GATEWAY WEST & METRO EAST IL Blog

Dense Pack Cellulose CM1500HP with Koala Insulation Gateway West

Koala Insulation, Gateway West (St Louis) is not simply a “blow-and-go” insulation company. They provide a complete package on insulation, new and retrofit. They have a CM1500HP and wanted training to do dense pack.

We met them on-site in West St. Louis, Missouri. The homeowner wanted his garage walls insulated. These drywall-covered walls, we found out, were not glued and screwed. The job ended up being a little bit of a challenge. Within the first two cavity-fills, we found out that nails were popping. So, we did three things to adjust:

1. Dialed the machine back from 3.5 psi to 2.5 psi. That is still within cellulose manufacture’s specs.
2. Screwed the drywall in place with drywall screws.
3. Backed the hose out of the wall before the material stopped moving through the hose.

Dense pack techniques have improved the past two decades. We taught them to drill holes at the bottom of the cavity. Then we inserted the hose until it reached the top plate. We do this to insure that the tops of the cavity are filled and packed. This also provides the benefit of keeping the drilled out holes low and out of sight.

This homeowner moved everything out from the walls. This is very helpful and as a contractor, it is good practice to include that as a requirement for the job. You do not want to be responsible for the homeowner’s possessions.

Usually, an insulation company has a drywaller follow up and fix the drywall in these situations. Koala has a skilled drywaller on their crew and added drywall repair to the job. We saved the drywall pucks, then created a backer to rescrew them back into place.

Thank you, Koala for having us on your job site! We look forward to watching your progress! You can follow Koala, Gateway West on Instagram and Facebook.