DIY blown-in attic insulation?

[fishdawg]

hey folks, sorry for the NF post here

the attic in our 30+ yr old house has the original batten insulation, but i know its needs to be "topped up" a little further...

im thinking of having the cellouse blown in type done & would like to do-it-myself preferably

yes ive done a little research allready, but was wondering what tips any of you here could pass along, if so it would be greatly appreciated

 

i figure the energy costs we'll save, can help loosen up the ol fishing budget a bit later on... so yes i suppose this post is somewhat fishing related wouldnt you say???

[irishfield]

Make sure you staple in rafter vents before blowing it in. If you have sufficient access I'd be up there laying a layer of R32 Roxul on it though !

[Eazy]

I was thinking of doing the same, but a freind of mine told me that I was better off to use the conventional insulalation as it would be easier to access wiring in case I ever had to do some electrical work.....just a thought.

[basketclam]

Haven't done it myself, but my dad and brother finished it last weekend at my brother's place. Rented the unit from Home Depot for the day. They're both relatively handy. Had no problems throughout the process. Figure that they saved a lot of money by doing it themselves and even more over the long run due to better insulation.

 

Sorry that I can be of any specific help though!

[Twocoda]

Code is R40 right now but down the road it will be changing to R50 so you might as well top it up once and go to R 50

As stated make sure your moor vents are stapled and depending on the depth you may have to add extensions to ensure you get your ventilation..

Ensure that at the soffit you have a blocker (piece of bat insulation) to keep the cellulose from blowing out into the soffit and to protect it from wind blowing the cellulose back from the soffit

 

Roxal is an excellent product but IMO is an unnecessary added expense when dealing with attics traditional fiberglass bats are sufficient for blockers...i do use Roxal for sound deadening walls and insulating basements

 

If you have a home hardware or Rona handy ...they will more than likely lend you the machine free of charge if you purchase their cellulose ...make the suggestion to them

 

wear a dust mask

 

Good luck

 

11.5 inches of cellulose = R40

[Fishnwire]

I helped my father-in-law do it in his attic last year. The machine was loaned free of charge, like another poster said, from the store he bought the insulation from. It went really well and we we're done in no time. One tip is that the hose that is supplied is very flexable, so we taped a four foot rigid plastic pipe to the end to be able to more easily control and direct the flow of the product and get it in all the corners.

 

The old man is nutty about insulation and knows what he's doing...I haven't looked into the stuff very closely myself but he has and I trust his opinion.

[Twocoda]

you may want to use some plywood to build up around the attic access to keep the insulation from falling into the house as well...

[steve_paul]

Look into the Eco Energy program as well, if your upgrading the attic to R40 or R50 the rebates on doing this may go along way to paying for the job.

[splashhopper]

i figure the energy costs we'll save, can help loosen up the ol fishing budget a bit later on... so yes i suppose this post is somewhat fishing related wouldnt you say???

.........................................................................

 

whatever you told yer wife on the above noted... we got yer back

[smally21]

i'm all over the home energy audit right now. the older the house and the more work you need the bigger the rebates. a couple of phone calls revealed it was cheaper to have a company blow in the insulation than to do it yourself. don't figure it's cheaper, make the call. the home energy rebate covered 100% of the cost anyway. an older home going from r12 to r50 is entitled to in the range of a 1200 dollar rebate.

[JohnF]

Look into the Eco Energy program as well, if your upgrading the attic to R40 or R50 the rebates on doing this may go along way to paying for the job.

 

Good point. You beat me to it. Also, can you act quick enuf to take advanatge of the renovation grant?

 

JF

Edited December 15, 2009 by JohnF

[irishfield]

Code is R40 right now but down the road it will be changing to R50 so you might as well top it up once and go to R 50

 

Was presuming he had at least R20 in the rafters already... so R32 overtop of them = R52. Is how I did my attic when I built this place. R20 in between the rafter ties/ceiling joists and then R32 layed 90* to that so there are no wood rafters exposed for heat transfer.

[Uncle Buck]

If anyone is looking for some Blown in insulation, please contact me via PM

[ch312]

since i have 2 family members who do home energy audits, id highly recommend getting one done on your home. usually costs $300 for both visits but you get $150 back from the government. you may get the $150 you spent on the audit back in refunds from the attic insulation alone. i could tell you exact numbers but my paperwork on this stuff is at a friends. im not sure how much you can get for just attic insulation. just adding draft gaskets behind switch and outlet plates can make your house qualify for refunds after the blower test...thats $300.

 

dont forget to save the receipts for the home reno tax credit as well

 

that said, most of the energy auditors will recommend Pink blown in insulation. it does not settle and there is practically no dust when spraying it. i have sprayed 4 house so far for friends and family and it is very easy to work with. i believe at Lowes you get the rental free if you buy more than 8 bags of insulation. im not sure on price vs cellulose, but the simple fact that there is no dust makes it well worth it.

 

like previously mentioned, make sure you dont block airflow from your soffit. use polytarp instead of those vent things for the soffits. just staple it to the roof trusses around the perimeter of the home. provides better air flow and is easier to install. better airflow lowers the risk of ice dams forming on your roof

 

now is the time to do energy related upgrades on your home. between the energy and reno rebates you can get the government to pay for over half of the upgrades on older homes. energy audits on homes are becoming mandatory in the future for any houses being bought/sold so you might as well do it now while the government is willing to send you free $$$

Edited December 15, 2009 by ch312

[Fisherman]

Nobody has mentioned it, but, the first $1000 doesn't count on the Home Reno rebates.

[Dara]

When I built my shop 2 years ago, it was half the price to get blown in, including labour to do it as opposed to me installing fibreglass batts myself. 12" The blown in insullates better in my opinion.

And, the price thay charge to blow it in isn't worth it to do it yourself.

[Twocoda]

the going rate is .60 cents sq material and labour for cellulose blow in @ R 40...in my area anyways ...you guys in the big smoke are in a different pay structure apparently

[musky_man]

fishdawg,

 

How much insulation are you going to add? Have you had a heat loss calculation done? The reason I ask; I had mine topped up from R8 to 60 and the grant I am getting back is more than it was to have the insulation professionally blown in. In other words, I am making money!

 

The amount you get back depends on the % increase in R factor.

 

Something to consider.

[JohnF]

energy audits on homes are becoming mandatory in the future for any houses being bought/sold

 

The Green Energy and Green Economy Act 2009 has passed, but as I understand it the regulations are still under consideration, and I wouldn't be surprised if the firestorm brought on by the HST might be the death knell for any other ill-conceived burdens being imposed on the home owner, at least for a while. Anyone with a substandard older home will take it in the ear if the audits are mandated.

 

Those of you who own older homes that aren't absolutely up to today's efficiency standards might want to sell fast if you think the audits will be mandated because they'll probably cost the average old home owner a sizeable percentage of their equity (or all of it plus some) in upgrades or price abatements if they have to sell later. Not everyone can afford to get burned for that much on top of all the other costs involved in selling. If it goes thru I predict a whole lot of very unhappy home sellers. Imagine having a home with a high ratio mortgage (the 100% kind our govt was allowing for a while to stimulate the economy) and realizing you have to sell for some reason. Let's take a $100,000 property, the price range that will almost certainly require upgrades from an audit in most market areas, and assume the buyer had 5% down, a not uncommon number for first time buyers today. By the time the high ratio mortgage insurance gets added on there's not a lot of equity left. Now factor in the mortgage discharge penalty, if any, for early payout, the assorted costs of selling (realtor, lawyer, disbursements, moving, etc), tack on the wonderful new HST of 13% on all those expenses and suddenly you have to cough up a chunk of money just to sell your property. You are already in the hole.

 

So now our government in their wisdom tacks on the burden of an energy audit inspired upgrade which you probably can't afford so you have to negotiate a lower price with the prospective buyer. A quick calculation tells me you'll only have to pay about $15-20k out of pocket in a worst case scenario, but hey, you'll have unloaded the property. Oh yeah, and you still have to pay the $300 + HST for the energy audit. Hopefully it will be a tax deductible expense. If you can avoid using the services of a realtor and get yer buddies to move you and had the foresight to take out an open mortgage or at least a short termer then you may escape with a loss of only $5-10,000. How many people will not be able to afford to sell?

 

Even if they offset the damage with a whole bunch of grants to cover the costs of the audit inspired upgrades the inconvenience of organizing it all will still negatively impact older home sales. Will you lay out five or ten grand before you list it for sale? Will you have time to get the work done before you sell? And where will the offsets come from? New taxes? That's just what we need.

 

And for those of you about to buy think hard if you really want to take a chance on an older place that might require expensive upgrades should you decide to sell in the future. Your government may be about to do what's best for you again, so bend over, smile and spread 'em.

 

The good thing coming out of all this is that anyone with the money to buy low end real estate in the next few years should probably load up. Prices are bound to be very very good (read low) and inevitably one of our governments will delight in reversing all the ill-conceived legislation to get themselves some votes so they can have their own turn at making our lives interesting for a while. Then for a while the market will spike and there should be some sweet profits, at least until the next round of economic fornication.

 

Sorry about that rant but I thought some of you would be interested in one man's perspective on this latest bit of government wisdom

JF

[Fisherman]

You think that's bad, with the public stupidity of buying sooo much on credit, and low mortgage rates being a big one, people are maxing themselves out to their maximum allowable debt right now. Just wait until the interest rates start rising next year. At a 140% debt load, what does that mean? A lot, and I mean a lot of people have no clue. If you make a $100 a week after taxes and you are spending $140 dollars, that means $0 is going on credit somewhere, sooner or later you have to pay that accumulating $40 a week. Now add a few more zeros and start smelling the brown stuff, and I don't mean coffee.