Denim insulation

[bluedog225]

It looks like Henry has brought back denim insulation. It was gone for a while. The stuff is a great to work with. I’m still pretty fond of mineral wool but the price is pretty rough.

 

[Jlbc212]

Years ago I read a story of an all steel building insulated with denim insulation. The building was destroyed by a smoldering fire involving the denim insulation. I found the story believable as I served for 37 years as a full-time firefighter in an old mill city in MA. Most of the housing consisted of three or four story, balloon style wood frame tenement buildings constructed in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Beginning in the 1970s with the rising cost of energy many of these buildings were insulated with blown-in cellulose. A combination of old screw in fuse circuit panels, poorly grounded metal sheathed wiring and the cellulose resulted in numerous fires (I swear I responded to at least a half-dozen every year). The fires started when the outer metal jacket of the wiring became a conductor of electricity, a poor one at that, overheated and ignited the supposedly “fire retardant” cellulose. I often wondered who checks to see if the manufacturer is properly treating the cellulose. I could tell another story about that. Denim, like cellulose is an organic material. Denim comes from cotton and cellulose from trees. Like most organic materials it can burn and also decompose. Both will hold moisture and moisture comes the growth of bacteria and mold. There are much better, competitively priced, non-organic products available as insulating materials. Hell would have to freeze over before I’d ever use cellulose or denim as insulation in any of my buildings.

 

[billconner]

Sorry you're so down on cellulose. The fiberglass and mineral wool industry has worked hard to discredit cellulose but i don't think they have been successful. One article.

Cellulose Insulation: An In-Depth Look at the Pros and Cons

Should we be recommending cellulose insulation to our clients? If so, on what basis? If not, why—what are its drawbacks?

www.buildinggreen.com

 

[bluedog225]

I put a propane torch for 60 seconds to a lot of my building materials. I’ve opted not to use the mylar reflective stuff. It burns like Styrofoam.

Similarly, the Styrofoam roof baffles burn like crazy.

I tore off a chunk of the insulation and gave it the torch test. It doesn’t burn doesn’t seem to smoulder(sp?) . Maybe they’ve added more borates to it. I’ll test the new stuff today.

Additionally, I’m putting it inside walls with the electricity and plumbing being surface, mounted on the walls. So there will be no ignition source.

 

[bluedog225]

Sorry you're so down on cellulose. The fiberglass and mineral wool industry has worked hard to discredit cellulose but i don't think they have been successful. One article.

Cellulose Insulation: An In-Depth Look at the Pros and Cons

Should we be recommending cellulose insulation to our clients? If so, on what basis? If not, why—what are its drawbacks?

www.buildinggreen.com

Seems to me, nobody makes money off blown cellulose. No money means no ads. And no fluffy bot written articles. It just quietly and cheaply gets the job done.

 

[billconner]

I agree. High profit materials get pushed. So many "articles" on fiberglass vs. cellulose by the fiberglass industry. I recall fiberglass pushing the fire aspect. Cellulose got Oak Ridge National Labs to compare and test. In a rated wall assembly, cellulose proved to be much better. Air blows through fiberglass, feeding the fire.

 

[Beerhippie]

As we used to say in National Ski Patrol: "All the best dressed corpses are wearing denim."