STUFF THE PREVIOUS OWNER SCREWED UP

A fix for improvised “insulation.”

Our 1850 house is “insulated” with packing peanuts…a previous owner had bags and bags of them and dumped them down into the walls through the attic. They are inside the majority of the plaster walls, and every time we cut a new opening, they come spilling out. They’re almost impossible to gather or sweep, and they clog the shop vac almost immediately. –Jessica Lemmon, via MyOldHouseOnline.com Your house’s former owners probably thought they were creatively recycling and saving money on insulation—but what they were actually doing is creating a great big fire hazard. Unlike real insulation, which is treated with a flame retardant so it doesn’t turn your house into a tinderbox should a fire break out, polystyrene packing peanuts are highly flammable—not to mention, they release toxic gases when they burn.

To efficiently remove them from the wall, restoration contractor Randall Marder of Denver-based R.M. Design & Construction recommends separating the top part of your shop vac from the bin and securely wrapping a large, sturdy trash bag around it. The peanuts will be collected in the trash bag; once it’s full, you can tie it off and start a new bag. (If your shop vac has a lower-body exhaust port, he advises duct-taping some window screen inside the port’s hole to keep the peanuts from escaping.) To combat the peanuts that are getting stuck in the hose of your shop vac, consider upgrading to a larger hose— they’re available in diameters up to 2½".

To gain access to the peanuts, Marder advises making a hole large enough to get the shop vac hose inside at the top and bottom of the wall about every 16" to ensure that you’re going into every cavity between studs. If your walls are plaster and you want to preserve them, you’ll need to do this carefully. “It’s important not to rattle the lath,” Marder says, as doing so could cause the keys to break and the plaster to fail. He advises scoring and gently removing the plaster with a utility knife, then using the knife to score the lath before gently cutting it out with a small, finebladed handsaw. Once all the peanuts have been removed, you can fill in the holes with patching plaster.

As for re-insulating the walls, there’s no easy answer. Blown-in insulation can accumulate moisture and settle in the wall cavity, so unless you plan to take the walls down to the studs to insulate, you’re better off targeting insulation efforts in the attic and basement.