blown-in insulation vs. batts

[mm]

1) If I hire someone to blow in Pink stuff into my attic, will that be sharp or rounded**?? They might be using the new stuff, but they might also have taken the old obsolete sharp-containing batts, and chopped them up to sell like this.

2) Are there any other important differences between blown-in and batts? For example, I used to see what I thought were pieces of fiberglass floating around the attic, so I have worn a dust mask whenever I go up there, but I think most of that has settled or blown away. Will adding blown-in put more of this stuff in the air than putting in more batts?

Background: Because It will take me a longt time to get around to buying and installing more batts, I've been considering having someone (home depot) blow in insulation for the floor of my attic.

**My current fiberglass is sharp. Before I learned to wear long sleeve shirts and long pants, I used to feel a bunch of tiny stings when I got out of the attic. The new stuff they sell, at least the yellow brand is called "gentle touch" or soemthing and doesn't seem to have sharp ends. IIRC, the pink Owings-Corning stuff doesn't emphasize that on the label but it feels the same way.

[roger61611]

You should always wear a good mask when fiddling with insulation.

Blown-in I think (?) is cheaper but then if you need to run a wire you have to fish thru a foot of crap.

[HeyBub]

Tube sock with two holes in the toe - one for the thumb, one for the fingers.

[Steve Barker]

Use cellulose blown in.

steve

[Joseph Meehan]

I agree with Steve. It will reduce air infiltration, fill in any gaps and work better.

[Tom The Great]

Good advice, about the mask, and the wire.

Previous home owners had cheap stuff blown in, and damaged it by storing items in the attic. So I suplimented the insulation with batts on top. I later had to run wires, so it was easy to stack moved batts into a corner and replace after I was done.

It worked for me.

later,

tom @

[Tom The Great]

For air infiltration, I like Icynene.

later,

tom @

[m Ransley]

Blown in may seal better but settles more, so add 20-25% if you blow in. I hope you are going for modern R values of 60 or so, not old code.