I spent last night pulling fiberglass insulation from under my house, and this afternoon bagging it; I’d have bagged it last night but I damn near passed out from heat and being out of breath. In all, I bagged 10x 40 gallon bags.
Tomorrow I go and clean up mold. And some time after Monday (when the plumber fixes my leaky water heater), I will add vapor barrier and new insulation. 😅
That shit is/was no joke. I had a head-to-toe tyvek suit, nitrile gloves, safety glasses, and an n95 mask. I’m in love with the tyvek suit for future dirty jobs, but in all it was super hot and difficult to breathe. I couldn’t have done the job without them though.
Anyway, my point is that for those of you who do this day in and day out, you all rock! I have always appreciated those who do the dirty jobs, but now I revere you too.
Thank you for all that you do!
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For next time, the masks with the exhale valve are 100% worth it. Foam-lined safety goggles are well fitting and sleek now; they work really well for things like overhead insulation removal.
I wear cut gloves all day every day and have for years. It’s becoming standard on all safety conscious job sites now. Even a pair of MaxFlex is better than nothing. Then, I can still get nitrile gloves over those for wet work.
Have fun storming the castle!
Those n95’s from 3m suck shit. The nose part has a gasket, which is great, but the chin part keeps riding up and I have to keep adjusting it. 0/10 will never buy again. Thanks for the tips!
Yeah, everyone is different. I don’t like the Milwaukee brand masks but other guys swear by them. Maybe try those.
How weird, those 3-piece 3M N95s (Aura) are my absolute favorite ever!
How do you keep the chin pry from riding up?
Maybe it’s just my face shape, but I basically extend the top and bottom panels almost completely. The edge of the bottom panel is pretty well under my chin. Comparing with your photo, I think my middle panel would be a little lower relative to my face. Maybe you can find a video somewhere on how to best fit that particular mask?
Edit: the other thing I do after extending the panels is to put the mask on my face pretty much where/how I’m going to wear it, then pull the rubber bands over my head, then do some final fine adjustments to make sure that there are no gaps.
I knew a guy who swore by swimming goggles for eye dust protection.
Yeah, that’d work. Modern PPE is getting so good that you can tailor the level of protection to the task and maintain as much dexterity as possible.
Sparky here. Usually work in commercial and industrial environments, but every now and then I do sidework, and once or twice I needed to suit up in a full tyvek suit because insulation was all over the crawlspace. Shits not my favorite, but it kept it off me haha.
Yeah, it’s def better than dirtying up your clothes, especially when you can’t wash any clothes due to no water. 😥 😂
Working with your hands is hard, but at the end of the day you can step back and see what you accomplished. Not sure excel ever gives that sensation.
I’m a programmer, and I’ve always looked at programming as the mental version of physical labor. I get it’s not quite the same, but the level of creativity and ingenuity is the same.
That’s a picture of me. Quit IT to do labor at Lowe’s. It’s fucking brutal in the outside garden area. Got an interview next week for a network admin role, can’t turn down the money. Wish I could.
Not sure excel ever gives that sensation.
I do both manual labor, and what most non-IT people would call “IT” at my job. I’d guess it’s about a 30/70 split for me during an average year.
Working in Excel can 100% result in that sensation of immense satisfaction if you’re working with the right type of data, and you’re able to build something complicated and beautiful. Most people are just putting numbers in order or doing basic accounting. But, if you learn enough, working in Excel (or google sheets) can become, more or less, programming.
It is definitely my favorite thing to do at work if I can block out enough time to do what I want.
Insulation fucking sucks. If your do a lot of work with it though then it’s worth it to just fork over the dough for a proper full face respirator. That makes things so much more comfortable. Even with full gear though you’ll still wind up itching somewhere.
As far as the trades go though, honestly switching to a blue collar job is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. I went from IT to being a refrigeration mechanic and I love it. I might not be saving lives all that often but it is nice to be able to know that I am helping real people. Like a call I had recently getting a fridge fixed in time for a small town bar to still have cold beer for St. Pattys day. I spent hours laying on a filthy bar floor with an acetylene torch swapping out a compressor old enough to have seen the collapse of the soviet union. But when I got that thing going again the cheer from the farmers sitting at the bar made my day. Sure I didn’t change any lives, but I left knowing I made people happy.
Of course the bigger emergency jobs can be very high stress. If I get an emergency 1AM callout with a down grocery store rack system and a million dollars of produce spoiling, then I’m definitely sweating a bit. But even then, it’s a good stress. It’s a stress that pushes me into action and my brain into gear. There’s no dread in it. There’s only the knowledge that people are relying on me to solve the problem and there is no one else comming to the rescue. It’s a chance to prove that you can fix anything no matter how creative you need to get with that fix.
The job is often backbreaking. The job is often filthy. The job is often even dangerous. Most days I come home covered in various substances with new scratches, bruises, and/or burns in various locations only to sit down and just ache for a while. But most days I also go to bed happy and content.
Same. When we had our attic insulation replaced, I was incredibly impressed at the crew crawling around up in that heat and knocking it out in 1 day.
Kudos for doing it yourself and for wearing the proper PPE. Fiberglass is nasty. Good luck with the rest of the project, nothing more satisfying then a well maintained house!
I think you mean “thank you for your service”
I thought about saying that, but it didn’t feel right considering that phrase is usually meant for our servicemen and women of the armed forces.
Hit me up with a six pack next time
