How Topside Attic Insulation Burbank Was Born in Burbank
We opened this branch in 2016, the same year Topside Attic Insulation started, because we’d been working insulation jobs across Los Angeles County and kept driving home past houses in Burbank with telltale signs: icicle dams in January, AC units that never shut off in August, attic hatches stuffed with fiberglass batts someone had jammed in and walked away from. The city had plenty of companies willing to blow more cellulose on top of whatever was already failing. What it didn’t have was someone who’d crawl to the eaves with a can of foam and seal the top plates first.
The moment that locked it for us was a call to a 1948 ranch on Screenland Drive. A homeowner had paid another company to “fix” their attic two years prior. They’d blown GreenFiber over unsealed can lights and a chimney chase you could feel the wind through. The homeowner’s winter gas bill had actually gone up. We spent a day sealing, then blew a smaller amount of insulation than the first crew had used. The blower-door number dropped 34 percent. The homeowner stood in the driveway and said, “Why didn’t the last guy do this?” We didn’t have a good answer. We opened the Burbank branch the next month.
Wes Okafor’s Personal Connection to the Insulation Trade
I got into this work by accident and stayed because of what it feels like to hand someone a folder with photos of what was wrong, a number that proves it’s fixed, and a bill that matches the written quote they already approved.
Before 2016, I was doing energy audits for a utility program, running blower doors in neighborhoods from Glendale to Pasadena. The protocol was simple: test, recommend, leave. I’d find attics in Burbank with beautiful new Owens Corning blown-in sitting on top of gaps so big you could drop a softball through them. The insulation looked great from the hatch. It was doing almost nothing. I’d write it in my report, hand it to the homeowner, and never see them again. The fixes weren’t getting made. The recommendations were becoming shelf paper.
One morning in late October, I was in an attic off Alameda Avenue, and the smell hit me before the heat did: mouse droppings, old cellulose, and the sharp chemical note of recessed can lights baking the dust that had settled on them. A family was living below this. Kids’ bedrooms. I could see the drywall seams through the gaps in the insulation. I called my supervisor and said I wanted to do the work, not just document it. He said utility auditors don’t install. I started Topside’s Burbank branch instead.
What gets me out of bed is the same thing that kept me in hot attics that first summer: the moment a homeowner understands what they actually bought. Not the R-value, not the bag count. The sealed envelope. The number on the report that says their house now holds air. If I weren’t doing this, I’d probably be back in building science research, chasing smaller and smaller air changes per hour in test houses nobody lives in. I prefer real houses in Burbank, where you can feel the difference when you walk back inside.
Meet Wes Okafor - The Person Behind Every Job
I’m Wes Okafor, Owner and Founder of Topside Attic Insulation Burbank. I’ve been crawling attics and running blower doors since we opened this branch in 2016. My training came from the field: thousands of hours with a smoke pencil and an infrared camera, learning to read what air does when it finds a path it shouldn’t have. I hold the state license required for insulation and home performance work in California, and every crew working under our name is required to hold the same.
What separates me from a corporate technician is simple: I’m the one who answers when the office connects you, and I’m the one who reviews your job photos before we invoice. I live in this service area. My truck gets serviced at the same shops yours does. On weekends, I’m usually restoring a 1972 Datsun 240Z in my garage, which taught me more about patience and doing a job right than any certification could. When you hire Topside Attic Insulation Burbank, you’re hiring me and the standards I personally enforce on every attic we touch.
Before
AfterOur Promise to Burbank Homeowners
Our values aren’t posters on a wall. They’re policies with consequences.
Honest pricing: We publish our price ranges on every page because Clause 1 of the Haven Standard says “Have it in writing.” Every Burbank job leaves with a written scope, a flat price, and a warranty document. No verbal quotes. No “we’ll settle up after.”
Quality materials: We use Johns Manville and Knauf products because we’ve tested what happens to cheaper batts in Burbank’s summer attic temperatures. We document the brand and lot number on your job record. If it fails, we know what we installed.
Standing behind every job: Our warranty isn’t a phone tree. It’s a direct line to this branch. If your blower-door number doesn’t match what we documented, we come back and find the leak. That’s not generosity. It’s Clause 5: No surprises.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed for insulation and home performance contracting in California
- Insured & bonded with coverage required for residential work in Los Angeles County
- Years of local experience serving Burbank and surrounding communities since 2016
- Strong local reputation built on documented results and repeat referrals
These matter because you’re letting someone into your home, into your attic, around your wiring and your family. A state license means we’ve met California’s competency requirements. Insurance and bonding mean if something goes wrong, you’re protected. Local experience means we know Burbank’s 1940s balloon framing, its hillside venting challenges, and which building inspector will ask to see your fire-blocking detail. Reputation means you can verify us before you call.
Every pro working under our name is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires, and we verify it before they step onto your property.
Rooted in Burbank
This branch runs out of Burbank, not a dispatch hub in another county. We know the difference between a Magnolia Park cottage and a hillside home off Verdugo Mountains. We’ve worked in the summer heat of attics above Chandler Boulevard and the tight eaves of the Rancho neighborhood. We’re not sponsoring Little League teams we can’t name or claiming roots we didn’t grow. We’re here, we’re local, and we’re accountable to the homeowners who see our trucks on their streets.
Written by Wes Okafor, Owner at Topside Attic Insulation Burbank, serving Burbank since 2016.