Help! Squirrels nesting in attic, insulation is destroyed

[chilliepepper]

Since squirrels are considered wildlife and hence not covered under our pest control contract, the pest mgmt. company sent out an inspector to give us a quote for getting rid of the squirrels (apparently a whole family has taken up residence in our attic) and re-insulating.

If this were just one or two squirrels, I'm sure DIY would be the obvious choice. But he said that judging from the number of "trails" (?), it's likely to be multiple squirrels, maybe 4-8.

Getting rid of the squirrels will cost $725 and includes sealing up any and all access points and a two year warranty. If we try to DIY this by sealing the access points during the day, we may or may not be successful in finding all the access points and getting rid of the squirrels before they start to eat our wiring. We could also shop around, but in this case time seems to be of the essence. If we don't get rid of these buggers, STAT, we may be dealing with a lot bigger problems.

Eliminating squirrels plus re-insulating (1200 sqft) is $2500. This would be for R19 or R30 insulation. My husband thinks he could do this part of it for about $500 (R19 insulation), bringing the total down to about $1225 ($725 + $500).

Thoughts? Is installing insulation tricky in any way? Would we be dumb to pay someone to do it so that my husband (who unfortunately is quite a few years from being able to retire) doesn't lose a whole weekend of working on other backlogged home projects and spending time with our 3 kids?

[lauren_knows]

Having reinsulated my own attic last spring, I will give you my experience.

It is not that "tricky", except that you need to be careful in the attic to not step through the ceiling, not bang your head on the rafters (or rusty nails), and not get heat stroke.  To avoid these problems, you just need a few chunks of plywood to move around the attic to stand on, some patience, and take a lot of breaks.

The only things you really need for the operation are:

• The aforementioned plywood
• Dust Masks to protect from inhaling fiberglass
• Goggles to protect your eyes from fiberglass
• A box cutter for each person involved
• Long sleeved shirt and jeans to wear

It's not that difficult. You bring the rolls up into the attic and roll them out in a straight line. If there are obstructions, or your roll is longer than the length of the attic, you cut it.  There are other safety considerations for insulating around ducts and electrical, but you can read up on that all over the internet.

It took me 2 days to do the attic of my townhouse. The first day I had my buddy there to help.  The 2nd day, I pulled a 12hr day up in the hot attic to be done with the whole thing.

Good luck!

[jawisco]

What is your current insulation in the attic?  If it is blown in, and your access point is near the center of the attic, I think you could do it without much problem.  It might just take half a day.  Really depends on what type of insulation is there and whether you need to remove the old insulation...