Fiberglass blows and Cellulose sucks.

[Robin Grimes]

It’s 105 degrees and dry, dry, dry in Houston, Texas. One of my tenants called to say the A/C was not keeping up. It was 81 degrees in the house with the A/C running 24/7. This is an older home built in 78’ so the insulation has settled down to 4-5 inches. Something I should have checked during my rehab but didn’t. Another lesson added to my already long list. So it’s off to the store to buy some insulation.
The best solution is blown insulation, since it’s very easy to install. Blown insulation comes in two basic options. Fiberglass (pink) or Cellulose (brown). I choose the pink insulation because the blower for it was available. After taking a best guess at the # of bags (12), loaded it all up and called the tenant to ask if I could arrive at 7am to add the insulation. I also bought a paper painter’s suit and dust mask. Already had goggles.
It’s a TWO MAN job, one to feed the hopper and one to work the hose in the attic. With a helper the job went very smoothly and I was done with the two attic areas in about an hour. Total cost $365. Not sure if I can get a tax credit for the insulation of rentals or not, will have to ask my CPA.
Fast forward 2 weeks: While checking in with Tenant #2 I ask how their A/C is keeping up. Tenant said that two rooms upstairs are always hot. So I inspect and again find settled insulation. Off to the hardware store again, only this time, only the cellulose blower is available. So I purchase the brown cellulose insulation, load up the blower and go to tenant #2’s house. This is where the nightmare starts. I was expecting the same experience I had with the fiberglass job, an hour in a hot attic. Instead I spent 2+ hours in a dust filled torture chamber. The cellulose blower would not feed a bale, each bale had to be pre-broken up or the blower would not chop it. There was more dust coming out of the hose than insulation. Within a minute of starting the job, the dust was so thick I could not see more than a few feet. So we would run a few bales, stop and wait for the dust to settle, and then start again.
The cost of the cellulose was a little cheaper but I’ll never do cellulose again, it was a horrible experience. So in my, now experienced, opinion: Fiberglass blows very well and cellulose just sucks.