Just had the insulation done yesterday in the attic. The insulation guys (as well as I) could easily see that there was virtually no insulation in the attic--as in NO "R" factor, whatsoever. We had 19 inches blown in although I don't know if it was cellulose or fiberglass. It is white, looks kind of like that packing material "peanuts", though not hard like that. I have already noticed a BIG difference in how much warmer it is and how much less the furnace is coming on. I thought I would see how this goes and then if we have to do the walls, we will. I am curious as to whether anyone has any photos of what it looks like when they do this to your walls, as in how many holes there are, how big, etc. Our walls are drywall, I am guessing (though not totally sure), and the texture is something that would be hard to replicate if we were to patch it so I am wondering exactly how intrusive this would be.

I've used both and didn't see a big difference in terms of the installation. You need two people, one to run the hopper and one to spray the insulation. You need some physical dexterity to walk around in an attic but spraying the actual insulation isn't much more complicated than using a garden hose. Summer is a lousy time to work in an attic. It gets hot, very hot, like 120°+ hot. Do it early in the morning or wait for cooler weather. Cellulose is just ground up newspaper with chemicals added to make it vermin and fire proof. The fiberglass industry will tell you the chemicals are water soluble so if the insulation gets wet, the protection may be lost. I'm inclined to think that's a bit of hype. Fiberglass is, well, fiberglass. It's a bit more expensive than cellulose. Cellulose also settles but you just add more to take that into account. The instructions will tell you how much to use. Walls involves drilling a couple of holes into each stud bay. "Ask This Old House" did a segment on blown in cellulose that gave a good overview of walls. You might want to watch for it. Respiratory protection is a must. The bales of insulation aren't so much heavy as bulky. You'll probably want to have them delivered. The blowing machine is bulky and heavy too. You'll need a truck if you want to pick-up the machine. Good luck! Mike

nathan, Settling was indeed a problem with blown in insulation, but that's in years' past. These days we use "dense packing" when blowing into confined framing bays, like wall stud bays, or ceiling rafter bays. If you blew a thickness of cellulose, say 24", it'd be fairly low density, all fluffed up with air. Come back 6 months later and it will have settles in height until it reached it's natural settling density of 2.7 lbs per cubic foot. Come back five years later it'll still be at that settled depth and at that settled density. so we "dense pack" the cells, running a fairly lean mix out fo the blower, and look for about 3.5 pound per cubic foot. The only way to know what you;re getting is by experience. The easiest way for a DIY to gain that experience is to screw together a mock stud bay; a couple of 2x6 studs, a cap and sole plate, and a sheet of ply on each side. Drill a hole in one sheet of ply, insert your hose, and blow in the cells, working the hose out of the cavity as you blow. You can caluculate the volume of the bay, then working with the 3.5 lb/cf density, find out how many pounds of cellulose you need to be stuffing into that bay. Each bag of cellulose weighs a certain amount, to it's fairly easy to figure. Then unscrew the ply off one side of the mocked up bay and see how well your coverage is. Then repeat. Once you get the knack, then you can have at it. It's a sight/sound/feel thing when dense packing, but easy to accomplish. Since your walls are open to the studs, you can use mesh netting on the faces of the studs, then dense pack, then drywall. The mesh netting makes it easy to see that the bays are being properly filled. There are some photos posted in the "spray insulation in attic" thread. SLightly different method as those walls also have furring strips on them. If you were to just hang the poly vapor barrier then blow in the cells, the cells would blow the poly off the wall. Dense packing can even bow out 1/2" drywall on 24" studs. 16" framing is usually okay, upping to 5/8ths inch sheetrock is near bulletproof. You can also wet spray cellulose into open stud bays. The wet cells stick in place due to the water content. But there is a certain amount of operator skill required there so that the minimum amount of water is used, as drying times before being able to hang the sheetrock can be lengthy. Personally I don't wet spray. Mongo

Thanks for both comments. There is an attic but its really really hard to get to in this part of the house. The eves do start at 8" and then go up. 2ft and almost 3 ft in some parts. @formulaross20 How much space/clearance do you need for ventilation? R-30 is 10" thick. Can you tear some away at the 8" space in the attic? the drywall guy said to get either faced on non faced insulation so I got unfaced. Will install tonight but can exchange because I need to go back and get something else before 8AM tomorrow when the guy returns. Yes, I would prefer also to get blown in insulation as well - Florida heat.. That is another project that will wait but trying to replace what has fallen during this reno.