Insolent Insulation

In a prior post, I talked about the ceiling in the master bathroom, which, at some stage, needed to come down. Well that time was here. Okay, sounds pretty simple right? Cut out the wallboard, take out nails, and saw through beams to remove. Mr. & Mrs. Remodel are getting very good at this (too good at times as more and more wallboard is disappearing) so not too bad. The picture below shows one of the first sections we took out.


What it doesn’t show is the piles and piles (and piles) of small pieces of old, dirty, grey, dusty blown-in insulation that was lurking above the wallboard. And why doesn’t it show it? Partly because Mrs. R cleared it up before photos were taken and partly because Mr. R didn’t want his camera anywhere near that dust. The best I can show you is some of it lurking above prior to launching itself down to make a complete nuisance of itself.


Yes, I know it looks pretty benign but don't be fooled. That's what it wants you to think. It lulls you into a false sense of security because most of it was pretty easy to sweep up. After all, how hard can it be to sweep up piles and piles (and piles) of small pieces of old, dirty, grey, dusty blown-in insulation? If you can herd it into a corner and surround it, you can scoop quite a bit up into bin bags. But having taken out many of the walls, insulation at the edges takes the opportunity to jump over the forms and escape into the next room. You would think after 30 odd years laying around in the attic it would be pretty lethargic but, let out of its prison, it proved quite lively, jumping around, staying one step ahead of my broom. Plus, because we have just started framing, some managed to find a resting place on every ledge on the way down.