So I’m collecting insulation bids for my house. Two-story, ~3300 conditioned SF above grade. Eastern Nebraska.
No one does dense-pack cells around here, and I don’t want to screw with it, as it’d take me roughly till May to get it done, so we’re looking at contractors who do blown-in-blanket systems.
First question – As I understand it, BIBS is basically a dense-pack fiberglass sort of thing. Has anyone used this? Any comments/critiques/thoughts?
For the most part, bids are fairly similar. One contractor (for some reason) bid R-38 in the attic, while the other two bid R-50. The third added an option for an R-60.
Question Two: To go from R-38 to R-50 will cost about $800. Okay, fine. From R-50 to R-60 will be about another $300. I’m pretty well settled on R-50, but wonder if the extra $300 for R-60 is worthwhile. Is it? Or am I running into the law of diminishing marginal returns here?
Jason
Replies
i'm curious what the bid is to blow 1700 sf of attic space with. i had 1100 sf with cells blown 12" deep [i,m not sure what th rvalue of that is] for 70 cents a foot.i'm thinking going from 38 to 50 is only about 3 inches more.800 extra sounds like a lot for the extra 3". i do think as it the r value gets higher the payback comes slower,but you feel better about the fact that it's up there.larry
hand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
That sounds cheap. Did you actually get what you paid for?
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yeah,guess i did,when i was up there trying to walk on the joist to put the tv attenna up i had a heck of a time finding a place to put my foot!it has probably settled down to 10-11" now.i've used the guy a couple times,not because of price but that he can usally get here in a day or two.i remember pricing it out to diy and it was only a little more to let them do it.i don't need to eat that much dust for the fun of it. larryhand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
They buy it by the truckload wholesale is why.
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"No one does dense-pack cells around here,"
Does that include the damp spray cels?
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Multiple answers here...
"No one does dense-pack cells around here,"
Does that include the damp spray cels?
There are contractors in the area who do wet-blown cellulose in walls. However, my walls are 2x6, there's no heat to be had in the house (except propane heaters), and I'm on a schedule that doesn't afford me the time to let it dry. (Even w/ the small amount of H2O that's in there.)
i'm curious what the bid is to blow 1700 sf of attic space with.
The bids I've gotten are right around $5000 to do the entire house (attic & walls) with blown fiber - walls to R-23, attic spaces to R-50, R-19 rim joists, etc. Add in sound insulation, etc. and we're up to more like $6000.
Another question that just popped into my head - does blown fiber at 2 lb/CF lose its R-value at lower temps the way batts do?
Jason
If this is your house to live in, get the best you can! My house is fiber batts and fine until the temp drops below 40 degrees. Then the place feels cold, temp reads the same but feels colder! Pay back only means something if your selling in a short time period.
BIBs is denser without the voids that batts have to allow infiltration and convection loss cycles.
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What would be the disadvantage of going with just blown in cellulose. Blow extra in with the realizations that it will settle over time.
$300 to go from R50 to R60 does not sound cost effective.
Spending $300 to make sure that the attic is sealed from the conditioned part of the house could be very cost effective.
I like BIBs better than cells. performance similar IMO. Cost a couple pennies more for the chopped FG.
Go R50 - law of diminishing returns comes in.
Control infiltration at sill levels and opennings to increase effectiveness.
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Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
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