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• Installing attic insulation is easy!

• It also saves you money from day one!
  

The fact is that the attic insulation in most homes, and businesses today is lacking. To begin with, it wasn’t even required building code until the early 1960s, and even then after it was made a requirement, it only stipulated R19. That’s just a 6 inch fiberglass bat.

So then how much insulation should you have up in your attic? That question would really be better answered by another question. How much money do you want to waste? Seriously though, the R rating that today’s more progressive home builders shoot for now is R30.

You see an improperly vented attic basically functions as a huge solar energy heat storage tank right above your head during the summer. Then in the winter months, if there isn’t adequate attic insulation, that same area functions to pull the thermal energy through the ceiling, and out of the home.

Why Not Rise Up to Go Buy Attic Insulation?

So you effectively get screwed on your energy bills all year round, while your task of maintaining a comfortable temperature is made all the more difficult. So then why don’t people simply rise up in mass, march to the hardware store to buy and install more attic insulation?

All you have to do is open the hatch in your attic to find out the answer yourself. Attics suck! They’re usually full of cobwebs, can be blazing hot during the day, and once you get up in yours you’ll find very difficult to walk around in. Even so, there are some trade secrets that you can use to can make the job a whole lot easier.

So Lets Start From the Very Beginning

The very first decision that need to make is that you are in fact going to blow more insulation up in your attic, and that you’re going to use cellulose. Cellulose is made from recycled paper that’s been soaked with fire retardant, and it is just too easy to work with. It doesn’t itch and rinses right off.

Cellulose is the Best Choice for Attic Insulation

Cellulose comes in bales is fluffy, gray, and settles very little after it’s been blown in. Also the fire retardant never wears off, and makes it virtually impossible to set fire to. Go ahead, and get a handful from the hardware store to test for yourself. Hit it with a blow torch if you want to. It just fizzles out.

Don’t even think about fiberglass or, rock-wool. Yes it’s not made from paper, but you just have to get it through your head that cellulose won’t burn under any circumstances. Rock-wool or loose fiberglass attic insulation is more expensive, settles to about half its thickness after it’s been installed, and is absolutely miserable to work with. In fact it’s pure hell!

So simply head on down to your local Lows or Home Depot, pick up as many bales of cellulose insulation as you think you’ll need, and lay down your deposit on the blower. Now your going to need a truck or, a trailer because the bales are pretty big, and the blower that you dump them into is a decent sized hunk of machinery.

So right from the start you have been surprised by two things in particular. The first surprise, is how relatively inexpensive a bale of cellulose is, and how much area it will cover. The second surprise is they let you use the blower for free, other than your returnable deposit. $100 goes a long way on cellulose attic insulation.

So Your All Set to Go!

So you have your bales stacked up out in your driveway, and the blower all set to go, but there is just a few problems left that you have to contend with before you can climb up in your attic, and get to work. The first is that it’s hotter then hell up in the attic, plus it’s dark and full of cobwebs. So you’re going to need a 3 footy long “swoosh stick”, and a drop light on a long cord.

The best time to climb up in your attic is in the early morning hours. You can wait it out until late at night, but even then you’ll be surprised by how much heat it will hold. So it’s best to put the whole event off until the next, day preferably just as the sun is coming up. So call a friend and arrange for them to be there to handle the bales out at the machine. It’s a two person job.

The Best Time for Attic Insulation is Early Morning


So the next day, bright and early, climb up in your attic with your drop-light, and swoosh stick for whacking the cobwebs out of the way, and make your way to the very back. Set up your light, and then go back for the blower hose, so you can drag it back to where you’re going to start. Signal for the person at your blower to dump in the first bale, and away you go.

The cellulose insulation will come out of the hose like so much gray snow, and there really is no set technique. Now dust will fill the air too, so hopefully you have some type of dust mask on. Be generous with it because you want about an 8-12 inch layer to pile up before you move on. Also make sure to hold back from areas surrounding your eve vents so they don’t get clogged with attic insulation.

Tags: Attic Insulation

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Attic Insulation, Helpful Facts & Trivia, New Systems and Technologies, Roof Coating Products, Roofing Materials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.