Electrical Outlet Wiring : Blowing Insulation for Beginners

Learn how to blow insulation in your walls in this free DIY video.

Expert: Amelia Tallman
Bio: Amelia Tallman has been a freelance floral designer for ten years and has taken several classes in floral design on the collegiate level.
Filmmaker: Paige Williams

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• insulation
• home
• repair
• diy
• how
• to
• improvement
• tips
• insulate
• free
• videos

[HouseDoktor]

This is terrible.

Walls should be dense packed w/cellulose or fiberglass using a fill tube that goes all the way to the end of the cavity, and in most cases its easier to do this from the outside. Remove lap siding, drill through the sheathing and fill.

Dense packed wall insulation will not settle, stops air leakage through the shell preventing heat loss and condensation. This takes care of most moisture problems as long as the weather shell is in good shape.

[Moleculow]

They're using recycled paper.

It will not cause the walls to bow like the expanding foam.

However over time the paper will settle and leave large gaps towards the top of the cavity and that is where the heat loves to escape from the house.

EPS (expanded polystyrene)beads is what they should be using. It does not settle and does not hold moisture.

[elvis459]

What about the cross studs ?? Surely if you only have a hole at the top the insulation is all going to pile up on top of the cross studs and below them will be left unfilled ??

[ivcruiser]

NO NO NO! you guys have it ALL wrong! I love for folks here in north centeral ILL to go to the big box stores and get this crap! THEY ALWAYS wind up calling and having my company fix the screw ups that THEY caused by trying to do it this way or doing it themselves!..this is so wrong on so many levels its a JOKE!...look at it this way, I can work on my own car..DOESNT MAKE ME A MECHANIC!,

ILL Valley Insulation Princeton iLL

[Moleculow]

@markhinr Expert Villiage "experts" have always been notoriously amateurish.

[markhinr]

@Moleculow Yes, I've cut rigid EPS so I can imagine the loose beads could be difficult to contain.

By the way. I agree with you that InexpertVillage's video is worse than worthless. It's giving homeowners the impression that filling their walls with cellulose is an easy DIY project when not even their self-proclaimed "expert" knows what the hell she's doing. Their expert has a been a "floral designer for ten years and has taken several classes in floral design on the collegiate level." Wow!

[Moleculow]

@markhinr Cellulose typically has a per inch r-value of 3.8 whereas EPS beads have a solid 4.0 rating. EPS beads really haven't caught on that much yet in the states. For one thing, they are light and blow around in the slightest breeze. If an installer does not have a sealed system for injecting and reclaiming overfill he/she will have a huge mess.

[markhinr]

@Moleculow Because our winters are much colder, convection within the wall cavities is more of an issue. Because of it's density, dense pack cellulose has very low heat loss due to convection, much better than fiberglass. I don't know how blown EPS bead would compare on that issue. I expect your winters are more similar to the UK, so that may explain why the blown EPS bead is a more commonly used in the UK and the Pacific Northwest.

[markhinr]

@Moleculow You're right, the rigid EPS isn't used to fill stud cavities. It can be used on the interior, over an air-vapor barrier, behind the drywall or on the exterior, over the structural sheathing, with strapping (rain screen) for fastening the exterior finish. Your climate is quite different than I design for. While we have a bit of humidity in the summer, our winters are cold and relatively dry so mold, mildew, and dry rot aren't an issue if the building is detailed and built properly.

[Moleculow]

@markhinr The big problem I have with cellulose insulation is that if it ever gets wet from say a sprinkler or storm it takes forever and a day to dry out. Try putting a phone book in a bucket of water and then bring it inside the house and see how many weeks it takes to dry out.

Here in Oregon mold and dry-rot is a big problem. The problem with EPS rigid is of course that it is not retrofittable without removing either the drywall or exterior sheathing/siding. I used EPS beads in my own house

[markhinr]

@Moleculow Thanks, Moleculow. I did some googling and it seems EPS beads are more commonly used in the UK but barely available in the US. EPS rigid insulation is used extensively here.