Insulation Questions

[nadogail]

In my youth, sometime in the middle 50's, I recall attending an Information Fair presented by the University of Alaska Farm & Home Extension Office.

I recall them suggesting we use sawdust as insulation in wall cavities. I also remember seeing ground newspaper, treated with boric acid, presented as blown in cellulose insulation. I think they used a Hammer Mill to prepare the newspaper. Light fixtures were covered with #10 ( gallon ) cans to keep the insulation from contacting them.

Have these methods and materials been discredited?

 

[ddawg16]

And now you know why we have building standards and codes.

And brake shoes used to be made with asbestos....and we used to play with mercury in the classroom

 

[brewchief]

In my youth, sometime in the middle 50's, I recall attending an Information Fair presented by the University of Alaska Farm & Home Extension Office.

I recall them suggesting we use sawdust as insulation in wall cavities. I also remember seeing ground newspaper, treated with boric acid, presented as blown in cellulose insulation. I think they used a Hammer Mill to prepare the newspaper. Light fixtures were covered with #10 ( gallon ) cans to keep the insulation from contacting them.

Have these methods and materials been discredited?

There is a plant less then 2 miles from me that makes insulation from ground up newspaper and uses boric acid among other things to treat it.

Light fixtures come rated for insulation contact or not rated depending on how they are made.

 

[finn]

My BIL's house, built by French Canadians in the 1880s, has ashes filling the wall cavities, along with old newspapers.

I wouldn't recommend it .

Fiberglass bat insulation is dirt cheap.

 

[ForceFed70]

The methods and products they used back then worked rather well. So you couldn't call them discredited or anything like that. But we do have better alternatives nowadays.

 

[BruceMc]

In my youth, sometime in the middle 50's, I recall attending an Information Fair presented by the University of Alaska Farm & Home Extension Office.

I recall them suggesting we use sawdust as insulation in wall cavities. I also remember seeing ground newspaper, treated with boric acid, presented as blown in cellulose insulation. I think they used a Hammer Mill to prepare the newspaper. Light fixtures were covered with #10 ( gallon ) cans to keep the insulation from contacting them.

Have these methods and materials been discredited?

Can't speak to the cans, but see page 8 regarding cellulose -

https://www.uaf.edu/files/ces/newsletters/ABSN/61_2011-Winter.pdf

 

[nadogail]

Thanks to everyone who responded, I feel better about the cellulose insulation; as well as check on my memory.

 

[DC73]

. . . I feel better about the cellulose insulation; as well as check on my memory.

Cellulose is a very good insulation and is preferred by those in the green building industry. It blocks the movement of air much better than fiberglass and although messier to install doesn't come with an itch factor. My insulation of choice is mineral wool but it's more costly.

DC