Why can I just roll out batts of insulation in my attic, rather than pay someone to blow in insulation?
Insulation that comes in batts require a lot of work, cutting and arranging in order to make sure that obtrusions such as pipes, wires, a/c units and floor structure do not reduce the effectiveness of the batts. This manual labor typically results in compression and voids in the batt insulation. The result is a significant decrease in the insulation’s effectiveness, as R-Value is determined by the thickness of the insulation. Compression or splitting of a fiberglass batt to cover an obstruction in a wall is not easily fixed, as you cannot simply add more material. You would then simply have two highly compressed batts with a seam between them – remember, any gaps that are typical of batt insulation allow for drafts, which bring undesirable pollutants, noise and moisture into the home. By blowing in insulation, you get a monolithic, uniform, dense covering of all air gaps that would otherwise allow for hot air penetration into your home in the summer, and cold air penetration in the win
