Pete C. wrote:
HeyBub wrote:

ls02 wrote:
I am thinking about using blown in cellulose insulation for new
construction: walls, attic as well in floors between first and
second floor and between first floor and basement. I have a lot of
pipes and wires so I suspect blown in cellulose will provide better
value then fiberglass batts which hard to put around so many
obstacles.

Has anyone done this?

What's the cost of blown in cellulose vs fiber glass batts?

What's the best way to apply it to walls and floors? I saw video
when they blow it to wall open cavity then use some sort of screed
to screed excess flush with walls. What about floors? If I blow it
to ceiling will it stick and not fall down?


Not cellulose. The stuff you see squirted into an open wall is
polystyrene foam (think Great Stuff).

Sprayed foam has superb insulating qualities (R=6+/inch) and not
cheap. Fiberglass is about 2/3rds (R=4/inch) the insulating
qualities of foam. Cellulose has about the same R-value as
fiberglass, but is typically applied in a thinner layer resulting in
an overall lesser R-value than fiberglass.

You can't easily use blown-in cellulose on a wall. To do so, you
have to finish the wall, open a hole, fill the cavity, then patch
the hole. One hole per stud. After that, the cellulose will settle
with time and you'll end up with only 3/4 of the wall insulated.

In your case, I'd recommend fiberglass batts and a sharp knife to
mold it around pipes and wires.

Actually, they do indeed do cellulose based blow in insulation in open
wall cavities and screed off the excess flush with the studs. The
cellulose is I think lightly dampened for application and I suspect
has some light tack binder added. At any rate from what I've seen it
works well and should be much easier to fish wires through later if
needed than the spray foam or fiberglass batt insulation. For new
construction I still recommend installing strategically placed
conduit since 3/4" PVC conduit is very inexpensive and installing it
in new construction will take all of one evening and cost $20 or so.

I saw that, but the "dampened" cellulose takes up to a YEAR to dry...

Good idea about the PVC "conduit" (a regular hunk of PVC should work).