Found a simple trick for fishing wire through attic insulation

I was working on a job last week in an older house up in Portland where the attic had about 18 inches of blown-in cellulose. Tried using glow rods and even a fish tape, but kept losing my path in the fluff. I remembered hearing about using a shop vac with a long piece of PVC to suck a pull string through, so I gave it a shot with some spare 2 inch pipe I had. Worked like a charm on the first try, saved me at least an hour of crawling around up there. Has anyone else tried this method or found a better way to get through thick loose insulation?

3 comments

3 Comments

karenb976h ago

Huh, there's a mental image for ya. Shop vac in the attic, sucking your pull string through a foot and a half of insulation. I bet that vac started sounding like a stuffed up cat real quick. Way better than trying to dig through that fluff blind though, that stuff gets everywhere. Only thing missing is the cloud of dust that'll make you look like a ghost for the rest of the day.

jamief675h ago

The shop vac trick works great unless you hit a mouse nest up there.

shanef344h ago

Actually, that pull string trick works way better if you tape a plastic grocery bag over the end of the vac hose first @jamief67. Creates a seal and keeps the insulation out of the filter. Otherwise you're right, it does sound like a cat with a cold after about thirty seconds.