On 20 Jan 2007 14:42:36 -0800, "sserrels"
wrote:

Yeah, I tried the rake. But, because the roof rafters and the ceiling
joists run _parallel_ to the roof ridge, there's only about a 4 inch
space between rafter and joist at the farthest point I can reach. And
that's at least 3 or 4 feet away from the outside wall. (I hope you can
picture this, I've never seen a house with rafters and joists run this
way. Seems stupid.) So I can't really get in there with a rake.

I tried those Owens-Corning Raft-R-Mate polystyrene things, but they
crushed, snagged on roof nails, and fell apart when I tried pushing
them in.

The electric attic fan I'm considering is one of the type that goes

Attic fan is ambiguous. Do you mean a fan in the roof blowing out, or
a fan in the floor of the attic blowing into the attic, or a fan
within the attic. **

If you're talking about a roof fan, I've supported those in many of my
posts. If you mean a whole-house fan, I don't know of any one here
who has recommended that for a humid attic.

If you mean the third, let us know what you mean.

**I don't take hot showers, so I never have much humidity in my attic.
But you can have a humidistat or a manual switch to turn it on when
you want it in the winter. The attic fan vents at the ridge rail,
which may or may not be close enough to the outside. Check yours.

If you can't move the insulation with a rake, how about a vacuum
cleaner or a shop vac? Borrow extra extensions to the wand, don't
use any end except the wand, and put some window screen over the wand
so it only grabs the insualtion and holds it, but doesn't suck it in.

Also you can put a solid piece of cardboard or something over part of
the wand opening to lower the suction, and make the hole smaller so
that it will just hold things and won'pt suck them in.

If it does suck some in anyhow, if you've cleaned the vacuum before
using it, you cnn just get the insulation out of the vacuum and use it
again.

Or hire a midget or a child to go in there and do the work up close.
I'm not kidding. AIUI, quite a few burglars have used children
because they fit in places that other people don't. Use some temp
pieces of wood over the joists so the person doesn't fall through the
ceiling. He should wear an approriate mask so he doesn't breathe the
fiberglass. You should too. I always do, even when I don't really
disturb the fiberglass. You could vacuum the air first and get rid of
most of what is NOW floating in the air. I've never actually checked
if the stuff is in the air.


through the roof near the ridge. The soffit vents aren't completely
choked off, just not open enough to allow the ridge vent to work as
it's supposed to, so I'm hoping that the fan would draw most of the air
through the vents and not the house. I assumed the ridge vent should be
blocked because otherwise the fan would only draw in air from the ridge
and not move any other air in the attic.

Thanks for the help, folks,

Shawn