A quick post for two relatively quick jobs:
Removing the insulation:
Finally, an easy job. How hard could it be to remove fluffy stuff? It was like pink cotton candy, after all. And actually, it was pretty easy… until the mice. Not the skittering kind; rather the rotting, lifeless kind. No muscle required, just a tolerable constitution.
From the looks of the little, curled skeletons some of the rodents had burrowed in a long, long time ago. In 1977 the makers had used pink fiberglass – very cutting edge. In the 40 years since then, a portion of that fancy technology had devolved into a muddy looking mass piled on the c-channel. Water leaks and mouse poo (they had apparently selected one particular spot as their tiny outhouse area) had turned the insulation into fuzzy mud. We probably pulled out at least 15 trash bags worth – of total insulation, that is.
Step 3 of 73,846
Remove old nasty insulation.
Ingredients: gloves, fiberglass-proof dusk mask, glasses, trash bags, a shop vac, and a strong stomach.
Simple steps:
- Assume the mask. “Real men” are just as susceptible to fibers lodging in their airways as everyone else so just wear it.
- Pull out and dispose of old insulation.
- Shop vac the walls (and everything else) to keep those fiberglass particles out of your lungs.
- While you and the shop vac are at it, dispose of rodent corpses, and clean the rest of the guck and grim out of your walls.
Labeling.
This step is so simple it hardly requires evening mentioning it…which is why I’m mentioning it. Don’t be Naaman. Do the simple thing.
Step 4 of 72,987
Unless you’re planning to rip everything out and re-run them your way,* label the wires.
*Note about doing it your way. You can certainly change where the outlets go according to where you want your appliances. But just remember that the skins already have holes cut in them so moving outlets around means you’ll need to patch the old ones and recut new ones… unless you just panel over them.
As every bomb squad person knows, it’s handy to know where all those wires go.
Ingredients: masking tape, sharpie, and you might as well take a few photos.
- Label the type (12v/120v) and what they went to.