FYI,
We’ve always called an insulation guy to suck out attics with blown-in insulation before demo, but we had a situation where the celulose insulation would do a great deal of good if simply moved 40 feet instead of being hauled to the landfill.
A small Delta dust collector was rigged up with 30′ of 4″ hose on the suction side and 20′ of 6″ recycled flex duct on the discharge.
It actually worked quite well in clean insulation. Nails and small chunks of wood went through ok, but paper of any kind or larger wood clogs the inlet grid.
We were almost through moving 15 bags of insulation from place to place and I had the bright idea of removing the inlet grid to avoid clogs and save a few trips up and down the ladder. Not 30 seconds after the grid was cut out a half moon piece of OSB (from pipe cutout in the roof) made it into the blower fan, jambed a bit and slightly bent the fan or motor shaft causing an annoying vibration.
Dang!
I guess they knew what they were doing with the inlet grid. For anyone thinking of such foolishness just don’t let big chunks through.
Personally, we’ll be calling the insulation guys next time.
🙂
Replies
Trout
What do you pay to have the insulation sucked out?
I was thinking of replacing my wiring because its alum. and I hate the stuff, not to mention its a hazard.
The idea of sucking out the insulation accured to me so that I dont have to mess around with moving the damned stuff. Plus I want to add several can lights while in the process and just thought it a logical thing to do.
Doug
Doug,
About 2 years ago we paid around $350 to have an attic sucked clean, It took them around 3 hours start to finish
That seams reasonable considering all the hassle that it'd save.
Doug
That number sounds about right. Sometimes with good access and little insulation it can cost much less, and poor access and large amounts of insulation can cost much more. We try to get everything opened up well and get our insulator to do the job as a filler inbetween better paying jobs to save a few bucks. Getting a guy who will charge by the disposal bag instead of a flat rate is probably the way to go.
An added benefit of sucking out everything on an old house when rewiring or anything extensive in the attic is that often there's a healthy layer of black dust that also gets sucked out--probably mostly years of mold dust and such.
thanks