Blow-in insulation difference?

[tskills10]

While doing some work on my house I found that the attic area above my living room was never insulated. Living in Northeast Ohio this is a big deal. So I'm looking at blowing in some insulation within the next couple of weeks. Now this may have been covered in a another thread but I didn't find it. So my question is what is the difference between Fiberglass and Cellulose insulation. Cellulose looks to cost a lot less. But will that end up biting me in the **** in the long run. Once this area is insulated I will not have access to it in the future. The only access is through an upstairs bathroom wall. The bathroom is gutted to the studs and will be finished shortly. So I won't be going back in there in the future.

 

[CNGsaves]

No expert but feel your pain as I'm thinking my older house I bought has similar issues.

Research I've done points to Cellulose as most bang for buck (ie most R value per inch, and lowest cost). Critical thing is making sure baffles are installed to keep airflow / ventilation going from soffets up to peak. Also need to research whether walls need blown-in insulation as well. Finally, closing up air leaks for wiring holes, outlets, etc. with foam should be done before the cellulose is blown in.

I'd recommend you maintain some sort of access to attic over long-term. I'll need to cut out ceiling of one of the closets in bedroom as I don't have any access as all. A little dome of insulation will need rigged up on that access panel. Good luck.

 

[kngelv]

I prefer cellulose. As an added bonus you will noticed a large reduction in outside noise intruding on your house's interior.

James

 

[86turbodsl]

cellulose is a much better insulation than fiberglass. no convection currents in cellulose.

 

[Fun pain]

Cellulose

Add 18" and be very happy, with R-60

 

[theoldwizard1]

The only downside to cellulose is that it will compact some over time. This is more of an issue in walls (leaves a cold area at the top) than in ceilings.

As long as you have some way of preventing the insulation from filling up the eaves and blocking ventilation, this is a a possible DIY job. Definitely 2 or more men required. Several video on YouTube.

 

[dsimatt]

In did my attic with atticat pink insulation you get at home depot and when you buy a certain amount of bales you get to use the machine for free. I had maybe r15 to begin with and added about r50-60 on top of that.

 

[tskills10]

No expert but feel your pain as I'm thinking my older house I bought has similar issues.

Research I've done points to Cellulose as most bang for buck (ie most R value per inch, and lowest cost). Critical thing is making sure baffles are installed to keep airflow / ventilation going from soffets up to peak. Also need to research whether walls need blown-in insulation as well. Finally, closing up air leaks for wiring holes, outlets, etc. with foam should be done before the cellulose is blown in.

I'd recommend you maintain some sort of access to attic over long-term. I'll need to cut out ceiling of one of the closets in bedroom as I don't have any access as all. A little dome of insulation will need rigged up on that access panel. Good luck.

I'd love to maintain access to this part of the attic. But without cutting a hole in either my livingroom or dinningroom ceiling, that just isn't possible. And once I finish the bathroom, I won't be able to go that way either. So I just don't really know how to keep it accessable.

The only downside to cellulose is that it will compact some over time. This is more of an issue in walls (leaves a cold area at the top) than in ceilings.

As long as you have some way of preventing the insulation from filling up the eaves and blocking ventilation, this is a a possible DIY job. Definitely 2 or more men required. Several video on YouTube.

Lowes has something for putting at the eaves to prevent the insulation from falling into the eave. Just gotta climb in there and do the install. Also wondering how much R- value is lost over time due to the product compacting.

In did my attic with atticat pink insulation you get at home depot and when you buy a certain amount of bales you get to use the machine for free. I had maybe r15 to begin with and added about r50-60 on top of that.

I was checking that out a while back. Lowes does the same thing also. Will most likely use lowes since they are less than a mile down the road.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Also wondering how much R- value is lost over time due to the product compacting.

Not much.

 

[Twiggss]

No expert but feel your pain as I'm thinking my older house I bought has similar issues.

Research I've done points to Cellulose as most bang for buck (ie most R value per inch, and lowest cost). Critical thing is making sure baffles are installed to keep airflow / ventilation going from soffets up to peak. Also need to research whether walls need blown-in insulation as well. Finally, closing up air leaks for wiring holes, outlets, etc. with foam should be done before the cellulose is blown in.

I'd recommend you maintain some sort of access to attic over long-term. I'll need to cut out ceiling of one of the closets in bedroom as I don't have any access as all. A little dome of insulation will need rigged up on that access panel. Good luck.

I wish I would have done this. Also if there are ANY other jobs that you can even think of do them now. Trying to work around that stuff now is a PITA.

I wish I would have had a better game plan but new house with no insulation only thing I saw at the time was $$$ in heat loss.


as for an access, you don't have a closest anywhere you could hide a hatch in?

 

[tskills10]

I wish I would have done this. Also if there are ANY other jobs that you can even think of do them now. Trying to work around that stuff now is a PITA.

I wish I would have had a better game plan but new house with no insulation only thing I saw at the time was $$$ in heat loss.


as for an access, you don't have a closest anywhere you could hide a hatch in?

Not in that section of the house. That part of the house only has the living room, dinning room and the kitchen. And part of the kitchen is under the second floor. So no where to hide an access panel to the attic.

 

[fionasdad]

I have blown in insulation and I hate it. It filters in from my ceiling and I have a fine gray dust always. I'm considering removing it and replacing with fiberglass. Just saying...

 

[shanker]

I have blown in insulation and I hate it. It filters in from my ceiling and I have a fine gray dust always. I'm considering removing it and replacing with fiberglass. Just saying...

install gaskets around all of your switch boxes & seal off all A/C registers in the ceiling....that's a fairly typical issue.

 

[Fun pain]

Yeah fion it is showing you your air leaks, fiberglass will just let heat flow on by and out of your wallet...

 

[awdblazer]

fibreglass hands down
doesn't compact over time
the atticat is not itchy at all
cellulose is dusty
if cellulose gets wet it is garbage, if fibreglass gets wet it will dry out
if diy the atticat is the way to go only need two guys and as long as you follow the instructions which there are like 3 you will not clog whereas with cellulose its easy to clog the line
I went from an r12 approx. to r50 in less than an hour with the atticat to do a 1000sqft bungalow

 

[EOC_Jason]

They both have their ups & downs...

We have cellulose in our house. It's 35 years old and just now we are considering adding some more insulation up in the attic due to compaction. It's not *that* bad, but with the summers getting hotter around here it would hopefully help keep the house cooler and the bills a little lower.

I would choose cellulose even if I had the choice to do it all over again.

 

[Highbeam]

I chose blown in fiberglass and it is NOT itchy. That's the old school stuff. It too compacts over time and the installers are supposed to anticipate this by overblowing at install.

There is nothing decidedly wrong with cellulose vs. fiberglass. They both work and have minor plusses and minuses. If I knew, for sure, that my roof wouldn't leak then I would go with cellulose next time.

 

[Vince1955]

I already had R=35 fiberglass in the attic from the initial construction (20 years ago). After installing a ridge vent and additional soffit vents, cellulose was blown in to increase to ~R=50+. The HD cellulose had a fire retardant and insect repellent mixed in. With heating and air conditioning, I figure the added insulation paid for itself in ~18 months. Either way, you'll save money in the long run.

 

[TheMangler]

I just blew some cellulose into my attic yesterday. Some above a couple rooms that didnt have much insulation and a quite a bit above my garage. The hose i believe was clogged when we got the machine because it wouldn't do anything at first. After swearing about 50 times and dumping the entire hopper of insulation onto my garage floor, it went pretty smoothly. 1 guy was loading the machine and I sprayed it around the attic. Probably took an hour to blow 19 bags once we were up and going. It is really dusty but I strung a couple hundred feet of LED christmas lights through the attic before we started and it was pretty easy to see.

 

[CADPoint]

Go pink

http://rvalue.net/page5.html.

 

[dsimatt]

I just blew some cellulose into my attic Probably took an hour to blow 19 bags once we were up and going. It is really dusty but I strung a couple hundred feet of LED christmas lights through the attic before we started and it was pretty easy to see.

I was gonna go with that due to being cheaper but went with the atticcat and any dust and itching was from the old cellulose stuff, had there been no old stuff in there i wouldn't have really needed to even clean up after.

 

[tskills10]

Well, I did the cellulose yesterday. My 16 yr old son helped me. We blew in 60 bags at approx. 18-19 inches deep. We averaged 15 bags an hour. My son was the loader for the first 2 hours and then we switched. The loader does all the work, I was just sitting aiming the hose.
I read the previous posts and read reviews about it being dusty. But still managed to not be fully prepared for the amount of dust. The wife's OCD kicked in when she got home. She spent the rest of the evening cleaning the house and even called reinforcements to help. I still have another section of the attic to do at a later time.

 

[jnyost]

I know you're already part way done but I also would've went fiberglass. I don't like the dust, weight/density, mold, etc of cellulose. Rodents also LOVE it for bedding.

 

[tskills10]

I still have another section of attic that needs some added insulation. I may blow the fiberglass in there just to blend it in with the current stuff. Plus, to cut down on the dust factor.