john varga

Insulation Removal and Roof Vacuuming

The cleaning of roof spaces entails little in the way of disruption for the occupants of the building. We enter the ceiling through the roof by temporarily removing some tiles or iron sheets, and thereafter conduct all of our work through this opening in the roof. We seldom need access to the floor areas.

Electrical Safety – Where the electrical wiring in the ceiling is borderline in terms of safety, we may need to ask for the power to be turned off at the meter box for the duration of our work. In all such cases, we will supply a lead from our generator for the more vital appliances of the building.

Old insulation batts are manually bagged up in the ceiling and the bags are removed through the roof. Once the batts and bulky debris are safely out, we roll out the vacuum hose and vacuum the ceiling to a spick-and-span finish.

Loose-fill insulation is vacuumed into sealed bags, and we do this with the aid of either a truck mounted vacuum powered by a diesel engine or a modular vacuum powered by an industrial generator. We use both sets of equipment with equal frequency and the choice of the one or the other is determined by the nature of access to the building.

Noise Level – All of our machinery are silenced to operate below 72 decibels.

The time needed to clean and vacuum the roof space of a three bedroom house is two to three days. In most instances, we will also need both driveway access and on-street parking for the day(s).

Our Prices for insulation removal and roof vacuuming range from $15.00 to $40.00/mof ceiling area, and the quote price is a function of the absence or presence of complicating factors. Most single-storey residential ceilings fall into the $15.00 to $30.00/m2 category, and a good figure to use when budgeting for this service is $18.00/m2 of ceiling area.

The level of hygiene we can impart to a roof space is that of a neat and tidy verandah. When we are done with the cleaning, the roof space will be singularly tidy and uncluttered – it will be free of its old insulation, it will be free of its accumulated debris and loose dust, and it will be as close to new in hygiene as its age and condition will allow. It will also be eminently ready for any type of new insulation.

Manhole Access – In the rare instances where the ceiling space can only be accessed through the manhole, we seal off the rest of the building from the areas of our work, put down drop sheets where we need to be trafficking, and clean these areas afterwards just as thoroughly as we had cleaned the ceiling.

The cleaning of roof spaces is not a fiendishly difficult or complex task, and you should walk away from any contractor that tries to convince you otherwise. Neither is it an unduly expensive service to provide, and you should similarly walk away from prices higher than those listed on this page – especially if the quote is delivered with the roof unseen. There is a wide variation in the absence or presence of complicating factors, disposal costs, equipment needed and issues of access from roof to roof. Therefore anyone quoting for this service with the roof unseen is likely to end up either cheating you or cheating themselves.

Treat the service of insulation removal and roof vacuuming as you would treat any other home improvement project: insist on an inspection, meet the contractor in person, trust your judgement on whether the individual is a good match for the level of service you expect, and use our prices as a guide in evaluating the credibility of a quote.