Menards - Lowes - Home Depot Insulation Blowers

[Menards]

Can I use the typical insulation blowers from Menards and the other hardware stores to dense pack my walls? I read from someone who said the machine they rented couldn't pack it in the walls. Has anyone sucessfully dense packed cellulose with one of these rentals?

[WashingtonState]

I'd say absolutely NO.

Dense packing is a relative term and some contractors that aren't following the science in my area think the old style of "drill and fill" is packing the cellulose. One guy even said "if we have to drill two holes we will, but we pack it tight". I then asked if they use the smaller fill tube and insert it in the wall and his reply was "no, there's no need to".

Clearly this guy doesn't know a thing about dense packing because there is no way to hit the 3.5 lbs of cellulose /cu-ft as required for dense packing. Sure he will get some cellulose insulation in the wall, but it won't stop air flow (air seal), the r-value will be low and settling will probably occur. If you are going to drill holes and fill with cellulose you'd be a fool not to use a commercial blower and dense pack to 3.5 or higher.

[adam12]

Don't do it. You just can't dense pack walls with cellulose using a rental insulation blower. Those blowers are for open attic blowing only.

of a person using one of these low pressure blowers for blowing cellulose in side walls.

[HowToHomeInsulation]

I've used these machines plenty of times. There great for blowing insulation into attics, but not dense packing walls or anywhere else.

It doesn't take more than a few seconds under pressure to clog the hose. I've learned this the hard way while trying pack insulation into my vaulted ceiling. I had a straight piece of 2" PVC pipe duct taped to the end of the hose. I had to carefully listen to the machine to make sure I didn't clog the hose. Even then I found myself banging the hose around quite a bit to keep the insulation flowing.

Trust me, you don't want the hose to clog. Not only do you spend a half hour cleaning it out, but it makes one heck of a mess. The first time the hose clogged it blew apart where the hoses were connected blowing cellulose all through the house. My wife was less than impressed

My advice is to let the experts with the powerful machines stick to dense packing. Use the free rental machines from Lowe's and The Home Depot for loose fill in attics. There's still plenty of insulating and air sealing for the rest of us.

Corey