Hi all. I posted here a while back as John_Tx, but the board seems to have lost my registration somewhere.
I’m going to have to replace the ceiling in our sons’ room this weekend. There’s loose fill (glass and cellulose) above the sheetrock and plywood decking in the attic. Don’t laugh at my asking this, but does anyone have any suggestions for reducing the mess when I wreck out the old stuff? I’m thinking of somehow chuting the stuff into a lined trashcan (with Masonite, I guess.) Does anybody have any better ideas? I really don’t want this stuff all over the house.
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I'm not laughing because I've done a fair amount of ceiling demo in my own house and it's not an enviable job. Maybe some of the pros have some better ideas but one approach that comes to mind would be to make some small openings in the sheetrock that are big enough to vac the insulation out with a shop vac. This would probably take a lot longer than just ripping everything down but it may be cleaner. Incidentally, have you thought about leaving the ceiling in place and just overlaying it with your new ceiling material? I usually try to avoid this but I think it's done fairly often to keep the dust down.
Can you get at the stuff from above? Take up the plywood, scoop out the majority, use a vac (buy long hose, leave vac in room, have DW or son empty vac when full) to suck up the rest. It's a lot of work that may or may not be worth it in the long run. If you have to open the ceiling prior to removing the stuff, isolate the room with plastic and tape, put a fan in a window (directed outwards), and use a dust mask and goggles, the dust gets everywhere.
If it were my ceiling (or my son's), I'd give the kid a hammer, construction bags, all the appropriate safety gear, a ladder, some pearls of wisdon before I left, and let him have at it. Granted, my son is 16 and done that kind of destruction before.
John,
I agree with Nick's ideas. Only thing that I can add is make sure you have the heat turned off if you have forced air and live where it's cold. This may sound like a no brainer, but I've done it myself.(Electronic thermostat[turned heat down, but kicked in on its own in the middle of the job] dust everywhere).
Jon
That reminds me, I reno'd a bathroom last year, laid down vinyl flooring. After I put down the adhesive and started rolling down the flooring, the heat kicked on and the flooring billowed up like a hot air balloon from the air blowing out of the floor register, which I forgot about. After I killed the air, it took a lot of sweat to roll out all the bubbles.
Sorry about highjacking the thread, but I had to smile with the memory of watching the flooring rise, and the feeling as my stomach sank.
I know that I've done alot worse things myself, just can't think of any off the to of my head. When I do, I'll have to get a thread going. Be interesting to see who's done what.
Jon
No easy answer to that one.
However, a simple thing that cuts down on the dust is to take a garden sprayer filled with water and liberally wet every thing down.
Bear in mind, I've never done this myself. Just heard of it being done. Seems like it might work.
I'm with Nick. Make your son do it. Don't have a son? Get somebody else's son!
"It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept."
Thanks all. I'll try using a shop vac. Along with slowing things down, I thought that that much fill would just clog the hose. I'll need the vac to finish anyway, so I'll try it and let y'all know how it went. Beyond that, I will use a fan to the outside and have a few dust masks on hand.
Dawg, er, thanks but I'm not sure about messing with a bunch of damp cellulose and fiberglass, especially with my wife helping. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the idea and may have a sprayer there, but....
We don't have central air yet, and the weather's nice besides. And my oldest is nine. He'll help with putting things together, but not with tearing things out.