Blown in Insulation ??

I see my roof in my neighborhood is one of the first to lose the snow on the roof. I am thinking I might need some more insulation. I have a Brick ranch single story house that was built in 1965. I set my temperature at 69 degrees, temps outside this past week have been in the low 30's in day and teens at night.snow fall was 3 inches on Sunday and most my snow on roof was gone on Wednesday. .Have you had this done and what price did you pay ?? Ball park is good ? Did you save on gas or electric bill ??

Do it yourself. If you go to Home Depot or Lowes you can buy the bags and the machine rental will be free. Very easy to do. You'll need someone feeding the hopper and another person in the attic.

If you have soffit vents, which is probably unlikely being the house was built in '65, install installation baffles and push them into the soffit area of the attic. This gives you air flow from the soffit and allowing insulation to be installed up against the baffle. If you do not have soffit vents and only gable vents then you can blow the insulation throughout the attic and into the soffit area.

My wife and I did the blow in, it is easy, just messy.

You will definitely save money on your power bill or gas bill whichever you heat with and or cool with. Ha ha has the answer...if you aren't subject to a reaction with the insulation. If you are looking to have someone do it for you, you can expect to pay about 65 cents per sq. ft. of attic to get it up to R-38 value where it should be. Hope that this helps!

My house was built in '70, and only had R-19 (5 1/2" fiberglass batts in the attic). I had blown in fiberglass done for about $500 back in '08 or so and it made a huge difference in heating and cooling. I prefer fiberglass as it holds its loft and doesn't settle like cellulose, I also work in construction and while I do mostly new custom homes, occasionally do remodels and hate the mess that cellulose makes. Much easier to clean up blown fiberglass, just a bias for me.

Thanks for a BUNCH of great information. Merry Christmas to all !!

I just went through this.........Had a estimate for a 1000 sq home to have it blown in at the cost of (are you sitting down) $2064........

I slept on that for several nights and decided to do it myself.......purchased 25 rolls of Corning Pink Fiberglass that is 9" thick.....got a bulk rate because we purchased 20+ rolls.......20 rolls or more you save about $6 per roll........so we ended up buying 25 rolls and then took back 5 rolls....wanted to make sure I had plenty to Get R Done......

Total cost was $250 and increased my insulation in the attic to 15" and about R49.......

DON'T and I repeat DON'T go overboard on this because you will never get back the investment if you have someone do it..........I saved $1750.........how many years would it take to get that kind of money back over a 6 month heating season, especially now with NG so cheap. I use to heat with wood but now NG is so much cheaper it doesn't make sense to heat with wood.

BTW last year BEFORE I added insulation my highest heat bill was $72

Just did this two weeks ago at my house. Paid $15.99 a bale for fiberglass blow in at Menards (was on Sale) Did 1300 square feet in about 3 hours. Would have gone quicker if I would have remembered a piece of plywood to kneel on in the first part of the attic. Standing on the trusses gets old quick and is hard on the knees. My girlfriend filled the hopper. Do a 1/2 bale at a time otherwise the machine gets clogged. I had to pay for the rental of the machine at Menards, think it was $25 for 4 hours.

I did it myself. Don't think I spent $500 for a 1200SF house attic. Two people are needed. One to feed and unclog the machine, one to blow.

I guess that I am blessed with a very reasonable insulation subcontractor. I own a remodeling business in N.E. Ga. and pay 62 cents a foot to have this done to r-38 with blown fiberglass and do not have to touch anything but my phone to schedule it...Fireball...$2.00 per foot???? What were they thinking???That would have been a definite rip off...Enjoy the holidays everyone!

The blow in stuff is a real mess later down the road especially when that roof vent leaks and your ceiling needs repair. I prefer batts from a mess perspective as a Lic Gen Contractor.

If it gets hot in the summer then do not close up your soffit vents, use baffles like suggested above.

FrankWhoa, I agree with you 100%...but when budget does not allow...blow is the only way to go. When looking at an addition of a complete gut of a room I always charge more for blown in attics as it is a mess down below and you have to do it all practically over again with blown in...and my electrician hates it too... we are Ga.State Licensed...

If you go with blown in make sure you don't cover your vent holes. And any light cans you have in the attic have to be IC rated or you will have to build boxes over them. A professional insulation company will do this for you and also add baffles around any vent holes that get covered. Not sure about now, but there is usually a tax write off for energy up-grades. Good Luck

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Originally Posted by tooboocoo

If you go with blown in make sure you don't cover your vent holes. And any light cans you have in the attic have to be IC rated or you will have to build boxes over them. A professional insulation company will do this for you and also add baffles around any vent holes that get covered. Not sure about now, but there is usually a tax write off for energy up-grades. Good Luck

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They expire Dec 31 '16.
https://www.energystar.gov/about/federal_tax_credits

I am too big and to old to get up in Attic for a few hours. I found a company for $1.50/$1.75 sq. foot. Only had 3 insulation companies in my local phone book. I call a real insulation company and the guy talked to me about 10 minutes on me doing it(TIPS- HE IS BUSY) or him doing it. He was charging .75 cents/sq. ft. for Fiberglass. I am going to have him do it right after Christmas. Thanks to everyone who shared a few Tips. Thanks BBC.

Excellent....good research Basscaster stay warm! and Merry Christmas!

I just added on a 24 x 30 garage and 15" of blown cellulose from an insulation contractor cost me $980. I checked it after they were done and there is at least 15"....probably more like 17 or 18". He also added the soffit vents and bat insulation in the rafter openings. Another contractor wanted $1700 for the same job:doh:

I wanted cellulose but he said most of the blown in work they do is blown fiberglass. From the research I did, I kept finding out cellulose provides a better R value per inch of thickness than blown fiberglass.

Basscaster

I would make sure to have baffles added. This will allow air-flow into the attic which is needed to reduce ice on the roof or mold in the attic area. The attic area should aloways be within 20 degrees of the exterior temperature and that is only possible with good air flow from the eves. Baffles also allow the insulation to have a deeper depth near the exterior walls.

The price you were quoted seams good for fiberglass insulation. Your price savings will also depend on your furnace efficiency.