Cellulose installer search and difficulties
I live in upstate NY about 45 miles NE of Utica and 60 miles SE of Watertown. My insulation plan for my timberframed home was to have cellulose installed in the 2×5 24″ o.c. insulation frame. This wall is sheathed with 2 1/2″ of xps taped and caulked. It’s well sealed. Most installers I’ve contacted even though they advertise cellulose end up trying to sell me sprayfoam. The largest and most widely used installer went so far as to tell me that the foam would offer great air sealing advantages just after I detailed to him the xps sheathing. He advised me that they’d only install cellulose if I first put up my paneling that they could then drill holes in for installation. Am I missing something here? Is proper cellulose installation, particulary behind webbing, that difficult? I’ve watched online videos of installation and it seemed straightforward.
Does anyone have recommendations for installers for the area I described? Thanks, Daniel
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Hopefully someone here will offer some information on cellulose installers near you. In lieu of that I'll offer my own experience that you can take as you will.
I wasn't able to find a suitable installer at my location but I was committed to the efficacy and low embodied energy of cellulose. I ended up using a rented low end blower containing a slide gate that could decrease the ratio of cellulose to air. It was able to pressurize the cellulose behind the netting to a suitable density of over 3.5 lbs/cu after rolling out that wouldn't have been predicted from the specifications of the blower. The reason I was able to do it was because the lower ratio of cellulose to air on the blower still had the ability to belly out and stretch the netting backed cellulose. After rolling out the cellulose flush with framing the density came to about 3.7 lbs/cf. Plenty dense to prevent sagging.
I realize many people aren't up for DIYing so this may not be for you. But it does work for those committed to cellulose and no other options are available. I've been kind of disappointed that no one else has tried this. I explained it a few years ago but it hasn't gone anywhere. So I'll wait a couple more years and offer this idea up again for those who are committed to cellulose and no other options for installation is available. It definitely works.
Thanks for the reply. I had considered trying to find a workshop or even a training program to learn how to install dense pack - the area I'm in seems to be somewhat hung up on sprayfoam as a miracle approach and all the installers I had look at the job didn't express much knowledge or concern of current building science. At this point I'm currently overwhelmed with all the other aspects of moving my project towards completion and I don't have the time to attemp installing the cellulose myself. Wish I'd have planned for it from the start, but I thought that it would be a common skill and practice here.
There is an builder in the adks that used to be on here IIRC his user name is ajbuilder ?
I'm 30 miles SE of Utica, and will be in the same situation later this summer, or next spring.
There's a great company in Ithaca called Snug Planet and you may be within the distance they're willing to travel - I'm just over 2 1/2 hours from them and they're busy enough in their neighborhood and won't travel here. They know the business of insulation well and are an intelligent crew.
Because of the odd wood size, you don't have too many options.
Installing OSB on the wall is not a huge job if you want to go with cellulose. There is a benefit of having wood under all the drywall as it makes hanging anything a breeze. It would also let you use other types of wall coverings such as T&G and maintain an air tight assembly.
Probably the simplest would to bite the bullet and get the cavities filled with open cell foam.
You could also try to compress some 2x6 low density fiberglass batts in there or go for 4" rockwool AFB. The AFB would not fully fill the cavity but would probably be less pain to install.
I just started looking at Roxul. They do have batts for 24 oc framing that measure 5 1/2 " deep. My insulation frame is a full 5" deep. Having built this entire house myself from the foundation up I sure was looking forward to farming out the insulation to a crew that would just dense pack the cavities.
Squishing mineral wool by 1/2 on 24OC framing might cause the drywall the bulge.
You can definitely squish regular fiberglass batts. This is probably the cheapest option if you want some else to install it. They also come in 23" wide.
You can also try R19 denim batts. These also come in 23" wide, I've only used them in attics so I can't comment on how well they compress or stay in walls.
"This wall is sheathed with 2 1/2″ of xps"
Do you mean the XPS is in addition to traditional plywood or OSB sheething, or is the XPS your sheething?