How Woolsey Insulation Austin Was Born in Austin
We didn’t invent Woolsey Attic Insulation. The Kingswell family built that name long before we brought it to Central Texas. But the day we opened our doors here, it wasn’t some corporate ribbon-cutting. It was a response to what we kept hearing from homeowners across Austin, from Wells Branch down to Shady Hollow. They’d paid good money for insulation that sagged a year later. They’d had crews stomp through their attic leaving fiberglass dust on every horizontal surface. They’d gotten a number over the phone, then watched the price change when the estimator stood in their living room. Again and again, the same story: the work got done, but the promises around it didn’t hold.
One call sticks with us. A homeowner in Georgetown had a spray foam company walk off mid-job when the equipment failed. Foam half-applied, soffit vents partially blocked, and a crew that stopped answering. She called around, and nobody wanted to touch a half-finished job. Somebody said, “Try the new Woolsey branch in Austin.” And we got it done. That’s how we started earning our place here: being the company that says yes to the mess other people left behind, because that’s what a guarantee actually means. Austin needed insulation contractors who stood behind the work from the first minute to the last, and we knew the Kingswell standards demanded exactly that.
Glenn Hartley’s Personal Connection to the Insulation Trade
Glenn Hartley came into this trade the way a lot of people do in Texas: through the heat. He spent his first years working construction around Austin, running crews through July afternoons where the thermometer in the truck read 108 and the attics were worse. You learn fast in those conditions that insulation isn’t an afterthought. It’s the difference between a house that breathes and a house that bakes. He remembers crawling into his first attic in Manor, the air so thick it felt like a physical thing, and seeing batts that had been shoved in wrong, gaps at the eaves, none of it doing what the homeowner paid for. That was the moment. The problem wasn’t the material. The problem was the care.
The trade itself came from working alongside installers who’d been doing it since before spray foam was a household word. No one handed Glenn a manual. He watched, asked questions, got dirty, and made mistakes he learned from. The smell of fresh fiberglass, the fine dust that gets on your arms no matter how careful you are, the surprising satisfaction of feeling a room hold temperature after you’ve sealed the envelope. That’s the part he talks about: the before and after you can feel. A bedroom that used to spike to 82 degrees by 3 p.m. now holds at 74. That’s not marketing. That’s measurable.
Over the years, Glenn has spent thousands of hours in attics across Austin, Georgetown, Leander, Kyle, Hutto, Lakeway, Bastrop, Manor, Lost Creek, Hornsby Bend, Shady Hollow, and Wells Branch. He knows which neighborhoods have older homes with true 2×4 walls and no cavity insulation. He knows where the clay soil shifts enough to open hairline gaps at the sill plate. If he weren’t doing this, he’d probably still be in the trades somewhere, because he can’t sit behind a desk. But insulation is where he stayed, because it’s where the difference is most invisible and most personal. You don’t see it, but you live in it every day.
Meet Glenn Hartley – The Person Behind Every Job
Glenn Hartley is the Owner & Founder of the Austin branch. He’s been in the building trades his entire working life, with hands-on experience in insulation installation, air sealing, and attic remediation. He’s not a franchise technician dropped into a territory. He’s the person who walks the job, reads the house, and makes the call on what actually needs to happen. State licensing and insurance requirements are met by every pro working under the Woolsey name here, and Glenn personally reviews the scopes on jobs where the attic conditions are complicated.
The personal detail that tells you who he is: Glenn rebuilds old hand tools on weekends. Not to sell, just to use. He says a tool that’s been cared for will outlast the person who bought it, and he treats houses the same way. Every job is a promise between him and the homeowner, and he doesn’t make promises he can’t keep.
Our Promise to Austin Homeowners
The Kingswell Way runs on five values, and we say them plainly because they matter more than adjectives: Say the price before the work. Show up in the window we gave. Leave the place cleaner than we found it. Put the guarantee in writing. Come back if it fails. That last one isn’t theoretical. The Kingswell Guarantee means if the work fails inside the guarantee period, we return and fix it at no charge. We put that in writing on every single job, before any work begins.
We’ve seen too many Austin attics where the previous contractor didn’t leave it cleaner. Fiberglass dust on stored Christmas decorations. Boot prints on the drywall. Trash left by the scuttle. So our crews treat cleanup as part of the job description, not a favor. You shouldn’t have to clean up after a company you paid to do the work.
Our Credentials
- Licensed: Every pro working under the Woolsey name in Austin is required to hold the license the State of Texas requires for insulation work.
- Insured & bonded: Coverage is maintained so homeowners are protected during the job. We’re happy to provide proof before we start.
- Local experience: Glenn Hartley has spent his entire career in the Austin-area building trades, with deep familiarity in the attics and crawl spaces of Central Texas homes.
- Reputation: Homeowners across Austin, Round Rock, Cedar Park, and the surrounding communities know us for showing up when we said we would and standing behind the work.
Why those credentials matter: when you hire someone to work in your attic, you’re letting a stranger into your home. You should be able to verify that they’re legal, covered, and competent before they open the scuttle. We encourage you to ask. A contractor who bristles at the question is answering it.
Rooted in Austin
This is home. We know that Lost Creek houses sit on limestone shelves that complicate venting. We know Bastrop’s dry summers mean fire-resistant materials deserve a conversation. We know Hornsby Bend sits low enough that humidity gets into attics through the soffits. That’s not general knowledge. That’s local knowledge you only get by being here, month after month, year after year. When you call, you’re talking to people who actually understand the house you live in.
Written by Glenn Hartley, Owner at Woolsey Insulation Austin, serving Austin and the surrounding Central Texas communities. Call (361) 418-9997 for a free estimate with a written price before any work starts.