# Removing loose fill insulation



## Gregsoldtruck79 (Dec 21, 2017)

We bought a house where racoons unknowingly, had been living in the attic so I had to remove all the loose filled fiberglas pink blown in insulation. Just so I could blow new insulation back in. 

I just suited up with Tyvek suit with booties, 3 M respirator mask and neoprene gloves.

I took a whole box of 33 gallon plastic bags in the attic with me. Scooped up the insulation with a dustpan, packed the bag tight and cinched it closed with its built in tie. 

Just kept pushing the full bags towards the attic access hole as I worked my way towards it. Then, dropped them down the hole on to the floor below. What little is left will drop out when the plaster ceiling is pulled down. .


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## Nealtw (Jun 22, 2017)




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## Gregsoldtruck79 (Dec 21, 2017)

Each to their own I guess. Some people just have to use a machine even if it takes twice as long to get the job done. The vacuum hose still did not eliminate the same amount of crawling around and pinching of ones body, in tight places while getting the insulation out. 

The vac motor has twice as much mess and mechanical "doings" to have to put together and take apart. And the next person running that vac motor now that the intake screen is removed, may have a problem. 

He will smell the motor burning when piece of wood splinter in an attic gets sucked in to it. Locking the blower impeller up solid and throwing the motor in overload/trip,,, even if it has one.


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## JWindmill (Jun 13, 2018)

That contraption is pretty neat, and if I had one ready to go, I'd use it. I think I'll get up there today and get an idea of how long it'll take to do it by hand and shop vac and go from there. A large vac straight to a garbage can would be ideal, but I'll spend more time looking for one or making one than it'll take to just do it.


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## JWindmill (Jun 13, 2018)

I was able to get up there today and I spent about 3 hours bagging insulation before I had to stop. A quick summary: Items worn were Tyvek suit, respirator mask, goggles, gloves, and hat. Materials used were contractor bags and trash can, large dustpan, 12 gallon shop vac, battery powered light. The shop vac was mostly useless, as suspected. I could see going back and picking up what's left on the plaster with it. I was able to fill 15 bags total in about 3 hours. I had to stop every 3 bags for safety/exhaustion. I'd take the 3 bags down and stand outside for about 5 minutes. This was a huge pain due to all the gear I had on. The respirator cartridges were clogging pretty quick, but just on the surface vents. The Tyvek suit was unbearably hot, and my clothes were completely soaked within 30 minutes. It was 70F and cloudy outside. The 15 bags covered about 40% of the area I'm trying to clear. 

At this point I'm questioning whether I can handle another couple 3 hour sessions of that. It was brutal. I gutted everything below in 2 days and nearly filled a 20 yard dumpster with a sprained thumb, and that was a lot less miserable than this. The only other option is to just knock the plaster ceiling down with what's left up there. I'm not sure how terrible of an idea that is, but I figure once it's down and the dust settled, it'll be a lot easier to clean it up off the floor than it is to get up there and scoop it into bags.


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## riccobo4 (Dec 29, 2017)

I was in a very similar situation. I ended up making a supervac like the video posted above and it works great, but here's a few things I learned:


Get the cheapo harbor freight 2hp dust collector. You can get it under $100 on sale. It isn't easy on the machine and you don't want to ruin a good one.


You need a real 4" dust collector hose for the inlet side (harbor freight is fine) but for the outlet side you can use the cheapo foil flex dryer duct. Lasts long enough to get the job done.


To get into corners make a nozzle by attaching a piece of 4" steel duct to your hose and flattening the end into an oval.


For a vacuum bag, get an old bed sheet and sew it into a big tube (or have your wife/neighbors wife do it if you aren't manly enough to own a sewing machine). Zip tie or hose clamp one end to your outlet hose and tie the other into a knot. To empty, just untie the knot. When running the machine, have the bag hanging out a window. Fine dust will blow through the sheet and you don't want that inside.


I still use my supervac for random jobs. Its great for sucking up tons of sawdust, drywall dust, cement dust, etc. Things that would clog or ruin a normal vac.


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## JWindmill (Jun 13, 2018)

After doing the first half of the attic with a dust pan, I may look into the super vac plans when I gut the next part of the house. It is dreadful work, so some prep work and a little spent cash would be well worth it. Thanks for the info. I’ll check Harbor Freight.


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## ront02769 (Nov 28, 2008)

Just gutted a house with blown in cellulose.....and needed to replace ceilings also....so just pulled everything down. Left with a ranch house.....with 18” of insulation to wade through on the floor! Everything scooped up into plastic bags and into the dumpster. Ron


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## JWindmill (Jun 13, 2018)

ront02769 said:


> Just gutted a house with blown in cellulose.....and needed to replace ceilings also....so just pulled everything down. Left with a ranch house.....with 18” of insulation to wade through on the floor! Everything scooped up into plastic bags and into the dumpster. Ron


I thought about doing this after scooping some out, but I wanted to knock the ceiling out from the attic, rather than pulling from below. That must have been quite a mess.


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## Bud9051 (Nov 11, 2015)

Just reading and a thought came to mind. If the ceiling is coming down anyway, how about cutting a hole and adding a super large box or trash container below with a chute to hit the target. Then the insulation could be raked into the hole and bagged below.

Not sure how big of a leaf bag one can get, but I did buy some plastic bags from our local bottle and can recycler, huge. Just a thought.

Bud


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## JWindmill (Jun 13, 2018)

Bud9051 said:


> Just reading and a thought came to mind. If the ceiling is coming down anyway, how about cutting a hole and adding a super large box or trash container below with a chute to hit the target. Then the insulation could be raked into the hole and bagged below.
> 
> Not sure how big of a leaf bag one can get, but I did buy some plastic bags from our local bottle and can recycler, huge. Just a thought.
> 
> Bud


That's actually a great idea. I will definitely play around with that when I start gutting the second part of the house. I'll remember to report back what I come up with.


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## HDS (Jun 21, 2014)

JWindmill said:


> That's actually a great idea. I will definitely play around with that when I start gutting the second part of the house. I'll remember to report back what I come up with.


That's a good idea. Could even attach a sort of chute to the hole down into a trash bag. From the attic side, a narrow snow shovel to push it to the holes.


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## w0j0 (Dec 29, 2017)

How about this? 
https://www.sunbeltrentals.com/equipment/detail/960/0610500/insulation-removal-vacuum/


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## JWindmill (Jun 13, 2018)

w0j0 said:


> How about this?
> https://www.sunbeltrentals.com/equipment/detail/960/0610500/insulation-removal-vacuum/


I searched Sunbelt's site and google for something like this, and never found it. haha. I'll look for it next time.

EDIT: 1 day is $335. I might stick with the DIY version or the hole in the ceiling. If I were doing an entire house at once, that's the way to go for sure.


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## ront02769 (Nov 28, 2008)

If the op is talking about a ceiling, like Sheetrock or whatever, then he is also talking about ceiling joists......meaning that there is not likely to be a lot of raking going on since the insulation sits in the joist bays.


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## JWindmill (Jun 13, 2018)

ront02769 said:


> If the op is talking about a ceiling, like Sheetrock or whatever, then he is also talking about ceiling joists......meaning that there is not likely to be a lot of raking going on since the insulation sits in the joist bays.


Correct. Joists are 16”OC. It would be scooping and dumping into a chute.


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## w0j0 (Dec 29, 2017)

JWindmill said:


> I searched Sunbelt's site and google for something like this, and never found it. haha. I'll look for it next time.
> 
> EDIT: 1 day is $335. I might stick with the DIY version or the hole in the ceiling. If I were doing an entire house at once, that's the way to go for sure.


Yeah, I knew they existed but never looked at cost. I'm sure there are other rental houses that could be searched. I used "insulation removal vacuum" in a Google search to turn up the result I provided.


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