Ceiling Insulation. . .can I blow it in?

[KPSquared]

Getting ready to insulate my 30x36. It has a second floor that covers 14 feet of the width. I plan to blow fibreglass Oedipus cellulose into the attic spaces on the sides but was wondering if I could blow it in the floor space after I get it sheeted.

I've heard you can do it but it can get tight and pop the drywall.

2X10 truss bottom chord/floor joist

Any advice?

 

[deter]

as long as you can shove the tube all the way in the cavity it should be good. I've never seen it pop drywall that was screwed

 

[KPSquared]

So just let it blow in until it's full? This just seems so much nicer than stacking batts in there.

 

[matouse3]

Getting ready to insulate my 30x36. It has a second floor that covers 14 feet of the width. I plan to blow fibreglass Oedipus cellulose into the attic spaces on the sides but was wondering if I could blow it in the floor space after I get it sheeted.

I've heard you can do it but it can get tight and pop the drywall.

2X10 truss bottom chord/floor joist

Any advice?

Is there a specific reason you don't want to put batts in there? It sounds like you don't have the sheeting in yet- true?

Is the space above and below conditioned? Do you plan to have a moisture barrier in there somewhere?

 

[csp]

I'm not sure how you would ever get it tight enough to pop the drywall.

Blowing in is better than batts as you fill every little cavity around electrical boxes, odd shaped corners, etc. that you can't always cut accurately around with batts.

 

[matouse3]

I'm not convinced that is true when you're talking about blowing it in horizontally. When you blow into a wall, I can see gravity working in your favor, but when you would be blowing into a ceiling, I can see you having lots of missed spots if you have wiring, boxes, ducts, etc. in your way. If you don't have any of this junk in the rafter space, I would think you would get a somewhat even spread. I suspect, however, there there is at least some wiring and such in there.

Having done this in several walls, I can also see how you could pack it too tight and pop the screws. If you don't retract your hose at a fast enough rate, I could see you getting a sealed end near you and packing way more material in there than you intend. I guess it really depends on how you plan to go about blowing it in there? If you are trying to feed the hose down 40 feet of rafter length, I would imagine that you would have a hard time knowing how much is going into the cavity until it gets close enough to see.

 

[KPSquared]

It's only 14' long, open on both ends. So I have basically 24 spaces to fill that are 14' long x 19.2" wide x 9.25" deep.

I think I'll give it a try.