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After following Breaktime for a couple of years, I’ve finally decided to jump in and try my hand at sidewall cellulose blowing to roundoff my old-home restoration business. Where better to practice than on my own house? I’ve gone through the archives fairly thoroughly and need some guidance on a couple of things. I’ve got a 2 story, balloon-framed house, with (ext. to int.) stucco, sheathing, 2×4 bay 16 oc, sheathing, strapping, lathe and plaster. I’m thoroughly renovating the first floor at present and wanted to try to blow all the way up the bays from the first floor to avoid drilling holes/damaging plaster/mess on the second floor. The top plates, due to a low roof pitch, are effectively unaccessible from the attic. I understand that I’ll have to do something about bays above 2nd floor windows at some point. There is a 1-by ledger let into the ballon studs to hang the second floor joists, so I’ll probably have to reduce to at least a 1-1/2 inch od hose to snake up the walls. My questions are:
1. What location for holes would be best? I’m kind of thinking a hole at about 6 or 7 feet with only one hole? That would leave me 10-12 feet to top of bay, then 6-7 feet to the bottom – is this possible?
2. Do I blow up first or down first?
3. What is the smallest diam hose I should use?
4. Any other suggestions not already mentioned or beaten to death here?
Thankyou in advance!
Replies
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One issue not noted is blocking 2nd floor joist bays. If you remove enough plaster and lath up high on the first floor or are removing siding outside, these can be stuffed with olf fibreglass in plastic bags. I've done that on one side but don't have access plqanned for other. Fred suggested measuring hose so I knew when it was just beyond bay (I'm working down two stories from attic) and covering it with a plastic bag and blowing it up with cells to seal the end of the bay.
*Thanks for your comments, Bill. I've already checked between some of the second floor joists - and luckily they're already blocked off with the same interior sheathing as the rest, so I do have a nice continuous bay top to bottom with no openings. Hopefully this will facilitate the rest of the process.
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After following Breaktime for a couple of years, I've finally decided to jump in and try my hand at sidewall cellulose blowing to roundoff my old-home restoration business. Where better to practice than on my own house? I've gone through the archives fairly thoroughly and need some guidance on a couple of things. I've got a 2 story, balloon-framed house, with (ext. to int.) stucco, sheathing, 2x4 bay 16 oc, sheathing, strapping, lathe and plaster. I'm thoroughly renovating the first floor at present and wanted to try to blow all the way up the bays from the first floor to avoid drilling holes/damaging plaster/mess on the second floor. The top plates, due to a low roof pitch, are effectively unaccessible from the attic. I understand that I'll have to do something about bays above 2nd floor windows at some point. There is a 1-by ledger let into the ballon studs to hang the second floor joists, so I'll probably have to reduce to at least a 1-1/2 inch od hose to snake up the walls. My questions are:
1. What location for holes would be best? I'm kind of thinking a hole at about 6 or 7 feet with only one hole? That would leave me 10-12 feet to top of bay, then 6-7 feet to the bottom - is this possible?
2. Do I blow up first or down first?
3. What is the smallest diam hose I should use?
4. Any other suggestions not already mentioned or beaten to death here?
Thankyou in advance!