Installing Ceiling Insulation: What Does the Job Consist of?

Installing insulation is a challenging job, not because of the immense variety and day to day changes, but rather the lack of them. Despite being a job that takes you all over the city to different construction sites, the monotony sets in as it all blends into the same routine and rhythm.

Loading Insulation into Transport Vehicle                 

Days begin the same way. Loading insulation into trucks at the crack of dawn in order to ‘beat traffic’. The most effective way of doing this is by using machinery such as a forklift with a special hydraulic attachment. This attachment, sometimes called a ‘grab’ can rotate as well as grab, as the name suggests, enabling the operator to pick up multiple bales of insulation at a time and swivel them around so they are able to be stacked horizontally or vertically onto a truck or ute.

Moving Insulation Bales Across Distances

Without access to a forklift this part of the job still needs to be done and in order to avoid injuries caused my manual handling, care must be taken to use correct lifting techniques to shift bales from the warehouse and into the transport vehicle.  For example, instead of physically dragging a bale of insulation across a floor, even a fairly lightly built person is able to maneuver a bale of insulation by first rocking it to gain momentum, and then flipping it over and over on its narrowest surface area all the while imagining one is competing in the Ironman competition.

Even though motivation is not at its peak at this unchristian hour of the day, it does take a certain physical strength once you have mastered the above to actually get the bale into the back of the truck or ute. If you are fortunate the truck may have a hydraulic lift attached to it, which saves you physically squatting down and expending any remaining energy you had from the bale flipping exercise, to, excuse the pun, get the flipping bale into the cargo area of the truck.

Installing Ceiling Insulation in Semi-Dark Roof Cavities

Probably the most strenuous task awaiting you as an installer is an after-plaster ceiling insulation install. After unloading the insulation, typically in a front yard full of mud and littered with trip hazards like broken bricks, you are then required to split the bale open and shove the individual bags of insulation through the manhole in the ceiling whilst desperately clinging to the ladder with your free hand. This character-building activity is then followed by opening bags in the roof cavity, and spreading the ceiling insulation batts out appropriately, ensuring that the whole ceiling is completed and that enough space is left around downlights and smoke alarms. This is all done on hands and knees in semi-darkness, whilst choosing between the lesser of the two evils, namely, wearing the incredibly irritating face mask or choosing to breathe in the insulation dust particles instead.

Increasing your total ceiling insulation cost by getting it installed professionally, might well be worth it.