I am looking to add to my existing attic insulation and I have talked to different installers, each praising their particular products. Blown cellulose or blown fiberglass, I'm leaning towards the cellulose, but I was wondering what experiences you guys have had. The fiberglass is not suppose to settle, but is more expensive. From what I have read there is varying reports on the fire risks of both as well as the R values. Help! TIA.
Home insulation
- Thread starter hoopsnut1
- Start date
Also, who can I call to do this? I am not messing with it, but I would like to add insulation to my attic also.
I had blow in in my attic when I moved in. Left it there and installed batts over the top. I just find it to be cleaner/less messy. That probably doesn't matter if you're not going up there all that often.
Check with your local utility to see if they have energy programs to help with paying the cost. I had Mid-American do a energy audit of my house and pretty much paid for the whole thing, about $500 (installed the insulation myself. Doesn't really take all that long when dealing with fiberglass batts).
Check with your local utility to see if they have energy programs to help with paying the cost. I had Mid-American do a energy audit of my house and pretty much paid for the whole thing, about $500 (installed the insulation myself. Doesn't really take all that long when dealing with fiberglass batts).
Did you just pack down the batts over the top? How think was the existing insulation that you covered up?
For attics, blown cellulose is fine. We are building a new home and going with an R-55 in the attic - bolwn cellulose.
It is pretty easy to deal with yourself if you want and very economical on a DIY basis. Most home improvement places will loan you the equipment to blow it in.
Adding insulation to an existing home if you contract it can get a bit pricey because the job is not really that big but it takes 1/2 a day to a day on most houses.
Kinzler out of Ames does it but it is better as a DIY in my opinion - Unless your are made of money like Hos.
It is pretty easy to deal with yourself if you want and very economical on a DIY basis. Most home improvement places will loan you the equipment to blow it in.
Adding insulation to an existing home if you contract it can get a bit pricey because the job is not really that big but it takes 1/2 a day to a day on most houses.
Kinzler out of Ames does it but it is better as a DIY in my opinion - Unless your are made of money like Hos.
Nah its just money taped on on the outside. The rest is filled with crap. :wink:
I appreciate you bringing this thread up. I need to do this to my attic as well...and probably some walls at some point. Keep the info coming.
There wasn't enough up there to bother packing it down - that's why I needed more in the first place.
BTW - never pack down insulation - it diminishes it's effectiveness greatly. If I had a spot above the joists, I leveled it out to a shallowe area. On the whole - it wasn't high enough to worry about. To do a "proper" job, I probably shoud've filled in the gaps where it was too low. But it wasn't a big enough job to warrant doing so. Then I just laid the bats down perpendicular to the joists.
I bought the materials the day of the ISU/NU football game in Lincoln in 2001. Went home, unloaded the stuff, got a pizza to watch the game. Were down by about 20 in the first quarter so I got to work and was probably done by the post game coverage.... :wink:
Oh so you didn't put the batts between the joists, you went perpendicular. I was thinking you squished the existing insulation down by putting the batts between the joists.
I got the blown in from Lowes a year and a half ago...they loaned us the blower for free because we bought enough bags of insulation from them. A friend and I knocked off the job in like 2 hours tops. You just need somebody to be up there and somebody to feed in the insulation to the blower down below. Actually we only ended up using about half to 2/3 of the insulation so we returned the rest and they still didn't charge us for use of the blower...