How to Install Cellulose Insulation in Your Home

Cellulose insulation is loose material, usually ground-up newspapers, as opposed to solid rolls of fiberglass. It's "blown" into the walls with a machine and a long hose, which allows you to put it in walls without ripping them open. Instead, you blow it in through holes in the tops of the walls. If you have exterior siding that can be partly removed and reinstalled, it will save you a lot of work, because you won't have to cut into an interior wall and patch it closed.

Pry bar
Hammer
Electronic stud finder
Pencil
Insulation blower (rented)
Jigsaw
Loose cellulose insulation
Spray foam insulation
Siding nails

Instructions

- 1
  Use a pry bar and hammer to remove exterior siding from the house in a strip at a level approximately 1 foot below the ceiling of the room inside. Keep the siding intact as you remove it.
- 2
  Find each stud in the exterior wall, using an electronic stud finder. Mark midway between each stud with your pencil, putting the pencil mark 6 inches down from the ceiling.
- 3
  Hold the end of the blower hose against the wall over the first pencil mark. Trace around the hose with a pencil. Repeat for each mark. Cut out the traced circles with a jigsaw, making the cutouts slightly larger than the hose diameter.
- 4
  Fill the blower with loose cellulose insulation. Feed the hose of the blower into the first hole, pushing it all the way to the bottom inside the wall.
- 5
  Start the blower. Fill the wall space with loose insulation, slowly withdrawing the hose as it fills the space until it's back out completely.
- 6
  Repeat Steps 4 and 5 for each hole.
- 7
  Block off the holes with spray foam insulation, shooting it into each hole and letting it expand and fill the openings. Let it dry for an hour.
- 8
  Nail the siding back in place, using siding nails.

How to Regrout Wall Tiles

How to Cover Torn Drywall

Wall Repairs