I've heard siding/trim can be pretty costly. You mind sharing ballpark size of home and cost?

Be prepared for sticker shock right now. The home building boom going on right now has really stressed building material supplies.

Charlie,
Take a look a few posts up (~16) on the page. MJ charged us $1/sf for removal and $0.85/sf for insulation. There are a couple of posts I made that describe what they did and how satisfied we are.
Also, mention Texags when he comes out. I told him that's where we got the reference and he knew about it. Anyone that has posted on here and recommended him would probably tell you the same as far as their satisfaction.
If you have any other questions, just post and I'll respond.

Has anyone used MJ recently? Looking to get some quotes and just curious if everyone is still happy with their service/product/pricing compared to others.

We used MJ a month or two ago because of this thread and very pleased with the service and pricing. They showed up right on time, were VERY clean, and had my husband up to inspect everything before they left. Mark also emailed me before and after photos of the attic after he left.

What were they charging per sf?

Just had MJ's come out based on recommendation from this thread. We are almost certainly going to use him.

Seems like MJ's service is top notch - but curious how everyone's turned out in general. We currently have a third floor that we can't get under about 83 during the day in the middle of summer which has been real fun with working from home (my office is on the third floor). MJ took a look and found parts of the wall that just aren't insulated at all and of course some under insulated parts and air leaks. Was anyone else in a similar (very desperate) situation and did adding/fixing the insulation actually help by a matter of several degrees?

Undoubtedly it was one of the best moves we've made hiring MJ. Last year before we had the work done, we set the ac on 75 and it would run without stop from early afternoon until after sundown. Now, it cycles as you would expect a system to do.

An update here - MJ did awesome work. Quick and professional. It's currently 92 degrees outside in Houston. On previous similar days like this if I had the A/C totally off on the third floor it would get to over 100 degrees inside up there in the afternoon. I've been testing it out today and it's only 87 degrees with no A/C on at all today. And I can now cool it to the desired temperature during the day (and it cools down much quicker) without just running the air all day long.

I am amazed that we had a whole wall in a finished out attic space that was literally uninsulated. It was just a piece of drywall separating the room and the 120+ degree summertime attic. Mark cut a reasonable size hole in the wall, went in and fixed it better (and quicker) than we could have imagined. I currently have the hole patched with a piece of foam board insulation temporarily. I plan on installing an attic access door at some point to permanently fix it and give us access to that side of the attic.

Thank you for the recommendations here. I give a strong 5 star recommendation as well.

Moving to a new home soon, insulation issues one of the things that came up on the inspection. Lot of hot spots and insulation clearly missing in areas.
Should these be addressed first or last when it comes to attic issues? Decking the attic, new ac drain pans, finding some minor unexplained moisture issues are also on the agenda.

Should old insulation be removed as a good practice? Home built in 93.

I would have the insulation upgrade done last. If you do it earlier, any other work would displace the insulation there and it would need to be replaced/updated in those spots. I think the most important thing to address would be the moisture. Also, keep in mind that wherever you deck the attic, you won't get the insulation thickness you need.

I gotta ask: why do you guys care about your attic being "clean" under/before getting insulation blown in, i.e. the dirtiest substance known to man

More than getting the old insulation out, it was more about getting the garbage left behind by HVAC, electrical and plumbing contractors, such as wire nuts and wire cut-offs, galvanized pipe fittings and pipe remnants not policed, etc, as well as having all the penetrations around existing wiring through headers and outlets/vents sealed to stop air leaking in either direction. The removal was a "bonus".

Any recommendations for the Galveston (west end) for insulation companies? Don't think MJ makes it down to Gtown

MJ just added blown-in insulation to my garage and house. Also added a few batts that had fallen down. Did a great job for a great price and was in and out pretty quick.

Thank y'all for referring him.

Follow up on this. For those that decided to replace all versus add more insulation, what was the determining factor?

There were several factors for us.
We had about 40 years worth of plumbing and a/c cut-offs and scrap that the techs would just toss to the side.
The existing insulation in some places had settled so much, it was completely ineffective.
The cost of removal was low enough to warrant doing it.
They sealed all of the openings around light fixtures, a/c vents and wiring through headers. The even installed covers over the in-ceiling speakers in my living room.

What lurker said, lots of old crap up there including rodent droppings from before we moved in. MJs price for removal and new install was the same price as another company that was just going to blow on top.

I will say that my AC ran for 73 fewer hours this month over last july(337 vs 264), with two of us working from home + kids

I need to get this done myself.

Me too. The one thing holding us back are the bats.

And possibly we can't decide if we want to install hardwired cameras.