I'm currently working on my attic. I had vermiculite in there. For the safety of my family and their long term health I got it removed. Since then, I have been going up there weekly air sealing, insulating pipes, adding baffles and metal mesh to gable vents to keep out squirrels. Next I have to build up hatch and blow in the cellulose. Got 60 bags stored in my garage right now and have machine reserved for later this week. It's honestly so much work I want to puke. Some days after getting down from there i do puke. But I know in the end it'll be worth it cause I actually care about the project and what it adds to the house.
Firefighter here: in my 40+ year career as a firefighter I have responded on several hundred attic fires. All of them were cellulose insulation. Most were smoldering fires that may burn for days before the heat and embers reach wood framing and then once it reaches air the flames appear and the open flame fire is produced. I’ve never seen this happen with fiberglass insulation..
Not doubting you here but the packaging says sound thermal and fire protection.... Not sure if the stuff they are selling now is the same as what you experienced or if they are just false advertising..:.. I'm fixing to do this in my house because the attic is horrible
@@joshyingling flame resistant. It doesn’t support open flame but it does burn like a cigarette. The thermal insulation value is superior to fiberglass but you just have to understand its limitations. Also a comparison is a book. A book is hard to burn but open it up or remove the pages 1 by 1. And they burn easily. It’s all still paper with two distinctly different burning characteristics.
Just an observation, if you say in the videos to be sure to wear safety glasses while installing... have your guy in the attic who is doing the installation wear them himself lol
Hi. Thanks for video: Question: I have a wall btw my neighbor to insulate in the Apartment Unit. I am thinking of cut from my apt indoor enough space to use I need 2 meters tall and 5 m wider to cover the neighbor who opening windows in winter time. Question Can I do myself and hire another person
There is so much wrong here I do not know where to begin, but I will. First, the wiring has to be checked and has to be moved and marked according to code: you can not create a code violation which would be a great way to void your homeowner's insurance. No knob in tube PLUS the insulation is useless in older homes with 2 prong outlets or two wire wiring such as that show in the video: Cellulose should NOT be blown over any cotton wire, 2 conductor wire with no ground, or wire that was not heat rated for burial: If you have any of these, you might as well get the wiring done FIRST. Second, Recessed Light fixtures have to be rated for insulation contact. Third, every electrical ceiling or junction box bath fan, radon fan, or electrical apparatus under the insulation must first be marked with a flag. Fourth, BEFORE ANY insulating is done the house must be air sealed. This involves foaming around wires and pipes, wall tops, and ceiling boxes. Air sealing is usually done with a blower door so that the sealing techs can hit a very specific amount of air that they measure the house to be leaking. Fifth is something few people get right: On the eave end of a gable, hip, or shed roof, you have to install foam blocking boards between the rafters so insulation does not spill into the eaves and block the ventilation. Every rafter space should have a minimum of 6 sq inches of eave vent per 16" rafter space. Before blocking goes in, a foam tray is stapled to the underside of the roof to conduct air from the eave vents up under the roof towards the ridge. This eave process in the trade is called "tray and block". Most plastic and aluminum soffit materials with very fine slits in them are a poor choice for eave material: a better venting choice is a removable aluminum or plastic vent that can give you access to the eave. When attics are worked in by professionals, they use "sliders" which are usually 2' x 4' x 1/2" plywood boards that each man uses in pairs: kneeling on one and sliding the other in front of him. The sliders prevent most drywall damage. All the work of insulation is useless unless your access to the attic is insulated as well. Attic access is usually best insulated with a kit such as the one made made by ESS energy guardian that starts at $75. When we run into old insulation we vacuum it out using a toro leaf blower and a 4" smoothwall tubing hose to fill bags which are then thrown out of the attic. When working with cellulose its imperative to cover your skin as exposure to it is incredibly drying which can cause dehydration and heat stroke on a hot day. Staying healthy and cool with the proper PPE is essential including RESPIRATORS and not masks, goggles.
Question, I have canned lights in a room that I need to put this in. Well they are LED, is it safe to spray over the wiring and ballast of these lights?
check the rating. If in doubt, put a drywall box around the light. I've heard it has to be rated "A1," but I'm really the last person to give advice on stuff like this.
Do you think it would be possible to do this to a finished attic. By snaking the hose under the floor boards from behind the knee wall? I can access both sides. Thanks for any input.
Nice video. Would have been better if you could have shared experience on how to get to the low sloped ends 20 feet from the center rather than the low crawl approach lol. Good work
@@TheCraftsmanBlog just finished the back half of my house. The mask got clogged because of the fine dust while I was low crawling so I had to breath and I moved that damn thing and took a mighty breath of boric acid. After exhaling and fighting to get fresh air I sounded of with countless expletives, lol. Their should be some warning and trick for the die hard novice such as myself. Thanks for the reply!!!
@@richardmcelroy6574 The trick is to not just blow the insulation like with a water hose. Place the end of the hose in a corner and when the insulation builded a little pyramid, pull out the hose a little to build the next one besides the first one. But THE END OF THE HOSE NEVER LEAVES THE MATERIAL! This way you have just very little dust in the air.
Great video. Thanks. Question - what is the diameter of the hose here? Looks like 5", can you confirm? I am trying to insulate a tricky area between ceiling joists. The ceiling is open on one side, so I can see down the area between the joists, but there is an "X" shaped support halfway through between every area. My hope is that I can pass the hose under the "X", start spraying, and work backwards. I suppose that if it didn't fit under the X, then I could always MacGyver an adapter onto a smaller hose. Thoughts?
I don't understand , at 00.44 it says for 1000 square feet , you need 83.5 bag for R49, that can bea really expensive(83.5 * $50(as an example))= $4175 before tax, am i missing somehting ? Where i live each bag is like $120 and it covers 48 square feet, so it costs me $2500.
Nice video! Can u install blown insulation on top of HVAC pipes? I have the exact same house in this video and all the hvac pipes that go to each room are in the attic. So i was wondering if i could just blown in insulation on top of them. If so, do the hvac pipes need to be insulated or the blown insulation will provide insulation to this pipes. Thank you for your help in advance!
What was the square footage of that home? I am looking to do my home & garage this summer totalling 2336sqft. I use my garage as a woodshop and has a ductless air conditioner in it but since there isn't any insulation I think the room could be colder and cool quicker. How many bags do you recommend for 2336 sqft?
Ok I see no gloves used. I used some of this brand etc today & afterward, my hands & the tops of my legs, where some fell on my jeans, & my face around the mask area feel like they're burning 👀 I course washed & changed my pants but it hopefully isnt a big deal & goes away. 🤷♀️
Decent video but instead of saying just the depth for how much insulation was installed maybe reference that with the R-Value. 1' of blown cellulose typically equals R-38. Dont forget air sealing wall tops with proper insulation can save you up 33% of your energy bill and make one way more comfortable in the home
The amount of bags they had would hardly cover anything. Greenfiber makes 18 lbs bags for $8-$10. At other distributers you can get 25 lbs bags for the same price.
I can’t wait until they bring back asbestos! Lol There are better products out there. This stuff is garbage. A lazy way to install insulation. At least it makes a great nesting material for mice and rats. Hopefully there is no romex cables in that attic. Good luck finding the one that was chewed on by a rat. That stuff does a great job hiding problems like that. Good luck!
Blow in insulation is quite heavy and it absorbs moisture becoming heavier seasonally ...eventually your ceiling pops and you cant fix it because the fluffy stuff gets between the plasterboard and the wooden joist. It's a death sentance for ceilings and I'm sick of fixing them ...
@@langer24106 like some type of science publication ? how about 30 years of installing ceilings and dealing with the problem in old ceilings. Do you have any blow in insulation in your ceiling ?
@@BAKERHUSKIE yes, not all ceilings contain blow in insulation genius ... I dont do ceiling work any longer now that im 57, I diversified about a decade ago to do restorations on heritage buildings, carpentry, masonry, painting all the ground level jobs and organise other trades like plumbers and electricians. Heres some advice for you, think before you run your big mouth, you may experience better outcomes now and then and listen to good advice when its offered...you dont know everything, nobody does
@@oftin_wong I'm surprised that after a decade you still complaining. I do different trades too and everyone has a problem sometimes. It is up to you to decide how to work it out. Bashing other people for doing it different doesn't help. Sorry if your not happy with your life.
I wouldn’t want to be the poor bastard that has to perform work in your attic with that mess you just pumped up there. You just made a complete nightmare for any electricians or HVAC technicians to perform their work. If I ever encounter attics like this I usually refuse to work in them until the homeowner removes the insulation and I know a lot of trades people that would the same. This method of insulating should be banned!
Blown in insulation has been used for decades. Guess you pick and choose what to do. But fir ever person not wanting to work in that environment. Is a 100 more that will.
@@jasonwillis4486 If you don’t know then you must be one of those idiots that does this kind of work. Why not bring back asbestos and lead paint while your at it. Try installing fiberglass insulation sheets instead of taking a hose and treating someone’s attic like you stuffing a build a bear.
@@LtDan-rf9mx I agree with you on trying to do work in the attic after blown in insulation. I'm going to remove all insulation in my 2000 sq ft ranch house built in 1956 that has fiberglass batts. I was looking at putting in new fiberglass batts R-19 faced plus R-30 unfaced. Here in Ohio the insulation cost is double for fiberglass batts compared to cellulose. The installation will also be more work for installing batts. I wouldn't call it lazy as much as cost factor. I haven't decided which way to go yet.
I'm currently working on my attic. I had vermiculite in there. For the safety of my family and their long term health I got it removed. Since then, I have been going up there weekly air sealing, insulating pipes, adding baffles and metal mesh to gable vents to keep out squirrels. Next I have to build up hatch and blow in the cellulose. Got 60 bags stored in my garage right now and have machine reserved for later this week.
It's honestly so much work I want to puke. Some days after getting down from there i do puke. But I know in the end it'll be worth it cause I actually care about the project and what it adds to the house.
I'm about to have to tackle this same project. Thanks for the video.
Have you put insulation in your attic?
@@Greenidiotday i never did it. I got side tracked with other projects.
@@B-Killin quitter
@@Greenidiotday he’s got a typical poor excuse.
@@fireboltaz hahahaha im sorry to let you down, “Firebolt”. I swear it wont happen again.
can i cover the electric boxes where the ceiling fan is connected up there? wont it catch on fire?
Does this stick? I need some on a cieling in a shed
Firefighter here: in my 40+ year career as a firefighter I have responded on several hundred attic fires. All of them were cellulose insulation. Most were smoldering fires that may burn for days before the heat and embers reach wood framing and then once it reaches air the flames appear and the open flame fire is produced. I’ve never seen this happen with fiberglass insulation..
Not doubting you here but the packaging says sound thermal and fire protection.... Not sure if the stuff they are selling now is the same as what you experienced or if they are just false advertising..:.. I'm fixing to do this in my house because the attic is horrible
@@joshyingling flame resistant. It doesn’t support open flame but it does burn like a cigarette. The thermal insulation value is superior to fiberglass but you just have to understand its limitations. Also a comparison is a book. A book is hard to burn but open it up or remove the pages 1 by 1. And they burn easily. It’s all still paper with two distinctly different burning characteristics.
@@ihate2wait gotcha thank you for the info. I'll be sure to check out the options
Just an observation, if you say in the videos to be sure to wear safety glasses while installing... have your guy in the attic who is doing the installation wear them himself lol
He said mask not glasses
What was the square footage of the house? My house is 2,000 sqft was wondering if my math was correct. I come up with about 80 bags
Hi. Thanks for video: Question: I have a wall btw my neighbor to insulate in the Apartment Unit. I am thinking of cut from my apt indoor enough space to use I need 2 meters tall and 5 m wider to cover the neighbor who opening windows in winter time. Question Can I do myself and hire another person
I'm not a big PPE guy but blowing this stuff without long sleeves, goggles or a proper respirator is WILD.
This is cellulose, not the more dangerous and irritating fiberglass.
Any ideas on doing walls in a moble home??
There is so much wrong here I do not know where to begin, but I will. First, the wiring has to be checked and has to be moved and marked according to code: you can not create a code violation which would be a great way to void your homeowner's insurance. No knob in tube PLUS the insulation is useless in older homes with 2 prong outlets or two wire wiring such as that show in the video: Cellulose should NOT be blown over any cotton wire, 2 conductor wire with no ground, or wire that was not heat rated for burial: If you have any of these, you might as well get the wiring done FIRST. Second, Recessed Light fixtures have to be rated for insulation contact. Third, every electrical ceiling or junction box bath fan, radon fan, or electrical apparatus under the insulation must first be marked with a flag. Fourth, BEFORE ANY insulating is done the house must be air sealed. This involves foaming around wires and pipes, wall tops, and ceiling boxes. Air sealing is usually done with a blower door so that the sealing techs can hit a very specific amount of air that they measure the house to be leaking. Fifth is something few people get right: On the eave end of a gable, hip, or shed roof, you have to install foam blocking boards between the rafters so insulation does not spill into the eaves and block the ventilation. Every rafter space should have a minimum of 6 sq inches of eave vent per 16" rafter space. Before blocking goes in, a foam tray is stapled to the underside of the roof to conduct air from the eave vents up under the roof towards the ridge. This eave process in the trade is called "tray and block". Most plastic and aluminum soffit materials with very fine slits in them are a poor choice for eave material: a better venting choice is a removable aluminum or plastic vent that can give you access to the eave. When attics are worked in by professionals, they use "sliders" which are usually 2' x 4' x 1/2" plywood boards that each man uses in pairs: kneeling on one and sliding the other in front of him. The sliders prevent most drywall damage. All the work of insulation is useless unless your access to the attic is insulated as well. Attic access is usually best insulated with a kit such as the one made made by ESS energy guardian that starts at $75. When we run into old insulation we vacuum it out using a toro leaf blower and a 4" smoothwall tubing hose to fill bags which are then thrown out of the attic. When working with cellulose its imperative to cover your skin as exposure to it is incredibly drying which can cause dehydration and heat stroke on a hot day. Staying healthy and cool with the proper PPE is essential including RESPIRATORS and not masks, goggles.
What machine are u using
Question, I have canned lights in a room that I need to put this in. Well they are LED, is it safe to spray over the wiring and ballast of these lights?
check the rating. If in doubt, put a drywall box around the light. I've heard it has to be rated "A1," but I'm really the last person to give advice on stuff like this.
Do you think it would be possible to do this to a finished attic. By snaking the hose under the floor boards from behind the knee wall? I can access both sides. Thanks for any input.
That might work.
What's the big draw for green fiber over other products? Just curious.
Cost
it settles a lot more than other products
Nice video.
Would have been better if you could have shared experience on how to get to the low sloped ends 20 feet from the center rather than the low crawl approach lol.
Good work
Ha ha! That’s the best way isn’t it? I usually force the hose down to the end and slowly pull it back as the area fills up with insulation.
@@TheCraftsmanBlog just finished the back half of my house. The mask got clogged because of the fine dust while I was low crawling so I had to breath and I moved that damn thing and took a mighty breath of boric acid.
After exhaling and fighting to get fresh air I sounded of with countless expletives, lol.
Their should be some warning and trick for the die hard novice such as myself.
Thanks for the reply!!!
@@richardmcelroy6574 The trick is to not just blow the insulation like with a water hose. Place the end of the hose in a corner and when the insulation builded a little pyramid, pull out the hose a little to build the next one besides the first one. But THE END OF THE HOSE NEVER LEAVES THE MATERIAL! This way you have just very little dust in the air.
@@richardmcelroy6574 buy two hoses, one for the insulation, and one to tape to your face to breath through :P
How long did it take for two people to blow in 50 bags?
About 8 hrs including shopping, loading and clean up.
Does this work underneath a house that is up on piers?
No, you need batts or foam attached to the underside. Loose fill is for attic floors.
Great video. Thanks. Question - what is the diameter of the hose here? Looks like 5", can you confirm? I am trying to insulate a tricky area between ceiling joists. The ceiling is open on one side, so I can see down the area between the joists, but there is an "X" shaped support halfway through between every area. My hope is that I can pass the hose under the "X", start spraying, and work backwards. I suppose that if it didn't fit under the X, then I could always MacGyver an adapter onto a smaller hose. Thoughts?
It’s a 4” hose I believe.
Do you need to remove old blown in
I don't understand , at 00.44 it says for 1000 square feet , you need 83.5 bag for R49, that can bea really expensive(83.5 * $50(as an example))= $4175 before tax, am i missing somehting ?
Where i live each bag is like $120 and it covers 48 square feet, so it costs me $2500.
R49? Why?
Thanks 😊
Nice video! Can u install blown insulation on top of HVAC pipes? I have the exact same house in this video and all the hvac pipes that go to each room are in the attic. So i was wondering if i could just blown in insulation on top of them. If so, do the hvac pipes need to be insulated or the blown insulation will provide insulation to this pipes. Thank you for your help in advance!
You can install all around them though sealing any leaks would be best to do first.
What was the square footage of that home? I am looking to do my home & garage this summer totalling 2336sqft. I use my garage as a woodshop and has a ductless air conditioner in it but since there isn't any insulation I think the room could be colder and cool quicker. How many bags do you recommend for 2336 sqft?
This house was around 2000 SF. Green fiber has a calculator you can use to figure out how many bags you need on their website.
Ok I see no gloves used. I used some of this brand etc today & afterward, my hands & the tops of my legs, where some fell on my jeans, & my face around the mask area feel like they're burning 👀
I course washed & changed my pants but it hopefully isnt a big deal & goes away. 🤷♀️
If it is no secret, how real is the hourly wage for such work?
how much did u end up saving
Decent video but instead of saying just the depth for how much insulation was installed maybe reference that with the R-Value. 1' of blown cellulose typically equals R-38. Dont forget air sealing wall tops with proper insulation can save you up 33% of your energy bill and make one way more comfortable in the home
A foot, or 12" of cellulose = R-44
How long did it take to go through the 50 bags?
About 3-4 hrs. Pretty quick once you’re setup.
The amount of bags they had would hardly cover anything. Greenfiber makes 18 lbs bags for $8-$10. At other distributers you can get 25 lbs bags for the same price.
How about you buy the number of bags you need for your project and we’ll buy the bags we need for our project.
highly flammable too.
So we just clogging soffits now? Lol
Not in an old house where you have no soffit vents, but it sounds like you already knew to watch out for that so why the complaint?
@@TheCraftsmanBlog honesty I didnt expect a reply. But yes I did know that. This is awkward. Happy holidays.
I can’t wait until they bring back asbestos! Lol There are better products out there. This stuff is garbage. A lazy way to install insulation. At least it makes a great nesting material for mice and rats. Hopefully there is no romex cables in that attic. Good luck finding the one that was chewed on by a rat. That stuff does a great job hiding problems like that. Good luck!
@@LtDan-rf9mx What insulation do you suggest? Since cellouse is garbage.
No baffles
Couldn't have imagined how itchy his arms would be
Fiberglass insulation makes u itchy. not this green cheap paper stuff.
Blow in insulation is quite heavy and it absorbs moisture becoming heavier seasonally ...eventually your ceiling pops and you cant fix it because the fluffy stuff gets between the plasterboard and the wooden joist. It's a death sentance for ceilings and I'm sick of fixing them ...
Any documentation on that?
@@langer24106 like some type of science publication ?
how about 30 years of installing ceilings and dealing with the problem in old ceilings.
Do you have any blow in insulation in your ceiling ?
get another job if you don't like what you do. Unless is the same ceiling you've been working on the whole time.
@@BAKERHUSKIE yes, not all ceilings contain blow in insulation genius ... I dont do ceiling work any longer now that im 57, I diversified about a decade ago to do restorations on heritage buildings, carpentry, masonry, painting all the ground level jobs and organise other trades like plumbers and electricians.
Heres some advice for you, think before you run your big mouth, you may experience better outcomes now and then and listen to good advice when its offered...you dont know everything, nobody does
@@oftin_wong I'm surprised that after a decade you still complaining. I do different trades too and everyone has a problem sometimes. It is up to you to decide how to work it out. Bashing other people for doing it different doesn't help. Sorry if your not happy with your life.
Hhuu
JEEBUS EFFING CHRISTMAS GODDANG ADS IN VIDEO IS GARBAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wouldn’t want to be the poor bastard that has to perform work in your attic with that mess you just pumped up there. You just made a complete nightmare for any electricians or HVAC technicians to perform their work. If I ever encounter attics like this I usually refuse to work in them until the homeowner removes the insulation and I know a lot of trades people that would the same. This method of insulating should be banned!
Blown in insulation has been used for decades. Guess you pick and choose what to do. But fir ever person not wanting to work in that environment. Is a 100 more that will.
@@jasonwillis4486 The method is a lazy way to install insulation.
@@LtDan-rf9mx how is blow in insulation lazy
@@jasonwillis4486 If you don’t know then you must be one of those idiots that does this kind of work. Why not bring back asbestos and lead paint while your at it. Try installing fiberglass insulation sheets instead of taking a hose and treating someone’s attic like you stuffing a build a bear.
@@LtDan-rf9mx I agree with you on trying to do work in the attic after blown in insulation. I'm going to remove all insulation in my 2000 sq ft ranch house built in 1956 that has fiberglass batts. I was looking at putting in new fiberglass batts R-19 faced plus R-30 unfaced. Here in Ohio the insulation cost is double for fiberglass batts compared to cellulose. The installation will also be more work for installing batts. I wouldn't call it lazy as much as cost factor. I haven't decided which way to go yet.