Diy Loose Fill Cellulose vs No Insulation at all

nick123 · Jul 1, 2014

I live in an uninsulated 1500 square foot craftsman bungalow in upstate NY. I'm thinking of blowing cellulose into the walls myself(loose fill). I would be using an Intel force 1 machine. I understand that it is not dense packing but would be considered loose fill although I would try to get it as dense as possible.

I have gotten a quote of $4600 to have open cell spray foam applied to the sill and dense pack the walls. The sill was previous spray foamed through a weatherization program which was done rather poorly. The attic already has cellulose.

I was thinking of doing this a room at a time to measure the results and if I don't like it I can always resort to ripping the plaster and lath out and insulating and sheetrocking.

Any thoughts or advice on this would be appreciated. My thought is that air sealing and loose fill would better than no insulating at all. I like the idea of doing it a room at a time. Everyone thinks I should just rip out the plaster and insulate.

Thanks nick

bholler · Jul 1, 2014

If you loose fill you will have to keep going back and refilling as it settles. It would not be worthless to do but definitely not the best

woodgeek · Jul 2, 2014

A big part of the advantage of densepack is the airsealing benefit...which you lose in your plan. Going through the siding? What kind?

You could try to get a couple more quotes. I still think the pros go pretty fast and many charge a reasonable amount for their time.

semipro · Jul 2, 2014

Why not get a quote from someone to do true dense-pack cellulose?
I have used a big box cellulose blowing machine to pack some cantilevered horizontal joist bays and was able to get a pretty tight pack with careful installation.
I first installed a layer of foam that was was air-sealed so getting the air sealing benefit from the cellulose was not so important.

velvetfoot · Jul 2, 2014

Is foam out of the question for walls? A friend's house was foamed and it doesn't use much propane to heat it.

woodgeek · Jul 2, 2014

I would still worry about outgassing of toxics or odors from the foam.

velvetfoot · Jul 2, 2014

I thought that wasn't a problem nowadays. My friend likes it.

btuser · Jul 2, 2014

Costs for dense packed may surprise you. If ever there's a job to sub out, its insulation. Twice in my life I've been quoted a lower price than for what I could buy the material myself.

AK13 · Jul 2, 2014

My walls were done with loose fill as part of a utility subsidized program. I didn't realize until after it was done that the dubber who did my audit and then self performed the insulation used the same blower to fill the attic and walls. It bothers me that it wasn't done as well as it could be, but I will say that it was a HUGE improvement compared to uninsulated walls.

I researched foam and wouldn't do blown in foam into closed walls. It seemed too weird and I was concerned that the foam could expand and crack the walls. Blown in cellulose is a more mainstream way to go.

Warm_in_NH · Jul 3, 2014

I've seen blown in crack old walls more than once. I also just read they can foam wall bays now with minimal intrusion.
I helped a friend do a house once with loose blown in, we're both contractors and it was still a time consuming pita. There's a whole lot of hole sawing to be done. Two holes per a bay, then inevitably it finds a gap or crack and gets inside, messy stuff. The "hopper" kept getting air voids and you needed to poke it to keep the feed going, plan on at least two people if you're gonna do it.
After doing it once I knew I would never do it again. Not that it's a bad product but there's people that do it every day and buy the stuff by the train load, and can usually do it faster, cleaner and at a fair price

Bret Chase · Jul 12, 2014

velvetfoot said:
I thought that wasn't a problem nowadays. My friend likes it.

the blowing agents are still pretty nasty stuff.... A friend of mine got into it relatively recently... he had to have a "high hazard" storage room built. going over the MSDS of the foam system.... HCN (That's hydrogen cyanide, BTW) is one of the products of high temp decomposition.... along with a whole bunch of different halides

yeah... neato :/

if I were to pay someone else to insulate the walls as-is... I'd def go densepack. My house, is on the room by room, gut and replace plan, as the plaster is just generally too far gone.

EatenByLimestone · Jul 23, 2014

I just had somebody blow insulation into my walls. I wanted foam and they foamed my neighbor's house. They thought cellulose was right for me. I took their advice. It's been in a month and I couldn't tell you how well it insulates, but it sure keeps noise out! There are also 2 spots they found holes and blew a couple wheelbarrows worth of cellulose into my basement.

Don2222 · Aug 4, 2014

Hello
We opened up the bathroom outside walls over the winter for a remodel. There was R7 Fiberglass in there. So we yanked it and replaced it with water proof and fireproof Roxul insulation for 2x4 studs. That should be approx R15 instead of R7 but it will not settle or deteriorate over time.

EatenByLimestone · Aug 4, 2014

Awesome! I hope your room stays much warmer.

Don2222 · Aug 4, 2014

EatenByLimestone said:
Awesome! I hope your room stays much warmer.

Thanks
I also threw in a Modern glycol 250 watt Runtal heated towel rack to keep the towels a little warmer too!

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Diy Loose Fill Cellulose vs No Insulation at all

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