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Suffolk, VA on Dec 31, 2011

SO we had blown-in insulation added in the attic and it seems to be helping our Gas and Electric bills significantly.

** ISSUE is the BLOWN-IN comes thru one air vent in my grandson's room and coats the window sills like SNOW! Also find it in the walk-in attic, the blown-in comes out of an opening required for air flow. (Maybe put a fine screen in that area??) HIND-SITE: Net time use ROLLED!

5 Comments

Walter Reeves Decatur, GA

If insulation is coming through the vent, that tells me warm air is also leaking out the vent. Need to seal around it with caulk. Or if the vent has an opening in it (as from rat/squirrel damage) you need to find and repair it.

on Dec 31, 2011 · Like 1
Woodbridge Environmental ... Colonia, NJ

Walter is correct on this. If its coming in, its allowing air to escape out raising your utility bills at the same time. The people who did the blown in stuff should have air sealed all of the fixtures, top plates throughout the attic area. They also should have installed baffles along the eaves to prevent this stuff from falling into the soffit area blocking the flow of outside air into the attic. This also prevents any air that blows against the house from blowing the insulation around ...»
the entire attic area.
It sounds as the install was done by people who were not experienced enough on how to do this, or they missed installing a baffle in some areas which is allowing the insulation to blow around. I would suggest that you get the people back to do a look see.
Also its not uncommon to find a few spots of insulation falling out of places for a few days or even weeks. Remember they blew this stuff in, an it gets everywhere so some may have blown over or behind some of the baffles that they installed and once the stuff falls out from those areas it should stop.

on Dec 31, 2011 · Like 1
Jim G Suffolk, VA

ok, I'll pull the vent and ensure it is caulked/sealed. I hate to have to walk thru the attic (fell thru 2X in this house, NEVER before in ANY house, but 2X in this one. THAT's why I want an Attic floor put up there.) Anyway, another topic, but for this I had a similar thought that there MUST be a hole somewhere that the insulation is getting sucked into the air vent, thus means could be losing AC/Heat from that same spot. He did put in Baffles. he showed me prior where 11 were ...»
missing throughhout and ONE of the time I fell thru the ceiling (actually one leg) was walking around while he showed me where he installed the ones that were missing and also the amount of blown in insulation.
** I will call him, and am sure he'll come back, A ratings by many people and he's doen other work that we were very happy with.
** Thanks for the responses.

on Dec 31, 2011 · Like 0
Barbara S Rio Linda, CA

HI I just wanted to say, you can use old boards to make a path to where you need to go in the attic. Thats what we have done because you will need to go up there from time to time.

on Dec 31, 2011 · Like 0
Jim G Suffolk, VA

@ Barbara: Understand, and we don't use the attic upstairs for storage or anything (we have a separate walk-in attic space), but you are right, there are times people go up there for maintenance (Air Conditioner, Cable). I just assume pay to have a permenant structure to never have to worry about anyone falling thru again!
** Hope you have a Happy New Years!

on Jan 01, 2012 · Like 0