This is going to be a blast

Was the original 7 inches installed by you or someone else? Have you checked to make sure that the attic is properly and thoroughly air sealed. This is a vital step in prepping to add more insulation.

 

I have R30 bats in my attic currently and I was debating whether to rip them out use all blown cellulose or just blow cellulose over them.

 

Good question. If the air sealing is good, and you have the sapce to just blow over the top I dont believe their is any harm in doing it that way. In my case I had the work done by an insulation contractor as it was utility subsidized and that is what the y recommended doing.

http://www.amazon.com/Insulate-Weat...410964455&sr=8-1&keywords=insulate+weatherize

A great book I picked up with a lot more info on the subject. The author works with an outfit called Conservation Services which administers the MassSave weatherization program here in the bay state, and they are the folks that came to evaluate my house and wrote up the work plan for the insulation contractor.

 

Nice!

 

The stuff I pulled out of the attic was a mix of batts and loose vermiculite on top of the batts.
The vermiculite compressed the batts so bad, they were less than 1/2 their original thickness (no, I didn't do it). That would be my only concern about blowing loose on top of batts.
The loose will settle somewhat in a few years anyway.

 

Well we got it done! My dad had time to help this evening so we started at 4pm and finished cleaning up at 9PM. It was worse than I realized once I got up there and started crawling around! I was lucky to have 6-7 inches right around the attic access and the rest of the attic had less than 2 inched of insulation. There were section of rafters that were 8 feet long and had 0" insulation it was just bare drywall. I ended up going back and getting 25 more bags of insulation to finish up for a total of 100 bags for a 1150 square foot attic. It is now about 16" deep with a estimated R49 value. I am really really hoping this makes a MASSIVE difference in heating this house this winter! After realizing how bad it was I'm even more impressed with the T6 keeping up last winter!

This last bit will blow your mind and I mean blow it. I originally paid $11.48 a bag for the insulation and when I went back to get more the price had went up to $12.88 in 3 days. My dad said check the Lancaster lowes store on your phone (which is 30 miles away) and if the price is the same ask them to match it. I thought heck why not give it a try. Well when I pulled up the Lnacaster store the price for a bag of insulation was $5.88 and at first I didn't believe it so I went back and checked the item number and they were the same! At this point I was pizzED!!!! I went to the customer service and they told me they can't price match another Lowes store...... I started giving them an earful about how I would have gladly drove 30 miles away if I had realized what a bunch of crooks and robbers this place was full and at the point I started announcing to people around me that they may want to go to a different store if they didn't like getting ripped off the manager decided he could price match. Anyhow after they price matched and refunded my money the insulation went from $1148 to $548. Guys before you go to Lowes you may want to check a few stores around you and make sure you aren't getting really messed over. I am still ticked about how I almost got taken advantage of.

Here are a few finished pics

 

O yeah I didn't do it in my boxers sorry lol

 

Insulation terrorist.
You should see a large difference in comfort and energy savings this winter.
You got 'er done just in time for the coming snowpocolypse.
Shame you had to deal with that crap at Lowes, but glad you made 'em honest.....at least this time.
Looking forward to your posts about how the T6 is blowing you out of the house this winter.

 

How was it? Where did you put the blower? How did you communicate to your Dad when to load another bag and when to stop? Just trying to sort these issues out. I want to add some insulation to my own attic before winter sets in.

 

I have a two story house and the blower was a good 100 foot from my attic access sitting in the driveway. Once I got upstairs and situated he turned it on and started dumping bags in. It doesn't come flying out super fast so it was no big deal to set the hose down and re-situate as necessary while it was still blowing. Every 1/2 hour or so he would throw a bunch in the hopper and walk up to see how it was going and then go back. Walkie talkies would work fine also but we really didn't need them. It was even less dusty than I expected.

 

@Certified106 , when i've had a situation like yours in the past with Lowes or Home Depot, I've just bought the item at the lower price and then used my old receipt to get the refund for the higher amount. Your method definitely saved you the 30 mile drive. Been very happy with the return policies of Lowes and HD in the past as they will take back stuff even without a receipt as long as the bar code says they carry the product.. No receipt, no cash returned but a gift card works in my book..

Thanks for the info on the insulation..

 

Thanks for the info.

 

I have never had them give me such a hard time about price matching as I did last nights they just kept telling me over and over it is a different market and that's the reason we can't price match one of our other stores. I checked 5 stores in a 30 mile radius of the town I live closest to and all of them had it for $5.88. This was the only lowes that if could find selling it for $12.88. The problem is we love near a small college town and they feel they can jack the price of everything up through the roof just because. Forthe most part we just deal with the small price difference but this wasn't anywhere near small it was a huge difference in money to me.

 

Is that fiberglass or cellulose?

 

Scotty the attic entrance is on my list to deal with as It is the last step in sealing everything up. I was going to work on it today but now I am curious what you did to yours before I start working on mine?

 

Cellulose

 

Any reason for that choice? The last time I was in HD asking about it, the guy was pushing me toward fiberglass for reasons I don't remember.

 

Dave, I'm also curious how @Scotty Overkill did his attic access.
Mine was installed less than level to the ceiling (like most everything else in this house), so there were/are gaps around the perimeter.
A couple years ago I put up some foam strips to try sealing those gaps, and it's helped, but it's not a permanent solution.
I really need to take the thing down and re-install.
The only thing holding back warm air is a 3/8" or 1/2" piece of plywood. No insulation. Still trying to figure out how to put some behind the stairs once it's folded up.

 

Not really anything reason other than i was told by a guy who used to do it for a living that it is a denser pack and he would use it over the fiberglass. Also that is what I already had up there and no one around here sells the blow in fiberglass.