The wood, indeed, may be very hard. So maybe you'll need a heating pad for your bursitis and a powerful drill. Pilot holes are a good idea. I don't find much splitting when I monkey around with my structural parts which are about the same age as yours. It kind of depends on the species, too. My structural pieces are oak and chestnut; with some very hard (pitch) pine.

Personally I don't think that would I cut a hole in my house just to get materials upstairs. Is there a window you could remove the sashes from and then use a pulley to hoist the insulation bats up and through? A lot easier and less damaging to the building, even if you have to go so far as removing the parting bead.

The stuff between the lath (the thin strips) is plaster. The blobs sticking through are (or were) the plaster keys. Sounds like some one sheetrocked over the existing plaster.

I wonder if you have hand-split lath: it looks like it has been unfolded in a zig-zag way.

If you have to cut through plaster, it will be messy. I'd assess first and wonder if your plaster was still intact....? And I'd have a way to contain the dust, along with a disposal plan and at least basic paper air masks. The stuff can really make you feel wheezy.

Good luck!

Molly

This hole is the only way into the attic except for the small vents at the peaks of the house on both ends, so a hole would need to be cut larger. That part of the house is 3 stories with the attic above the 3rd story (it is low and would only be good for storing boxes and holiday stuff).

The existing hole I think was added just so the PO could get into the attic to upgrade the wiring (there are remains of knob-and-tube wiring, but it is all inactive (just the ceramic parts and a few lengths of wire.) So it is either cut the hole bigger to insulate, feed insulation in one bat at a time, unroll a roll in the room & feed into the attic unrolled or don't insulate. To me, the hole seems to be the best option

The PO did drywall over anything in the house. Everything is drywall now, no plaster that is visable anyway. I'll check the existing hole to see if there is plaster, the existing hole just has a square of drwyall screwed up to 2 pieces of wood to close the hole, PO's didn't seem to care if it looked good or not as the drywall hole-cover isn't even painted. I've got drop clothes and will put a fan blowing out the window and shut the door to the room (it is just a storage room). the only time I go to the third floor is to feed my cat and clean the litter box or go into my 'Lego room"

That sounds like a lot of work, just to get insulation up there. I had the same situation, and I just measured the lengths of insulation I needed, cut them in the bedroom below the attic, and had my wife hand the pre-cut pieces up to me. Much easier and faster all around.

I echo kudzu's statement. If there's not alot of headroom in your attic, pre-cutting single sheets of insulation is your best solution and shimmy through that existing hole!

I'll take a completely different tack and later, when time permits, a completely new post.

We had a weatherization audit done yesterday on our house. Best money I've ever spent on the house.

On true 2x6, you'll likely never get enough fibreglas insul in there to be as effective as you would like it to be. PLUS, the fiberglas is pretty darned environmentally unfriendly. According to the audit guy (and this makes complete sense to me), fiberglas is basically glass, which is not a very good insulator, unless you have two bats and it's pink to pink. Otherwise, air simply flows through the insulation.

I would consider having densely blown cellulose put into your attic floor. You'll get it packed tighter. You'd still need access to the attic, but should be way easier than lugging up those bats.

Bruce, where do you live in PA. I can highly recommend this group of folks for an energy audit if you're in NW PA. Great fun and highly competent.

DruidClark, I'm down near Philly.
how did you find a weatherization audit company? Never really even heard of that type of company.

Hiring someone to blow in stuff sounds like it would be expensive to me.
I'm not sure the tube on the machine at lowes would reach most of my attic though. from the ground to the attic floor is about 30 feet, to the far side of the attic is another 20 feet. I can ask Lowes, but I don't think the blower hose is 50' long. I don't know how heavy the machine is, so not sure i could get the machine upstairs (plus it probably would make a huge mess inside and vibrate the heck out of the house)

Hmm, the stuff Lowes sells, Cocoon brand, says to not leave the store with less than 100' of hose, so maybe I would be OK.
Looks like I could get double the R-value for the same money as fiberglass. I think I will look more into that.
Is that the type you mean by densely blown cellulose. Not sure if the DIY stuff would be considered "Dense"

If I don't go with the blow in stuff, I might NEED to make the whole bigger to get any bats up there, after taking the thickness of the bats into consideration
thanks
Bruce

DruidClark-
A clarification about insulation:
1) that business about fiberglass letting air flow through it is wrong. I have no idea where your auditor got that info. I guarantee you he would change his mind if I pressed a 6" batt over his face and told him to breathe!
2) You don't want insulation to be dense. If a 6" batt is compressed it loses part of its insulating ability because it is then easier for heat to be transmitted fibre to fibre as it's pressed together. The way insulation works is that it isolates and traps little pockets of air, and this prevents air currents from wicking away heat. It is true that glass is a poor insulator...if it's a pane of glass. However, if you could take the amount of glass in regular pane of glass and inject air bubbles into it so that it expands to 6", it would become an excellent insulator. Density is not good...that's why things like brick walls, concrete floors, and joists can provide pathways for lots of heat loss. They are dense, have high thermal mass, and are poor insulators.

It sounds to me like your auditor knew just enough to be dangerous. Don't get me wrong. I think energy audits can be very helpful...but not if the person doing it is poorly informed about heat transfer and thermodynamics.

You could buy the cellulose bags of insulation at Lowes (20 bags purchased = 1 free day blower rental). Then you don't need to widen your access hole. Assuming you could get up there yourself to do the nasty job of blowing the insulation. I did it myself. I also think it is somewhat cheaper than rolls, and possibly more insulating, because it fills all cracks.

I'm still debating using the blowin stuff from Lowes. I would have someone help me, since someone would need to load the bags into the machine. For the same price as fiberglass stuff, I would be able to get about double the R-value.

I do plan on adding a whole house fan, hopefully in the spring. I'm a bit worried all that air going into the attic would blow the insulation around. I'm planning on calling Cocoon to see what they say about that. I was thinking i could put landscape fabric over the blown in stuff to keep it from blowing around.

We have a whole house fan and used the rolled stuff. We can access the electrical by picking it up if needed.