Hubby is a researcher. When he lights upon an idea to do something he hasn't done before, he starts to research. He spends hours figuring out how he is going to do something.
We did have someone come out and give us a bid to remove all the insulation out of the attic. Now that we are into it ourselves, we know that whoever would have signed up for the job would have walked off in a heartbeat. It is a mess up there. Not only is there blown in insulation, there is roll insulation that can't be vacuumed out, drop ceiling in pieces, trash galore. All of that makes it a job and a half. But .... we are almost there! (I use we loosely.)
This is how the brainchild started. A hose runs to a 55 gallon drum and then through a shopvac and out to a collection device. Don't ask me. I'm not the science person. However, the suction in the drum was quite awesome.
Then the ShopVac became unnecessary as a plain old leaf blower was added to the top of the drum and did a great job of pulling insulation and blowing it.
Closing off insulation leakage holes with rags. No big pieces can be sucked in or it gets stuck. Easy enough to unplug tho'.
At the end of week 1, there was serious progress going on! The red circle is around 1/2 a piece of ancient luggage. It is a serious trash and treasure trove up there!
Where is all that blown insulation going? To a bag outside the garage. They sell insulation collection bags at over $200 a pop. Hubby came up with the idea to use sheets sewn together. I went to Goodwill and found that duvets are sold for the same price as sheets. A whole lot less sewing involved when 3 sides are already done for you! Air moves through the fabric (the cheaper the sheet, the better it works) and allows the insulation to sort of pack in a bit. Not as tight as would be nice, but we have a whole lot of these bags full.
This would be the insulation removal team. Day #1 we did this with no protection over our breathing spaces. I've been coughing for the 2 weeks since then. And insulation fibers? We may be throwing clothes away when this is all over.
The blower finally decided it had enough. (We did figure out a way to stop the collection of stuff around the top there.) It just worked itself right out of commission. Plan #267 came into play shortly after that and works well!
This is 1/2 of the trash bags we filled at the end of week #1. There is another pile that is just as big. Can you just imagine the weight that has been hanging on our ceiling?
These are duvets of insulation. Not exactly good bedding material anymore.
Why are we doing this?
Before it warms up and the temp in the attic hits triple digits, we hope to have new and sensible electrical wiring up there. The plumbing will all be redone up there. New ducting for our heat/air conditioning system will be done. And then .... we will blow in new insulation.
There are wires running all over creation up there. Pipes that go nowhere. Ducting that sends our air conditioning straight to the attic instead of inside the house.
It is a huge job but will be so worth it in the end!
I'm actually looking forward to seeing an electric bill!
More updates soon ...
No comments:
Post a Comment