Meet the Santa Monica Team Behind Walt’s Insulation
Walt’s Insulation has been the one down the road for Santa Monica homeowners since 2000, and the crew working your attic today is the same caliber of people who’ve been showing up for 25 years. We’re background-checked, uniformed, and local enough to know that a marine layer morning in Sunset Park hits different than an afternoon up in the Pico District. No subcontractor roulette, no nameless crew in a rental van. Just the same faces, the same standards, and the same Done Right Promise on every single job.
Our People
Walt Brenner – Owner and Founder
Walt started Walt’s Insulation in 2000 after spending a summer crawling through a buddy’s attic and realizing most people were paying good money for work that wouldn’t hold up to the first Santa Ana wind. He’s the guy who still picks up the phone, still walks jobs personally, and still climbs into an attic to see the problem before quoting the fix. Walt is state-licensed, carries the company’s license number right on the side of the truck, and publishes the business address because he believes you should know exactly who you hired. When he’s not in a crawl space, you’ll find him at the Santa Monica farmers market arguing with his wife about which vendor has the better avocados.
Mike D. – Lead Technician
Mike has been with Walt’s for 14 years and is the first person we send when a job involves spray foam or open-cell foam application with Icynene or Demilec products. He’s certified on multiple manufacturer application systems, which matters when temperatures swing, and has probably insulated more Ocean Park bungalows than anyone else in the city. Mike’s specialty is retrofit work in older homes: the ones with wiring that runs where it shouldn’t and joists spaced like they were measured by eye. He keeps a stack of In-N-Out receipts in the glove box that could rival the city’s finance department. Homeowners regularly call the office afterward just to say he left the attic cleaner than he found it.
Lena R. – Senior Installer and Air Sealing Specialist
Lena joined the team seven years ago and handles most of our blown-in insulation and attic air sealing work. She’s the one who finds the gaps the energy audit flagged and the ones it didn’t; she has a habit of running a smoke pencil along baseboards in her own spare time, which tells you everything about how she approaches a job. Lena is trained on Owens Corning and Johns Manville blown-in systems, and she leads our crawl space encapsulation and vapor barrier installs for homes along the channels where moisture sneaks in. She’s also our resident rodent proofing lead, because you can’t seal the air if you don’t seal the entry points. On weekends she volunteers at the Santa Monica Animal Shelter and will absolutely tell you about every dog she’s walked this month.
Tommy V. – Apprentice and Rodent Proofing Assistant
Tommy is our youngest hire and part of why the next generation of insulation crews will still know what R-value means. He’s been learning the trade from Walt and Mike for the past two years, working through the hands-on stuff you can’t get from a manual: how to lay batt insulation from Rockwool or Knauf without compressing it, how to seal a rim joist properly the first time, and how to explain to a homeowner what he’s doing in plain English. Tommy handles a lot of our attic cleaning and prep work before the bigger installs roll in. He’s also the fastest with a leaf blower this side of the 10. If he shows up with sunscreen on his ears, it’s because his abuela insisted before he left the house that morning.
One Standard, Every Job
Every person on this page has had a background check run and wears a Walt’s Insulation uniform when they walk through your door. That’s the bare minimum. What actually keeps the standard high is simpler: the crew knows Walt by name, and Walt knows their work. There’s no 800 number between you and the person responsible for the job. If something isn’t done right, the Done Right Promise means we make it right; it’s a lifetime workmanship guarantee, not a 90-day wish. Our technicians work with materials from Owens Corning, Rockwool, Icynene, Johns Manville, CertainTeed, Demilec, Knauf, and GreenFiber, and we don’t cut corners on application because the attic doesn’t care about your timeline. It cares about coverage, air flow, and detail. So do we.
Written by Walt Brenner, Owner at Walt’s Insulation, serving Santa Monica since 2000.