insulation removal

[Tom L.]

I am looking at removing all of the old insulation in my attic. The reason is.. this is a repo type house that I am fixing up.. It was empty when we got it, except for a few racoons living in the attic.. They are long gone but pretty much destroyed the insulation in the attic, and left various other messes.. I just wanna rip it out, update the wiring, and start fresh.

Just wondering if anybody had any ideas on removing it.. Called a insulation contractor. They have the equivalent of the shop-vac from hell.. gasoline powered, 8" intake hose. to suck it all out and put it in a dumpster. They want about $850 to remove about 1400 square feet, average of about 3" of blown in (mostly celluose) insulation from the attic. So far they are the only ones in the area that do this work so I got nothing to compare the estimate to. Anybody know of any other (easy) ways to do it?

[Wgoodrich]

Considering the time and labor to totally rewire a home by fishing in existing homes and cleaning up your old insulation you probably would find it faster and more economical with a tenth of the labor invested and no crawling and many more options available to update all insulation, totally rewire the home and update heating and plumbing all at the same time if you strip the wall to the studs. I know this sounds radical but read on before you decide.

Whether it is plaster and lathe or drywall you should be able to wear a breathing mask and strip the walls and ceilings of drywall or plaster leaving the lathing then allowing all insulation to fall into the living area then use a new scoop shovel so as not to snag and existing carpeting or hardwoods with snags in the scoop shovel that will grab the existing flooring. You should be able to strip and shovel through windows into a dump truck everthing down to bare studs in a day or two of work. Now you can use the lathing as backing and 3/8" drywall and have a new house wiring and other mechanics without fishing anything. You can install new insulation to todays values and a bisquine sheat on the surface of the lathing under the drywall for a wind and vapor barrier just like a new home. You will have new walls with all cracks or patched areas of old walls gone.

Remember you are going to have to cut open your walls causing damage to these walls that are goind to have to be taped and bedded and sanded and painted after you have finished your wiring. You could tape and bed the joints of new drywall and texture ceilings in a quarter of the time it takes just to patch all your holes and damage due to fishing or missing with your drill to enter the existing walls.

To fish wires alone in a house with existing walls your are talking a week to 10 days of crawling and hurting and temper tantrums. Then when you are done with your fishing of new wiring you have half the wiring you would have if you had open studs to work with.

Then you can use a blowinng machine to blow new insulation not only in your attic but your walls before you install the bisquine and 3/8 drywall.

Just a voice of experience. You will get much more for half the labor if you just strip it to the studs and then finish like new work.

Resell of you home would greatly increase if you could say you stripped it to the studs and installed all new mechanicals and insuclation with vapor barriers all finished meeting the standards of a new home. WEll worth the money and time. Try one room this way you will find the money invested is approximately the same and the finished product is to new standards for all mechanicals and insulation and sealing values. You labor invested would actually be less.

Do the above and you would have a finished product with new walls and new mechanicals and insulation values. Do the rewire as you originally was thinking and you will have a patch job worth a 1/4 the value with twice the labor involved. Remember you will be either crawling in the crawl space and drilling at a calculated angle into the wall and hoping you don't miss or you will be crawling across ceiling joists laying on ceiling joist with your head crammed against the low side of the roof and your hands about a foot short of the outside wall top plate. Now that you are there you have approximately 8" to 14" to place a drill and bit and drill down that top plate that you won't be able to reach except with your arms fully extended. Then when you fish down the wall hoping you don't hit fire blocks stopping you from fishing down from the attic to the receptacle approximately 7' below all while trying not to bunch up into a hard ball the insulation inside your existing wall.

Try one room both ways. Let me know what you think is the easiest way then with the best finished product.

HOpe this helps

Wg

[Tom L.]

Ok time to clear up a few things.... THe only insulation I need to remove is the attic.. This is mainly due to racoons screwing it up.. The way the house is wired, most of the electric is up there.. Heat is currently down in the crawlspace and not being touched (yet)

THis house origionaly had electric baseboard heat in which I am removing. The walls are tightly packed with cellulose blow in (I plan to top off the walls from the outside when I reside the hosue next year. THe walls are not getting touched yet. (fyi, for the electric in the walls ive been doing it room by room, and got a nice system down that seems to work well without a big mess..

Right now I just need to work on the attic. I was just wondering if there was any alternitive to hiring someone with the shop-vac- from-hell.....

[Wgoodrich]

YOu originally said I want to rip out the old insulation and rewire and start fresh.

If you have already rewired and only want to remove insulation a vacuum with a large suction hose can remove undamaged insulation. If you have excrement and or wet insulation or insulation that has been wet and clumped then a big bag and insulated removed by hand is your better option. Damaged insulation often plugs the vac hose when removing contaminated or damaged insulation. Not really a bad job to do and the vac most often can be rented at a nearby tool rental place.

Good Luck

Wg

[Tom L.]

rip everything out and start fresh...in the attic... basicaly updating wiring for lights, put in ceiling fan boxes, ect...

The vacum you mentioned.. are you referin to a shop vac type vacum or a large industrial one?

Thanks...

[Wgoodrich]

Depending on the rental store is what you will find. I was thinking of the gas powered vac pulled by a trailer hitch and will vacuum anything from leaves, water to attic insulation. Depending on the size of hte vac hose is whay you can pick up with these vacs. Many different sizes and power. All depends what is available for rent from a tool rental store.

Wg

[softdome]

There is no reason to totally tear out the interior finish in order to insulate. Unless however the walls have been detroyed anyway. You can always fish wire in an old stud cavity assuming it is emty. You may have to remove some finishes to update plumbing. I would never recommend a blown fibrous insulation such as celulose or fiberglass. I have had to vacuum this junk out of walls and it has usually settled in the bottom of the cavities. I usually find only about 3 or 4 ft. In the over head celulose creates the worse house dust problem. I know there is so much contriversey over which type of insulation to use. I've been around the building industry for almost 6 decades and have worked professionally in the fiberglass industry prior to starting my own foam insulation business. Foam is the future in insulation. There are non-expanding foams that can be pumped into existing closed cavities that works great. again everyone seems to have an opinion on this, all I can say is I've experienced all these and I now provide five different foam insulation products to the Charlotte NC area.

[scuba_dave]

Softdome there is NO reason to pull up a thread that is 6 years old
If you are a spammer trying to build up some "legitimate" posts 1st that won't work