First in a five-part series.

BY AMY CALDER

Staff Writer

It can be a dirty, dusty job, but insulating the attic space over your house and tightening up in other ways can be done for under $1,000.

Stores such as Ware-Butler, The Home Depot and others sell cellulose insulation by the bag and offer use of do-it-yourself machines for blowing it into your attic. Contractors can be hired to do the labor, but you pay more.

For those wanting to do it themselves, two people are needed: One to feed the bags of cellulose into a hopper and another to blow the insulation into the attic with a hose.

"They both should be wearing masks so as to not breathe in the dust," says Bill Veilleux, who works in contractor sales at Ware-Butler's North Street store in Waterville. "Make sure there is proper ventilation in the attic, so there's no condensation."

Green-fiber celulose is 85 percent recycled paper fiber; the other 15 percent is made up of additives to help make it fire-resistant, Veilleux says.

If an attic already has about six inches of insulation, one can blow in another six or so inches to get the R value, or resistance value, up to about 38, which is the standard for the state of Maine, he said.

The R-factor is used to describe differences in insulation effectiveness, according to the Maine Oil Dealer's Association. The "R" stands for resistance to the flow of heat through air or solids. The higher the R factor, the more slowly heat travels through it.

To cover 1,000-square-feet of space, you can spend around $250 to $600, depending on how much insulation is used and where it's purchased. Some stores have deals for use of the machine. For instance, Ware-Butler sells bags of insulation for $11 each and allows use of the machine for a weekend for $30 -- and the store has free delivery for reasonable distances.

If you buy 20 bags of cellulose insulation at The Home Depot in Waterville, the store will allow free use of the machine for up to two days. A bag of 40-square-feet of insulation costs $9.50 at that store. About 25 bags are needed to cover 1,000 square feet.

If you have an attic floor and want to walk on it, you can fill the hollow area between the joists and the underside of the floor with blown-in cellulose fiber. Bore holes into the floorboards and insert the nozzle of an insulation blower into the holes. The cellulose will fill the cavities. Plastic caps are available to plug the holes.

One can also tighten up other areas of a house by placing weather-stripping around doors, insulating hot-water pipes in the basement and/or wrapping insulation around hot water tanks, among other things.

It is possible to make a home too tight or insulate places that cause problems, said auditor David Couture, of Home Performance Plus, in Waterville.

He said air-sealing typically is not discussed when it comes to weatherizing homes, but it is important to do that before insulating. Older homes, especially, have lots of cracks that can be fixed by buying a $20 kit that includes caulking and weather stripping.

But Couture warned it's better to do air sealing after having an audit done.

Auditor Jon Hill, of Energy Blast, LLC, of Winslow agreed. He recalled an energy crisis in which people insulated their attics but did not stop air leaks that caused condensation and ultimately rotted roofs.

"It does all sort of work together and it's good to get a big-picture view of the house and then decide what to do," Hill said.

Hill said that with high energy costs, it's better to do a more comprehensive insulating job that is more expensive but loans are available and banks are willing to issue them.

"I'm telling people, 'Don't do it out of pocket. Get a loan,' " he said. "In two houses, I calculated that if they took out a 15-year loan at 8 percent, it would be about 60 months they'd pay on the loan and save $150 a month on energy costs. You save much more per month than you're going to spend."

Hill said some homes have huge holes in places that may not visible. He recalled a situation in which a homeowner couldn't figure out how the family cat was getting in and out of the house on its own.

It was later discovered that the cat got into the garage, traveled up a wall past some insulation, entered a closet and got into the home that way.

Amy Calder -- 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com