Cellulose blown into trailer roof

I live in a "mobile home" in NYS. With zero degrees outside, I've got icicles hanging down the sides of my trailer. Lost heat.

The roof domes up a little bit, in the center. Hmm. Airspace? Is it possible to get a DIY cellulose blower, and pump in a couple bags of fluff to insulate the roof?

I did a google search, but coulnd't find anything on the matter.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon
Loading thread data ...

Greetings,

You might look into installing rigid foam insulation over your existing roof and then EPDM. The best time to do this is when you could use a new roof anyway (I don't know what shape your current roof is in).

Hope this helps, Wiliam

Reply to
William Deans

You can rent the blower at Big Box when you get the cellulose.

On one small job we used an electric leaf blower! Hand-fed the stuff right into the blower impeller! Worked great.

Jim

Reply to
Speedy Jim

Often stores let you use the blower for free when you buy insulation from them or it is real cheap to rent, is nothing up there, I mean you looked.

Reply to
m Ransley

- Stormin Mormon -

- Nehmo - Modern MH's already have insulation up there. You're going to have to take a look to see what kind of space is left. And Home Depot (probably other places too) will lend you a blower free if you buy _any amount_ of cellulose. Your credit card has to be good enough, though.

Reply to
Nehmo Sergheyev

I'm sure a roof over would make a lot of sense. What do those cost? The economy has been so terrible.....

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

When I had some floor up a couple weeks ago, it looked like it had about 1/8 inch of fiberglass on top of the tarpaper, or whatever was nailed to the bottom of the floor joists. I'm not expecting to find much insullation up there.

Yes, I do ahve a credit card. And maybe if I have insullation, I'll have less credit card debt.

Thanks for the good thoughts.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

In a mobile, generally not enough air space to matter, and could cause more problems than it solves, by trapping condensed moisture that now dries out or has a place to drain. I'd recommend one of the double-roof systems, where they glue foam to outside skin, and cover with preformed panels. Not pretty, admittedly, but gives a much better R value.

aem sends...

Reply to
ameijers

Someone told me about the blower rental at the store.

I woulda never thought of the leaf blower. Great idea, though.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Just buy some styrofoam panels and put em up on the the roof, perhaps some plastic sheeting on top of that so water dont cause a problem.........

Maybe hold it all down with some cinder blocks so the wind dont pick it up???

Reply to
PrecisionMachinisT

would you do that to your home putz?

Reply to
Respondingto

If you have a metal roof covering it over will not help much. You still have the air space below. Blowing in insulation could create huge problems if you fill the airspace completely. Most mobiles are very long blowing in from each end is tough.

Re roofing can be done and is not that tough. If you get trusses made you can do it yourself with metal roofing. Put a nice overhang and a decent pitch that puts the new roof above the old. Shingles would add too much weight. You can work a panel at a time. Leave the original roof trusses in place or you could end up with a structural problem.. And install the new ones between them but you must remove the sheet metal roofing itself to install the new trusses. You can just hack off the roofing as it will be hidden under the new roof.

You can stick frame your own trusses but won't save much.

As you remove each old roof panel insulate and then install your new trusses and metal roofing. You can do 4 feet at a time. It can go really quick if you have competent help.

Hard work, lots of metal to cut but will save you huge money down the road.

In some areas unless you can get an engineer to Ok this you will have to install nasty posts outside your mobile right to the ground. But a new metal roof with a decent 2-4/12 pitch can actually reduce snow load in the winter.

Reply to
Justin

On 1/29/2005 6:49 PM US(ET), Stormin Mormon took fingers to keys, and typed the following:

Depending upon when the 'mobile home' was built, there might be insulation in there already. My father had a 12' wide mobile home in DE with a lagoon out back. He owned the home and the lot it was on. He had a gable roof built over the top of it, and had that insulated.

Reply to
willshak

Ah lak it but ah ain gat no shaguhn ain no peekup. Dat be the good ole boy way to due hit.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Hmmm--kinda begs the question....

Ya spose maybe he might of done things a little differently had there not been a lagoon out back ???

Reply to
PrecisionMachinisT

Stormy, it can be done, and probably fairly easily. I have done such a project. What you need to do is cut an opening in the very top of the two end walls at the highest points and look in and see exactly what you have in there. The one I worked on had about 3/4" at the most, and absolultely none in spots. We got about 25-30 feet of 3/4" pipe to use as a handle and taped the insulation blower hose to it. The guy stuck the hose into the opening as far as it would go, and slowly pulled it out, while moving it side to side to try and get as even coverage as possible.I am sure they were not able to get 100% coverage, but they did manage to get quite a bit of insulation blown in. I don't remember exaactly how many bags it was, but it was a bunch. I made a HUGE difference in heating and cooling. I hired that one done for $300 about

8 years ago. I am working on another one right now, and am going to try to do it myself. I already checked and it also has nearly no insulation there now. (about a 1972-3 14X66 approx) The only thing I am planning to do differently is to use fiberglass instead of that chopped up newspaper they call cellulose insulation. The fiberglass is much lighter, and will not grow mold if it ever gets moisture. Both of the ones I am talking about are over-roofed with "R" panel, so leaks are less of a worry on them. The over-roof also helps on cooling greatly, which is the main concern here in S.Tex. BTW, I have already checked at HD and Lowes, and the only blown-in insulaion they sell is the cellulose, and will lend the machine free with the purchase of the insulation. I found the fberglass at a regular lumber yard for about the same price, but will have to see if I can find the machine to rent at a rental yard-- can't imagine it would be that expensive. Good luck. Larry
Reply to
lp13-30

Larry I recommend a different product. Block filler or vermiculite FIRST. Not to fill the space but to get down into the narrow spaces. Just a couple inches. If you can get a rope through both ends you can carefully drag a piece of carpet to level and fill all the spaces down to the ceiling.

then blow in GLASS not paper. Paper will get ruined if you have any condensation under the roof.

Last use the rope to try to get a nice even airspace between the fill and the roof.

A careful installation of a fan blowing in one end sucking out the other will help prevent problems. OR even better add two wind turbines on the roof.

I have seen turbines alone reduce condensation and melting to almost nil.

Reply to
Justin

I forgot to add we use the rope for this. With a sled made by curving thin plywood. The sled drags along without hurt the insulation. It's a bit hard to describe.

Others make fat wheels out of isoboard and roll the blower hose along.

Reply to
Justin

You know, I did give it some thought, to use that method. Stick in a long pipe, and wiggle it around. My trailer is 14 x 65 feet long, so it owuld take three lengths of pipe. I played with the idea of dumping the insullation through the center of PVC pipe. I wouldn't want to be 20 feet out from the end of the trailer, trying to hold a length of pipe 10 feet off the ground..... though it is a funny thought.

Your lengths of iron pipe to guide the tip, now that might just work. Back it out, and then unscrew a length off.... that could work.

Like you say, it's not possible to get even coverage, but it would be a lot better.

I worked with fiberglass some years ago, on a temporary job. I worked one shift, and couldn't get my clothes to stop being itchy. Even washing them twice. I went back the next day and resigned. Very politely, too. I ended up discarding the clothes. I'm not happy with the idea of fiberglass.

My heat bill last month was $230, and that's with a 90% plus furnace that I installed earlier t his year. And a setback thermostat.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Doesn't fiberglass give you a wicked case of the itchies?

Yes, I've had a roof leak, before.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.