Insulation, Radiant and Vapor Barriers - Insulation blower as a vacuum

I need to replace the drywall ceilings in an older house. The attic was insulated with about two feet of blown fiberglass a couple years ago. It's not cost effective to remove and replace the insulation entirely. So, I need to move the insulation to another room's ceiling, replace the empty ceiling's drywall and then move the insulation back. I could rotate through each room that way.

I would have a professional service move the insulation, but it would take multiple trips. So that isn't cost effective either. None of the local rental centers have an insulation vacuum (about $2200 new). Hence my question.

Could I rent a drum type insultaion blower from Lowes, make a (sealed) lid with a pick-up hose and use that as a vacuum / blower? The lid hose would suck up the insulation and it would be blown out the normal hose. Since any air going through the system has to come through the lid, this should work. In general, that's how normal insulation vacuums work. My concern is that creating "blowing pressure" is different than creating "vacuum pressure." I'm not sure the blower would create enough suction.

What do you think? Any suggestions other than a rake and shovel?

Thanks
Barry

Think your better off replacing it than moving it around!

Thanks for the reply Airman, but the math doesn't work.

I've already done one room by hand. It took two hours to rake / shovel the insulation. I have four more rooms to do. A total of eight more hours labor... by hand.

Re-insulating would cost $500-$600... plus, I'd still have to remove the old insulation. I don't typically make $500-$600 for eight hours labor. So, even shoveling it by hand is more cost effective than removing and re-installing it.

If I had a vacuum / blower to move the insulation, the labor would be less than a half hour per room... and much easier. It won't take much to fabricate (i.e. duct tape) a temporary lid / hose assembly. Lowes or Home Depot will probably let me test the idea in store, before I rent the machine ($20 / day).

I'm hoping someone out there has already tried the blower / vacuum idea or has found another easy solution.

Thanks,
Barry

If I understand what you are saying, you want to seal off the top of a blower barrel and make a hole in the lid and hook another hose to it. So there would be a suction hose(in the handmade lid) and a blower hose. Thats a good theory but the problem is that the air that goes through the blower hose doesn't come from the barrel. It comes from a seperate blower that sucks in air from the outside and not from the barrel.

What you can do though is get a extra large shop vac and hook a long hose to that and then suck out your attic. When the vac gets full, empty it into your other attic.

I looked at Lowes' blowers today. Adamplghtg is exactly right. It's not an impeller arrangement like I thought. Instead, there is a seperate blower. So, my lid idea won't work.

Unfortunately, a shop vac won't work either. I'd have to empty the container a zillion times... even a large one. It would be faster to rake it.

I considered building my own material handling vacuum, but that would take at least a day... and I'm a bit leery of a home made impeller spinning at 3000 RPM. So, unless someone has another idea, I'm back to eight hours of raking.

Thanks
Barry

After 4 hours of raking yesterday, I realized this was going to take longer than I thought. Luckily, I came up with a real solution.

Harbor Freight has a 1 HP, electric, portable dust / chip collector (Item 31810, $89 normally $109). It's designed exactly like an insulation vacuum, only smaller. Just remove the inlet and outlet grids to allow insulation to pass. It has a metal impeller to handle wood chips, etc., but you'll need to avoid larger debris.

Real insulation vacuums use a 6" hose. This one uses a 4". I bought 4" corrugated drain pipe at Lowes ($20/50 ft) and cut it to length. It's not super flexible, but the stiffness makes it easy to push into low spots. I used 4 1/2" metal hose clamps to attach the hoses to the vacuum.

I was easily able to suck up and blow a pile of insulation. Judging by how well it worked during the test run, I should finish the whole house in no time... and I'll have a dust collector for my table saw when I'm done.

I hope this helps someone else with a similar problem.

Barry

Just for clarification, most insulation machines use 3" hose. Some of the higher end commercial grade ones have 4".

I agree most insulation "blowers" use a 3" hose for installation, but most insulation "removal vacuums" (Meyers, Heat Seal, Unisol, Nikro) have a 6" inlet/outlet. Some companies recommend reducing the last hose section to 4" to ease handling and to increase air speed at the pickup end. The 4" corrugated pipe worked great for me.

I finished moving the rest of the insulation today. It took 1/2 hour versus 4 hours by hand. Man that thing works fast... and relatively sweat free. The only trouble was a wood splinter that wedged at the outlet. It collected insulation and plugged the vacuum outlet. It only took a minute to remedy.

I should mention you "HAVE" to wear a good respirator. Full goggles wouldn't be a bad idea either. The high speed impeller breaks up insulation even finer than a normal blower. And man does it blow.

Thanks for everyone's input and suggestions.

Barry

Whoops, forgot the vacuum part.