Blown-in insulation: do it yourself? (Houston: to rent, houses, buying)

[meilton]

Has anybody blown in fiberglass insulation yourself? I need to add more, and our building guy said that Lowe's or Home Depot rents the machine.

I never recalled seeing these machines at the store to rent, but then again I wasn't looking for them. Any idea on price?

I have not contacted the stores yet, just checking with you guys first if anybody has done this.

[chris_ut]

I saw an add recently from Home Depot where they will give you the machine to use free if you buy a certain amount of insulation.

[LongIslandEddie]

Follow this link to another comment which may provide you with the answers that you seek.
//www.city-data.com/forum/new-j...lown-home.html

[tstone]

Lowes has the machine in the insulation aisle, looks like a robot with a hose.

I'd think you'd need a big cargo van unless you want to make multiple trips back & forth buying insulation.

[fnh]

Oh this takes me back... We did this ourselves in our first house in Seattle, where property values were rising so fast that we could cut our teeth on DIY projects and it simply wouldn't matter if we screwed it up. :-) This was an easy project and the hopper/blower was cheap to rent from the Home Depot, maybe $50 bucks or so, possibly less even. That was thirteen years ago. Very do-able for the un-handy. We were using cellulose insulation though and there may be additional concerns for fiberglass.

[Oskar_Z28]

I did it several years ago. It wasn't too bad of a job, but I should have not done it in June. I got the machine for free when I bought insulation.

[tdhg566]

I triple support the idea of NOT using cellulose. In the past I've had two houses with blown-in cellulose insulation. I added it to one. One came with it.

Eventually cellulose insulation breaks down and the dust seeps into the house. Eventually you have to have it all sucked out and replaced.

I also support the idea of doing this job now, during the winter. It's a really, really nasty job to do during a Houston summer.

[susanhuang02]

Home depot had an insulation special and quoted us .99 cents a square foot for only R-19 blown in insulation. Avalanche Roofing & Insulation on 1960 charged us about the same for R-30. They also offered cellulose but told us it was very dusty being it was made out of shredded newspaper with borax. We rented the machine as hubby was going to try and do it himself over the weekend but machine did not work and had to take back. Great investment if you are considering it!