I bought my home in Florida about 3 years ago. It had R-19 in the ceilings.
Last year I checked 3 different fiberglass blown in insulators. All three were within pennies of each other on the estimate. If I remember correctly I picked Suncoast Insulators. I'm at work now, so I cannot check for sure.......but I will.
First, MAKE SURE you know the square footage of your home. look at your blueprints. If you have scissor trusses you may need to add some to the total to allow for pitch, or just measure the square footage of the ceilings.
Second, make sure WHAT they are blowing in. I wanted and got the better white fluffy fiberglass that is not that itchy. I now forgot the trade name of it.
Then see online how much coverage each bag does. THAT IS IMPORTANT. You will be charged by your square footage......make sure there is not a discrepancy with the bags. Look in the truck first to make sure they do not have any empty bags, then COUNT the bags they use. They tried to short me. They were done VERY fast, like in 30 minutes........it looked good up there, and I KNEW the number of bags that should have been blown because my measurements were exact. They were like 4 bags short. That was alot! Plus, I specifically told them NOT to do over my Lanai because I planned on taking down the ceiling. They ended up doing my lanai, which will now be a HUGE MESS because of what they did.
We had some words. They shorted me. Imagine if they short each customer a couple of bags......
They demanded payment. I wrote them a check deducting the amount of coverage that the shorted bags would be. They told me that they could not take a lower amount back to the boss. I said fine....you better get back up there and blow in 4 more bags. They agreed.
How many people do the research to see what the coverage is supposed to be? How many folks know the square footage of their ceilings? I was not paying for a cheap job. In fact, they first quoted me for R-38. I wanted a bit more, and had them figure for R-50. They told me I was thinking like a northerner and I did not need that much. I replied that I was happy to pay more......that is what I wanted.
I designed and built my own house up here in NY, and I understand there is a law of diminishing return with insulation. For my house, the difference between R-38 and R-50 was only like $150. None of us know what utility costs will be in the future, and I felt that if I got R-50 I would not need to have this done again down the road when or if the standards go higher. It also gave me bragging rights in the neighborhood.
Bottom line is that heat rises......so more insulation would help in the winter to retain the heat, as well as helping in the summer to insulate against a hot attic.
Another thing to remember is that ventilation is just as important as insulation, especially in the summer. You need adequate ventilation to keep your attic cooler and to not prematurely degrade your shingles.
Anyway......I think there was another insulation company with the name bear in it that I now wish I would have gone with. I will double check tomorrow as to who I used, but I am 98% sure it was Suncoast. I ended up with a good job with the right amount of insulation, but I should not have had to fight for it. And now it will be a huge pain to remodel my Lanai
Oh, BTW, unless your house is 3x the size of mine, it should cost WAY less then $1300. My home is smaller, around 1500 square feet, and the cost was under $600 for R-50
Frank