Hello, I'm looking to add some cellulose loose fill on top of some old fiberglass loose fill in an attic, and for several reasons am trying to avoid renting the machines to blow it in. I've tried one bale by hand, breaking it up with a rake to pieces no larger than about 1". It's very tedious, and I'm sure I can't get it broken up as fine as the machine, but is it good enough? I'm wondering if the finer grinding up the machines do will significantly improve the insulation. Most rental guys don't have a clue; one said he thought it'd be a wash in 6 months, after settling occurs. Extra points, anyone have a better way to break it up by hand than just mashing and stirring with a rake?

Hi guys, We recently had a new house built and while we do know a good share about building, we did skip a few steps in all the madness of trying to move in in time. #1 problem we layed the sub floor over the not fully cured slab. #2 problem we layed the sub floor without putting a vapor barier over the slab. We have a bathroom and 2 shops that are totally closed in, drywalled and all, so we cant tare those out. The rest of the basement is a big open space and we have the floor layed about 1/3 of the way. So in how much trouble are we here? Should we take out the 1/3 we have layed in the open basement so we can put vapor barier on there? Or can we get away with just putting vapor barier when we continue the rest of the subfloor? A builder who came over and noticed what we had done mentioned that to help prevent mold we could drill holes around the edge of the floor to allow air circulation. Would that help? Any comments are really appreciated here. Also we might be able to get some hardwood floor for real cheap, is it a bad idea to put it in the open basement?