Guide · Insulation removal · Brisbane insulation contractor since 1986
What removing insulation actually looks like — cellulose against fibreglass, filmed on real jobs.
Most people picture insulation removal as one job. It isn’t. Vacuuming out a 20-year-old Cellulose Fibre Insulation job is clean, quick and easy. Pulling fibreglass batts out means a full suit, a proper respirator, and dealing with whatever’s been living in them. Both filmed on real roofs, below.
I’m Peter Johnson. I’ve been pulling insulation out of Brisbane roofs since 1986, across more than 6,000 Queensland homes, and this page is the removal job itself, not the theory of it — what actually comes out, what it smells like, what needs to be worn to handle it, and where it ends up once it’s down off the ladder.
A skip bin full of old pink and yellow fibreglass batts pulled out of a Strathpine roof. Every batt in that bin is rubbish now — there’s nothing to do with it but dump it.
Same word, two different jobs.
Cellulose vacuums out clean. Fibreglass comes out in a full suit.
Why I built this page
People imagine cellulose as the loose, dusty product and batts as the tidy one. On removal day it's the exact opposite.
I say this to customers on the phone more than almost anything else: the perception of cellulose is the opposite of the reality. People think a batt in a plastic pack sounds tidy and a blown-in fibre sounds messy. Then removal day comes, and the batt that looked tidy going in comes out full of rat droppings, dead rodents and years of dust, and the crew has to suit up in full PPE and a respirator to handle it. The cellulose job I vacuum out the same week comes out clean, with no rats and barely any dust, and my installers don’t need a full suit to do it.
This page is the two jobs side by side, filmed on real roofs, not described in a brochure. If you want the health and particle-size argument behind why fibreglass sheds so much more airborne fibre than cellulose, I’ve laid that out separately on are fibreglass batts safe and how much fibreglass dust ends up in your house. This page is what removal day itself actually looks like.
- Cellulose vacuums out clean, in a fraction of the time it takes to bag up a roof of fibreglass batts.
- Fibreglass removal means a full suit and a proper respirator because of what's usually nesting in it.
- Cellulose we pull out goes back to our own factory. Fibreglass batts go to landfill.
- Do you have fibreglass batts in your roof now? We can quote to remove them or fix your insulation.
Vacuuming out a 20-year-old cellulose job
A 20-year-old cellulose job vacuums out clean — no rats, no rodents, no piss or shit, and no fibres in the air.
Read the transcript
Vacuuming cellulose fibre out — the customer's perception of cellulose is the opposite of the reality. This is a 20-year cellulose job: no rats, no rodents, no piss or shit, very clean, no fibres in the air. Installers don't even need full suits. Easy clean vacuum-out, compared with suiting up, masking up and dealing with rat piss, shit and dead rodents pulling fibreglass out.
What comes out of a cellulose roof
A 20-year cellulose job vacuums out clean, with none of what you’d expect.
This is a real 20-year-old cellulose job, vacuumed straight out. No rats, no rodents, no piss or shit, very clean, and no fibres floating in the air while it comes out. My installers don’t need full suits to do this job — it’s an easy, clean vacuum-out compared with suiting up, masking up and dealing with rat piss, shit and dead rodents pulling fibreglass out.
Rodents aren’t interested in cellulose the way they are in a soft, loose batt to burrow into, so it doesn’t build up the same nesting problem a batt does over the years. When it does come out, it comes back to our own factory in Tiaro rather than going to landfill — more on that further down this page.
- No rats, no rodents, no piss or shit.
- Very clean, no fibres in the air while it's vacuumed out.
- Installers don't need full suits for this job.
- Comes back to our own factory instead of going to landfill.
What comes out of a fibreglass roof
Full suit, full PPE, a proper respirator — and everything goes to landfill.
Removing settled old fibreglass batts means a full suit, full PPE and a proper silicone respirator, the Sundström SR100. Every bit of what comes out goes to landfill as rubbish — there’s nothing you can do with it — and it’s usually full of rodent piss and shit.
Rolling up, bagging and dumping settled batts shows exactly how dusty and dirty they get on top, and how degraded they are after years in a roof. Glass fibres floating in the air are why we wear asbestos-rated masks for this job. Face, eyes and ears are still exposed, and it’s itchy on the neck, wrists and hands, worse with older fibreglass. Newer fibreglass has a smaller particle size — finer and more inhalable than the old stuff, but ironically less itchy to touch, which can trick people into thinking it’s the safer product to be around while it’s coming out.
Whether it’s fibreglass batts or loose-pumped fibreglass like Knauf Jetmax, once it’s in the roof and settled, the removal job is the same full-suit job — see are fibreglass batts safe for the particle-size numbers behind why.
- Full suit, full PPE and a proper silicone respirator (Sundström SR100).
- Everything that comes out goes to landfill — nothing to do with it.
- Usually full of rodent piss and shit built up over years.
- Dusty, degraded fibre, worse the older the batts are.
Removing old fibreglass batts in full PPE and a Sundström SR100 respirator
Removing settled old fibreglass batts means full suit, full PPE and a proper silicone respirator — every bit of it goes to landfill full of rodent mess.
Read the transcript
Removing settled old fibreglass batts — full suit, full PPE, a proper silicone respirator, the Sundström SR100. Every bit of it goes to landfill as rubbish, there's nothing you can do with it, and it's full of rodent piss and shit.
Rolling up and bagging degraded fibreglass batts
Rolling up, bagging and dumping settled fibreglass batts shows how dusty, dirty and degraded they get after years in a roof.
Read the transcript
Rolling up, bagging and dumping settled batts — you can see how dusty and dirty they get on top, and how degraded after years. Glass fibres floating in the air are why we wear asbestos-rated masks. Face, eyes and ears are still exposed, and it's itchy on the neck, wrists and hands, worse with older fibreglass. Newer fibreglass has a smaller particle size — finer and more inhalable than the old stuff, but ironically less itchy to touch.
The single biggest reason removal happens at all
Rodents burrow and nest right into fibreglass batts, and the damage builds up for as long as they've had the run of the roof.
Old fibreglass batts show how much damage rodents cause over time — they burrow and nest right in them. All you can really do is pull the batts out and dump them, but the rodent smell stays in the roof after they’re gone. When we pump Cellulose Fibre Insulation in afterwards, it disinfects the smell and makes a much better environment up there. Rodents gnaw power and water pipes too, which is damage that has nothing to do with the insulation at all and everything to do with what the batts let them get away with.
Rodent urine staining soaked straight through a ceiling sheet, found when old batts were lifted during a removal job — Ashgrove.
Rodent damage in old fibreglass batts after years in a roof
Old fibreglass batts show how much damage rodents cause over time, burrowing and nesting right into them.
Read the transcript
Old fibreglass batts and how much damage rodents cause over time — they burrow and nest right in them. All you can do is pull them out and dump them, but the rodent smell stays in the roof. When we pump cellulose fibre in, it disinfects the smell and makes a much better environment. Rodents gnaw power and water pipes too.
It isn't just fibreglass
Polyester batts aren’t much better on the rodent front — they give rodents the same soft, warm place to live, burrow, nest and breed, and the damage can take anywhere from a handful of years up to twenty depending on how close the roof is to water, chooks or bushland. Cellulose Fibre Insulation isn’t nesting material a rodent wants, which is a big part of why it doesn’t build up the same problem. I’ve gone through what rodents do to both products, pipe by pipe, on rodent damage in roof insulation.
The part nobody thinks about until removal day
Cellulose goes back to our factory. Fibreglass batts go to landfill — and plenty of tips won't even take them loose.
Cellulose Fibre Insulation we vacuum out of a roof goes straight back to our own factory in Tiaro, where it’s remanufactured into new bags rather than sent anywhere as waste. Fibreglass batts have nowhere to go but landfill. There’s no factory taking old batts back in to remake into anything — once they’re bagged, that’s the end of the line.
Getting fibreglass to the tip isn’t always as simple as tossing it in a skip either. In Brisbane, Jumbo Skip Bins lists fibreglass insulation as regulated waste and disallows it from a standard skip bin outright. Jumbo Skip Bins — Complete List of Items Disallowed in Skip Bins ↗ Down in Victoria, Latrobe City Council requires fibreglass insulation waste to be double-bagged in clear plastic before they’ll even collect it. Latrobe City Council — Asbestos and Fibreglass Insulation Disposal ↗ In 40 years dealing with tips and skip-bin operators myself, the reason comes down to the fibre itself — glass fibre is so light it blows straight back out of an open skip or a ute tray in any bit of wind, which is why so many operators want it double-bagged and secured before they’ll take it at all. I’ve laid out the full plastic-bag and landfill side of a batt job on fibreglass batt waste.
- Cellulose we pull out is remanufactured into new bags at our own factory in Tiaro.
- Fibreglass batts have no factory taking them back — landfill is the only destination.
- Jumbo Skip Bins (Brisbane) lists fibreglass as regulated waste, disallowed in a standard skip.
- Latrobe City Council requires it double-bagged in clear plastic before collection.
The two jobs, side by side
Cellulose Fibre Insulation removal against fibreglass batt removal, on the things that actually matter on the day.
Both filmed on real jobs above. This is the same comparison laid out flat.
| On removal day | Cellulose Fibre Insulation | Fibreglass batts |
|---|---|---|
| PPE needed to remove it | None — no full suit needed | Full suit, gloves and a proper respirator (Sundström SR100) |
| What's usually living in it | Nothing — no rats, no rodents | Rodent nests, droppings and dead rodents, built up over years |
| Smell | Clean — pumping fresh cellulose in disinfects the smell | Rat piss and shit, often strong enough to smell from the manhole |
| Dust and fibres in the air | Vacuums straight out, no fibres floating around | Dusty, degraded fibre floating in the air, worse the older it is |
| Where it goes when it's out | Back to our factory in Tiaro, remanufactured into new bags | Landfill — most tips won't take it loose at all |
| How it's carted off | Vacuumed straight into the truck | Rolled up, stuffed into bags, and carted off to the tip |
Do you have fibreglass batts in your roof right now?
We can quote to remove them or fix your insulation — either a full removal and a pump of Cellulose Fibre Insulation, or a top-over that fills the gaps without a full-suit removal job at all.
Common questions
Insulation removal, answered straight
What does insulation removal actually involve?+
It depends entirely on what's coming out. Pulling Cellulose Fibre Insulation is a clean vacuum-out — I've done 20-year-old cellulose jobs with no rats, no rodents, no piss or shit, very little dust, and my installers don't even need full suits to do it. Pulling old fibreglass batts is the opposite job. It means a full suit, gloves, and a proper silicone respirator like the Sundström SR100 because the batts are usually full of rodent nests, droppings and dead rodents, and rolling them up kicks dusty, degraded fibre into the air. Same word, removal, two completely different jobs depending on what's up there.
Can you dump fibreglass batts in a normal skip bin?+
Often not. In Brisbane, Jumbo Skip Bins lists fibreglass insulation as a regulated-waste item you can't put straight into a standard skip bin. Down in Victoria, Latrobe City Council requires fibreglass insulation waste to be double-bagged in clear plastic before they'll even collect it. In my own experience dealing with tips and skip-bin operators over 40 years, the reason comes down to the fibre itself — it's so light it blows straight back out of an open bin or a ute tray in any bit of wind, so a lot of operators simply won't take it loose. You end up bagging and securing it either way, which is more handling and more cost than most people expect before they start.
What happens to fibreglass batts once they're pulled out of a roof?+
They go to landfill. There's no factory pulling old fibreglass batts back in to remake them into anything. Once they're rolled up and bagged, that's the end of the line for them. Compare that with our Cellulose Fibre Insulation, which we manufacture ourselves at our factory in Tiaro — old cellulose we vacuum out of a roof goes straight back to that same factory and gets remanufactured into new bags, rather than ending up as rubbish in the ground.
Do you need full PPE to remove cellulose insulation?+
No, not the way we do it. Vacuuming cellulose out is a clean job — no rats, no rodents, no piss or shit, very clean, no fibres floating in the air, so my installers don't need to suit up in full PPE the way we do for a fibreglass batt removal. It's still a roof job, so we still wear the basics, but it's nothing like suiting up, masking up and dealing with rat piss, shit and dead rodents to pull fibreglass out.
Why do rodents cause so much damage in fibreglass batts?+
Batts give rodents somewhere soft to live, burrow, nest and breed, and the damage builds up over however long they've had free run of the roof. All you can really do with an old batt that's been nested in is pull it out and dump it — the rodent smell stays in a roof long after the rats are gone. When we pump Cellulose Fibre Insulation in afterwards, it disinfects that smell and leaves a much better environment up there, on top of rodents not being interested in cellulose as nesting material the way they are in loose, soft batts.
Is insulation removal in Brisbane worth doing, or should I just top it over?+
It depends what's up there, and I'll price both ways rather than push one. If the old batts are sunken, gappy, or full of rodent nests, removal and a pump of Cellulose Fibre Insulation is the job I'd do — after more than 6,000 roofs I can tell you removal is the part nobody enjoys because the product's itchy and it usually stinks of rat urine. If the batts are still in reasonable shape, a top-over with cellulose fills every gap and puts a seamless blanket over the old fibre so it stops getting stirred up every time a trade goes up there. Send me your address and I'll price both.
One job vacuums out clean. The other needs a full suit. We’ll price both, straight.
Tell me what’s up in your roof and I’ll quote removal, a top-over, or a fresh Cellulose Fibre Insulation install — whichever one actually fixes it.
Keep reading
Are fibreglass batts safe? — the particle-size and respirable-dust numbers behind why removal needs full PPE.
How much fibreglass dust ends up in your house — the kilogram-by-kilogram breakdown.
Fibreglass batts, explained — who makes them and how they end up in nearly every Queensland roof.
Cellulose vs fibreglass — the full head-to-head.
Rodent damage in roof insulation — what rats and possums actually do to batts, and how to fix it.
Fibreglass batt waste — the plastic and landfill side of a batt job.