Adding insulation to attic

goodoleboy · Oct 13, 2005

I plan on adding insulation blown in type to my attic.Im gonn a pay about $600 for 1600 sf home he is blowing 6 inches.

Hopefully it will cut my heaqting bill this winter and there is a tax rebate offered by the goverment which is not my reason but every bit helps.

Any real world experience?How long will it take to recoup the cost.

LarryRB · Oct 13, 2005

I did my own blown insulation on one half the house. I was not impressed at all, and the worse thing is, it takes for ever till the "dust" settles down.,. Over a year and half ago I did this and to this day, going up in that section still creates a dust storm.. The other half of the house, I put in air shutes first, from soffit to ridge vent, then bought 2 X 3/s and double sistered them to the original rafters which allowed me to install R38 rolled insulation..
The difference was immediate.,. Then I chuted the other half with the blown in, sistered on one 2 X 3 and put R19 rolled insulation on that half. It seems to start paying off as the oil dropped exactly 400 gallons in use..

Soundguy · Oct 13, 2005

I'm in my 3rd house... 1st one did not have any attic insulation... second home did.. difference was night and day in temps.. 3rd house.. deffinately got it.. plus we had extra batting put inthe interiro framed up walls of our bedroom. Room stays about 2-3 degrees cooler in summer, and 2-3 degrees warmer in winter than the rest of the house.. also great for sound dampening!

4th house will have these as well whn / if I move again.

Soundguy

dmccarty · Oct 13, 2005

goodoleboy,

I don't think it will take long to recoop the $600. My old house was 1250 sf with minimal insulation in the attic, maybe R25. I was gong to put more up there but never got around to it. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

The new house has as much as R40 in the attic, the walls are about R25. The new house is 2500 square feet AND with 10' ceilings.

The power bill on the new house is the same or less than the old house. Given that the new house has twice the square footage and about 20% more volume we should be paying alot more for heating and cooling. We are not paying more and its because of the insulation and a few other details on the house.

I have some extra batt insulation that I'm going to put in the attic when it gets a bit cooler. I also want to put in some more of the blown in insulation that got disturbed at the end of the house construction.

If your windows are not very efficient or heaven help you alumninum, it might be worth it to put up storm windows. We had alumninum windows and they transfered the outside temps into the inside remarkably well. That is a bad thing. I made some inserts out of clear plastic to cover the windows and it made the house much more comfortable.

Later,
Dan

EddieWalker · Oct 13, 2005

Every bit of insulation helps, especially in the attic.

I realize it isn't practical in allot of situations, but if I have a choice, I always use rolls or bats of insulation in the attice over blown.

The blown in is easier to install and initially, the ratings are the same, but over time blown will settle and it's R value will decrease. If you ever go in the attic and disturb it after it's blown in, those area will have a much lower R value as well.

Another important consideration for saving on your energy bill is to make sure your heater is clean and in top working order. Clogged filters and clogged vents add up to higher operating costs.

Eddie

slapshot · Oct 13, 2005

I did insulation installation for awhile. Not sure what type of insulation you did, but I know that the Cellulose stuff is really "dusty" and is fairly lightweight so it can blow around a bit.
Blown fiberglass tends to stay put pretty good.

-dave

dmccarty · Oct 14, 2005

While blown insulation may settle, I think it did in my old house which had cellulose, the new house has blown fiberglass or some other noncellulose product, I'm not sure if it will settle or not. Too early to say. But the cellulose is dusty. I got to the point were I would where a mask if I went into the attic at the old house due ot the dust.

While settling may be a problem, I think its a small one. The problem with batt insulation is that it does not close any caps. If the batt is 16 inches wide and the cavity its going into is 17 inches, well you have a 1 inch gap which is not a good thing. At least with blown insulation you go add more if it settles pretty danged cheaply.

Later,
Dan

slowrev · Oct 14, 2005

One other issue with the cellulose insulation becomes a compact heavy mess that basically wont dry out if you get a leak and it gets wet. It likes to push down ceilings in this case as well /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

If you get a leak the fiberglass will let the water drip thru better so you can tell you have a leak sooner and respond, the cellouse stuff seems to just soak up the water and the first indication of a leak might be that part of your ceiling caves in.

Fribergalss will dry out better and retains most of it's original insulating properties after drying.

Just my observations and opinions.

Ben