DIY Blow in insulation

[SarahFair]

My home was built back around 1905.

It has 2 rooms off the kitchen that were built after the original house. These rooms are open to the rest of the house, so you can't just shut them off during the winter months, and it's very obvious there is no insulation above these rooms.

This morning when it was 16 degrees outside the the infrared surface thermometer said the ceiling in one of them was 42 degrees, the other said 55, while our bedroom was 68.

To access these rooms is quite the journey.
First you have to go up into a drop down ceiling converted into an attic, go up into the original attic, across the house, drop down through what was once the ceiling of the kitchen (kitchen has a drop ceiling), and only then can you see into the rooms from square cut outs in the wall,

Video over kitchen

These two cut outs are what leads into the ceiling over the laundry room, I can only fit into the right one.

Video of laundry ceiling


This cut out is tiny and leads to the ceiling of the other room
Video of 2nd room ceiling


As you can see, the 2nd room is pretty tight and will be the most difficult to insulate.

I'm also wanting to insulate the roof of the cellar, which is the floor of the kitchen.
Someone put tongue and groove boards over the joists, but I have access from the left side, can I just blow insulation in there?


I'm wanting to rent the insulation blower from home depot and DIY it since they are very small rooms, but I've read mixed reviews on it.
Some do it without issue, some say it doesn't blow for diddly squat.

Has anyone done this?
Advice, tips, unforeseen issues?


*All the knob and tube wiring is not live, just decoration from yesteryear*

 

[notnksnemor]

Can't help you with the insulation, but I am impressed you know what knob and tubing wiring is.

 

[Milkman]

Have you got an estimate/opinion from a professional company yet ?

You may want to for comparison purposes.

 

[Jim Baker]

Have you got an estimate/opinion from a professional company yet ?

You may want to for comparison purposes.

When we re-insulated the attic space it was not much more than what I could do it myself.

 

[B. White]

When we re-insulated the attic space it was not much more than what I could do it myself.

Do you mean cost or labor wise? Watching this thread, since I'm in an 1875 uninsulated house.

 

[Jim Baker]

Do you mean cost or labor wise? Watching this thread, since I'm in an 1875 uninsulated house.

This was 14 years ago and I can't quote the firgures but is was close enough that I went with the insulation contractor. I would definitely get a quote.

 

[Batjack]

PM sent.

 

[dwhee87]

Sarah, I've done this in two homes, and will probably do it in my current new home. Easy job, as long as you have a helper.

You can blow the insulation about 6 feet from the end of the hose. My furthest was setting the blower in the driveway, and running the hose up a flight of stairs, and up into the attic, so about 50 feet, and then 30 or so feet across the attic. The blower had plenty of umph to get the insulation there. If you can't get into a space, you'll be limited to the distance you can stick the hose through a hole, plus about 6 feet, unless you cut an opening big enough to crawl through.

The hose is pretty long. One person at the bottom loading the machine, one person on the end of the hose. I think if you buy a certain number of bags, they give you the blower for free.

Start at the furthest point, and work your way back towards the machine.

You'll want to go at least 2-3 inches above the top of your ceiling joists.

The HD website's estimating tool will get you pretty close on # of bags, and you can return any unopened bags for a refund.

Feel free to pm me if you have any questions.

 

[pjciii]

Sarah. I know this may sound odd, but Orkin pest control have a product that they will blow In. Called orkintherm or something. I use them for pest control and termite bond. This is the website for it. https://www.orkin.com/protect/home-services/attic-insulation

But Batjack knows everybody. Just added it in case he can't help you.

 

[hipster dufus]

I've done it to 2 houses, 25 yrs ago. Bought insulation at Home Depot, machine was free. 2 man job. 2 story's up, thru window and up into attic. Taped a pole to end of hose to get further back into tight spots. Pretty easy. Course I was a lot younger n nimbler. Don't think I spent 100$ per house..

 

[Rdterry]

We just had our attic done 3 weeks ago by Riteway for about what I could buy the insulation for(for the same final R value). 2100 sf for just under $1900(w/5% vet discount). I did hear that one supplier was discounting inventory for tax purposes, so it may be more now.

 

[westcobbdog]

I hired a co and they sucked out all the old insulation and blew in new. Made a huge diff to my utility bills. With those smaller rooms and very tight access I would hire it out!

 

[bigchiefchoctaw]

O hired a co and they sucked out all the old insulation and blew in new. Made a huge diff to my utility bills. With those smaller rooms and very tight access I would hire it out!

Curious here. What would be the difference or benefit from sucking out the old and blowing in new ? Is the new stuff better than what as there ? I need to add some to mine also.

 

[westcobbdog]

Curious here. What would be the difference or benefit from sucking out the old and blowing in new ? Is the new stuff better than what as there ? I need to add some to mine also.

Chief I bought an older fixer upper 3-4 years ago, after I had Breda Pest control seal up all the openings in my attic we had an insulation company suck out the old nasty insulation, full of acorns and nuts from the squirrels hauling them inside. Prolly had urine and feces in the insulation, too. Had a diff co then add rolled insulation in my basement ceiling, finally have a well insulated crib.

 

[bigchiefchoctaw]

Chief I bought an older fixer upper 3-4 years ago, after I had Breda Pest control seal up all the openings in my attic we had an insulation company suck out the old nasty insulation, full of acorns and nuts from the squirrels hauling them inside. Prolly had urine and feces in the insulation, too. Had a diff co then add rolled insulation in my basement ceiling, finally have a well insulated crib.

Thank you for that Cobb .. I’m looking to do similar. Home I’m in prior had rats in the attic and some the same you mentioned.. what did it cost you to have that done. Our home is around 1300 square feet

 

[westcobbdog]

Thank you for that Cobb .. I’m looking to do similar. Home I’m in prior had rats in the attic and some the same you mentioned.. what did it cost you to have that done. Our home is around 1300 square feet

Seems like it was around 1k to remove and another to blow it back in.
Just a guess as we have done a ton of projects to this house. I would get three quotes and let them each know you are shopping around.

 

[bigchiefchoctaw]

Seems like it was around 1k to remove and another to blow it back in.
Just a guess as we have done a ton of projects to this house. I would get three quotes and let them each know you are shopping around.

Thank you ! I will look into this.

 

[westcobbdog]

Thank you ! I will look into this.

Wife reminds me we used Rainey Brothers insulation in Powder Springs, also my attic is pretty big as this older home was added on to.

 

[TAS]

A friend of mine did my attic some years ago. Was not hard. My only issue is that the insulation is loose. Makes a mess whenever I go up in my attic.

 

[Stob]

Hey Sarah-

I love old houses but after refurbing one a few years ago, it's a love hate relationship until you finally figure out that old homes are a beast!

Our shack in the hills has a 'block' basement. Not a 'block' basement.



After about freezing to death for the first couple of months that we lived there, mainly in 3 rooms, we finally figured out the problem. There were two broken basement windows, a poorly capped coal chute and many other places where cold air was coming in. The problem here was that the house being built in 1886 also had several additions and the house in general had settled leaving cracks all the way to the top.

Having said that, the cold air was having a major effect on the 1st and 2nd floors. My wife and I plugged the chute, repaired the broken windows (we replaced with plexi glass by removing the trim), used countless bottles of spray foam, etc, etc and boom, we were on to something.

The air had way more to do with the temp than the insulation would have helped with. We had a LOT of places like you have in the crawl spaces on the 1st, 2nd floors and now finished attic.



We found that by plugging all of the holes had a tremendous affect on keeping the house cooler or warmer (all rooms). The house has 'cold bones' in general and if the bones get cold, its a three day warm up process no matter how much you turn up the heat.

We started with the easy stuff. My wife went around the house and found where all the cool air was coming from and we tackled from there, eventually working all the way to the attic and miracles were made.









I would start by sheet rocking and mudding those polar holes before you blow insulation. We found that finding the root cause of the temperature differences made all the difference in the world.

We did hardly any insulation (we were getting low on money)so we used a lot of elbow grease instead. We finally were able to more insulation into the crawl spaces and attic, but finding the source is the answer. Sheetrock, mud, sandpaper, and a lot of caulk will go a long way (lots of beer too).

Hope this helps and following.