How To Safely Work In Attic With Vermaculite

The zonolite attic insulation trust was established in 2014 to help homeowners with the cost of removing zonolite attic insulation from their homes.

How to safely work in attic with vermaculite.

Do not store boxes or other items in your attic if it contains vermiculite insulation. When vermiculite is 6 8 deep the cost to remove increases. So if you have vermiculite insulation look into this. Children should be kept away from the attic too.

The trust reimburses homeowners for 55 percent of their removal and reinsulation costs with a maximum payout per owner of 4 125. Do not allow children to play in an attic with vermiculite insulation. Vermiculite insulation is no longer used in new construction but an estimated one million homes in the u s. You simply can t air seal an attic properly without first removing all of the granules of vermiculite that are covering the attic floor.

Leave vermiculite insulation undisturbed in your attic or in your walls. The step of air sealing the attic plane has been a building code requirement for new construction homes for almost 20 years. You should also minimize any other tripping hazards such as loose cables and wires low hanging beams exposed nails and building scraps. Only put one foot on one joist at a time.

If your attic contains vermiculite. Leave the removal of vermiculite to professional asbestos contractors. That s why it s so much better to have an attic with no insulation at all than it is to have an attic with 8 inches of vermiculite. Then have two other points of contact to keep your balance even if it s a rafter above your head.

Do not attempt to remove the insulation yourself. Any movement of the vermiculite may release asbestos fibers into the air and eventually into the lungs of the home s occupants. In the meantime homeowners should avoid using vermiculite insulated attics as storage space. If an attic is insulated with a thin layer of vermiculite a layer that provides less than the minimum r value required by code it s hard to come up with a good way to improve the insulation layer especially if the ceiling has air leaks.

In this picture the vermiculite is in contact with both fiberglass and cellulose and these materials must also be treated as contaminated.