Blown-In Insulation vs Batt Insulation

When considering the addition of insulation to your home, you will eventually find yourself choosing between batt insulation and blown-in insulation. Before insulating the walls of your home you should compare the advantages of each that apply to you and your home. Below, you will find advantages of each method.

Open Wall vs. Closed Wall Installation

If you are in the process of building your home, or if you are constructing an addition to an existing home, you will likely have two insulation choices: 1) install your insulation while the walls are open, or 2) install after they're closed. If you plan to leave your walls open, as you might in an unfinished basement, your choices will be limited to the open wall option in which your choice will be limited to batt insulation.

Blown-In Insullation

This type of insulation, shredded paper treated with cellulose, is typically less expensive and less time consuming than batt insulation, but can only be installed in a closed wall.

Batt Insulation

You can install insulation batts only in open walls. This means, if your walls are closed, and if you want batt insulation, you would need to  remove existing drywall, install the batts, then replace the drywall. This, as you can see, would be impractical, leaving you with only one choice that makes sense: install blown-in insulation.