Monday, February 18, 2008
We continued to work in the attic. On Saturday I sprayed a product called Sporcidin in the attic space, trying to cover the entire roof area. I am hopeful that this will kill the mold that is growing.
After that dried, I then shoved some batting up against the wind wash in order to hold in the future blown-in insulation. I got about 40% done before Dad showed up on Sunday.
He helped me finish that task, and then we laid out and re-installed the batting that was in good shape. I made sure that the batts were layhing flat on the drywall and skipped any area that had obstacles.
That afternoon, we went to Lowes and purchased a new Owens Corning product for blown in fiberglass called Atticcat. The machine was free with a 10 bag purchase. We were the first customers to use this particular machine.
We tried that afternoon with moderate success, but found some issues that we were able to resolve:
After that dried, I then shoved some batting up against the wind wash in order to hold in the future blown-in insulation. I got about 40% done before Dad showed up on Sunday.
He helped me finish that task, and then we laid out and re-installed the batting that was in good shape. I made sure that the batts were layhing flat on the drywall and skipped any area that had obstacles.
That afternoon, we went to Lowes and purchased a new Owens Corning product for blown in fiberglass called Atticcat. The machine was free with a 10 bag purchase. We were the first customers to use this particular machine.
We tried that afternoon with moderate success, but found some issues that we were able to resolve:
- The machine came with 2 lengths of 50' hose with a joint between them. The joint kept coming loose. We fixed this by reefing down on the hose clamp and then using electrical tape and really stretching it tight to keep the joint closed.
- We found that you cannot have too many twists and turns in the hose. If you lay it out and have very few bends it works bettter. Otherwise the hose gets clogged and you cannot get any insulation out.
- The connection from the machine to the hose vibrates itself loose. Use a large pliers to tighten it - do not trust that hand tight will keep it screwed on.
- There is a knife that slices the bags open as you feed them. This knife dulls quickly and can get jammed up with plastic from the bags. It needs to be cleared after every 1/2 bag.
- The remote control does not always work on the first try. If you use it, push it off before you think you need it turned off.
The fiberglass did not itch and after we found the solutions above everything went pretty well. We did use walkie talkies to communicate on/off status, which worked well. Also, we pushed this stuff up 2 stories.
Current status is that for about 50% of the house, we have:
- Removed wet insulation
- Sealed all bypasses
- Sprayed for mold
- Filled the area near the windwash with batting so that blown insulation would not go out onto the soffits (yes we have vent chutes)
- Replaced batting that was in reasonable shape
- Blown in R50 fiberglass insulation
Now time will tell if we have resolved the moisture issue.
Labels: attic, attic condensation, atticcat insulation, bypasses, lowes, moisture, owens corning
