Insulation, Radiant and Vapor Barriers - Should I cover old vermiculite with new insulation?

Doityourself.com community forum was created to provide answers to all questions related to home improvement and home repair. Doityourself community can help you find information about how-to topics on small fixes to large remodeling projects. With comprehensive how-to content and expertly moderated community forums DoItYourself.com makes it easy to tackle even the most complex home improvement projects.



PDA
cmac
10-26-04, 03:05 PM
My attic crawl spaces have a thin layer of old (~1955) vermiculite insulation. I am looking for a cost effective way to increase the insulation value. Several people have told me that it is inefficient to place new insulation on top of the old vermiculite and that I should first remove the old. Regardless of the asbestos concern, I'd rather not mess with it. What's more, if there is asbestos in the vermiculite, I certainly don't want to incur the cost of professional removal.

It seems that anything is better than what I have now, so that for the relatively low cost of blowing in some loose-fill over top of the vermiculite it would be worth it. My main concern is that I'm not violating some building code by covering up the potential asbestos hazard. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

resercon
10-26-04, 10:31 PM
http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/insulation.html

This page shows the Best Practices with Vermiculite.