Finding someone to remove loft insulation / clean up the loft

Norman_Castle

A Henry will be fine. I've cleaned, tidied and boarded a large loft with the hatch open with very little dust moving to the room below. Spare Henry bags nearby might help and make sure you've got good lighting in the loft. A dustpan and brush and gloves would also help.

Woolsery

Henry is what I used, with the proper bags, not Amazon cheapos.

Do a fraction first; say 1/10 of the loft, to work out how much stuff you'll end up with. It is a lot if you have a reasonable depth there.

Bendy_House

_Sam_ said:

Woolsery said:

From memory, I filled about a dozen dumpy bags with the stuff which was around 20 years old.

That's a lot If I'm going DIY route I'd be using black bin bags.... Have overalls, glasses and mask with screw-on filters, guess the best way to avoid dust and fibres in the house would be to seal myself up there (i.e. close the loft hatch behind me) with bin bags and vacuum cleaner start bagging and vacuuming until all is done, then transfer the bags out. 

Would Henry be able to pick up small fibres or is it better to hire. more powerful industrial vacuum with HEPA? 

As others have said, Henry will be fine. Or a cylinder Dyson, that sort of stuff.

Your plan sounds good.

Stating what I'm sure is obvious,  I'd add; good lighting, an easily moveable platform you can kneel on, knee pads!, and full, lightweight, disposable overalls. If it's hot up there - and it will be - then you can be pretty much in the nuddy under your paper overalls. Since you'll be closing the hatch, make sure you have everything you'll need.

Iced drinking bottle too...

It should hopefully be straight forward. Grab the end of the insulation, and start to roll it up fairly firmly. Add more - like making a giant snowball - until it'll fit easily in a bin bag, and you can stuff extra small bits down the sides to fill it. If you then scrunch up the open bag top so's it's held gently closed - and if you have room - then rest your elbows on top of the bag and let your weight slowly squish it, with the air escaping out the top. You will be gobsmacked by how much it reduces in size - probably by half. Clench the top tight and seal it, and the bag will remain that size. It will be MUCH easier to handle.

Then dustpan and brush. Finally hoover.

papermate

Sam

I’ve literally just been through this with a bungalow loft that’s about 9 x 6 metres.  I have always been paranoid of even touching glass fibre/rockwool and as for the breathing it in – Nuh-uh.  My insulation was a mix of bats (fish finger shaped bits) and rolls that I had to remove.

I installed 8 x 5ft LED batten lamps before starting (OTT lighting for most, but useful later).  I got a few packs of Waitrose “Extra Strong Wheelie Bin Liners” (£2.82 for 10) and found they were just the right size to be manageable (weight/size through the loft hatch).

I got a load of PP3 valved disposable masks, disposable nitrile gloves, a few disposable coverall suits (5 for £2.16 – Screwfix) and a cheap pair of goggles.

The technique was to slowly roll up one length from between joists at a time, so as to keep the dust down.  In fact do everything in slow-mo, if you don’t want the dust/fibres to be an issue.  Luckily, there was already a 2M x 2M of loft boarded, so I could get what I’d rolled up and then roll it up again, but tightly, pushing again on the boarded floor to reduce it size by about half or more.  I then got some cheap string to tie around the tight roll to keep the diameter small.  I called these pigs in blankets.  All this enables you to fit a lot into the above bags.  Bendy_House made some very good comments regarding bagging it.  After I got it in the bag, I gathered the bag’s top and tied some 1.5mm galv steel wire (Homebase) round a couple of times and twisted with pliers, to seal it and stop the air getting in and preventing the bag expanding again.

Luckily, our borough’s re-cyc site (Dump) accepted this waste, although it ended up in the non-recyclable skip which was disappointing. 

I can’t believe I managed to get about 80 percent of it to the dump using my old Fiesta (pic attached).  I got hold of a dumpy sack, (AKA 1 ton sack) filled it up with half the bags, stuck it of the roof rack and then loaded the rest of it in with the seats down through the hatchback.

Tips:

- You won’t like this, but winter’s the best time to embark on this.  Can be 40 deg in lofts.

- If you use masks with the metal strip to mould round your nose, you can get them to fit well enough to not let air by.  This is essential!   A tell-tail for a bad fit is that you’ll feel your breath escaping at the top of your nose, especially if your perspiring (which you will).  I found that the mask I wore helped squash the mask to my nose slightly which perfected the seal.  If you blow your nose after working and produce dusty stuff, STOP and have a mask rethink.

- If you can find half a dozen old flooring boards in a skip (see this every other day) they are useful to lay across the joists to stand/kneel on.

- Take lots of breaks to stay cool.  Hover over the loft hatch to catch the cool coming up through it (you hope) as a mini break between breaks too.

- Whenever you kick up dust, if possible, run away to area of the loft that’s less dusty while avoiding putting your foot through the floor/ceiling.  Let dust settle, then get back to it.

- Controversial -  Open as many doors on ground the floor as you can, so that if you’re lucky, you might get some cooler air flowing into the loft and hope it exits with the dust from the eaves/vents or tiles if un-boarded.  But be mindful if the airflow direction is down the hatch to the living space cos it could get dusty down there too.  I didn’t find this an issue when I did it.

Best of luck mate.  No one will ever know what a hero you are for doing this but yourself and a special few : - )

FreeBear

Bendy_House said: As others have said, Henry will be fine. Or a cylinder Dyson, that sort of stuff.

If you use a Dyson, make sure to have a couple of clean filters to hand - I've been using mine to hoover up carp from the loft, and the filter needs changing/cleaning each time the cylinder is emptied.

Bendy_House

FreeBear said:

Bendy_House said: As others have said, Henry will be fine. Or a cylinder Dyson, that sort of stuff.

If you use a Dyson, make sure to have a couple of clean filters to hand - I've been using mine to hoover up carp from the loft, and the filter needs changing/cleaning each time the cylinder is emptied.

Don't be silly! Dyson never looses suction!

(ma botty)

maisie_cat

I did ours, removed and rolled up the insulation tightly into waste bags and hubby then took the tied bags outside. Removed all the dead mummified mice and hoovered a significant amount of mouse poo and dust. Vacuumed with henry with hepa filter and double masked. I actually stripped off in the loft so that I could shower, horrible job but so worth it, done in the summer so the loft could air for a couple of weeks before new insulation put down. I would expect contracting out the work to cost a small fortune, not least because a contractor cannot just take the waste to the tip in the same way as a householder. I spent a day in each of our two lofts and it was a horrible job but the sense of satisfaction is huge.

Megaross

Suit up, prepare to sweat 40 pints and get stuck in. Bring it down in rubble sacks then hoover it thoroughly with a good powerful vacuum.

Won't be as big a job as you'd think - bag it up and hoover then it's just transporting the bags to disposal.

Then enjoy several cold beers to rehydrate

Woolsery

Megaross said:

Won't be as big a job as you'd think...

If it's a reasonable sized bungalow it probably will, but a job like this depends on the area and the depth of the material.

_Sam_

Thank you all so much for the tips and suggestions. Will go DIY route especially as funds are limited at the moment! Will wait for a cool possibly rainy spell to do it otherwise it's very hot up there. Will get few boards to stand on and move, from the look of things most of the area has insulation well above the joists, but in some areas it is lower only up to the joists.

Also a thought, there are solar panels on the roof, and I remember reading among the documents the solicitor forwarded to us that whoever installed the panels got a report that there was no asbestos up there. Im wondering would it mean no asbestos anywhere in the loft (so I don't have to worry about some ancient asbestos insulation lurking somewhere there) or would they only refer to roof structure where the panel were installed? As the bungalow was built around 1950, wondering if I have to be on the look out for asbestos while bagging and vacuuming.