Sidewall installation of dense-packed cellulose — Many cavities are full of scrap drywall
Hi everyone,
I had posted this on the HomeImprovement subreddit, and was directed this way.
Anyone out there have any experience with retrofitting dense pack cellulose?
I’ve got a 66 brick ranch home with no insulation in the walls. I’m preparing to remedy that this week. I picked up my 1200 pounds of cellulose over the weekend and I’ve got a reservation for an Intec Force 2 blower.
However, I’ve noticed upon drilling the pilot holes (inside the home due to brick structure) that I’ve got scrap drywall scattered throughout many of the wall cavities. Some aren’t too bad; I believe they can be packed around. Others seem as thought they will block the hose from entering the hole. I suppose I could use a higher pilot hole in these cavities, but the scrap will certainly effect the completeness of the pack. Do I have any course of action, other than wreaking further havoc on my drywall so the pieces can be removed?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
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Replies
If the cavities are full of rubble at the bottom they really need to be cleared out before dense packing or you'll have a lot of voids, and lower performance. I assume you've read up on dense-packing technique, and have either fabricated or rented dense packing hoses(?).
If you have relatively short ~3-4" baseboard trim on the finished interior you may be able to just cut the wallboard 5-6" from the floor to provide access for clearing out the crap and inspecting the cavities, then cut in some new wallboard, dense-pack the thing and install 6-8" baseboards to cover it up without having to re-paint the whole wall.
Thanks for the response Dana. The drywall in the cavities is actually in large chunks, sometimes 4-5 feet tall. It sounds like I'm going to need to cut larger openings to remove them, and then patch it up.
Brandon,
Dana gave you good advice. If you haven't seen it yet, you might want to read this GBA article: How to Install Cellulose Insulation.
Dana's bottom opening idea could allow you to break off five inches at a time and pull them out. Could be tedious if there's a lot.