping me on advice on this topic. In sum, I would use them again if I had to do it all over again. Thanks for the great work!