Blown-In Cellulose
Fill your walls and ceilings, not our landfills
We use blown-in cellulose for most of our insulation jobs (except for crawl spaces, where moisture and the lack of hollow walls won’t allow it). Blown-in cellulose is less expensive, safer to you as well as the environment, and more effective and energy-efficient than its leading competitor – fiberglass.
Cellulose Insulation Fire Safe
Cellulose fills walls and ceilings and stops air infiltration better
The fibers of cellulose insulation are much finer than fiberglass. When cellulose is blown or dense-packed into your walls and ceilings, it takes on almost liquid-like properties that let it flow into cavities and around obstructions to completely fill walls and seal every crack and seam. No fiberglass or rock wool material duplicates this action. Liquid-applied foam plastics do, but they cost much more than cellulose.
In new construction, cellulose insulation can be installed in walls using a spray process or several different dense-pack dry techniques that are also effective at sealing homes against air infiltration.
Cellulose is a naturally recycled product
Cellulose insulation is made from recycled wood fiber, primarily newspaper. One hundred pounds of cellulose insulation contains 80 to 85 pounds of recycled newsprint. The remainder is made up of Borax and Boric acid, both non-toxic fire retardants.
Today more and more communities are addressing the challenge of waste disposal through “curbside recycling” and similar conservation programs. These efforts work only if there is demand for recycled products.
Big Burn, National Fiber Blown-In Cellulose vs Fiberglass Insulation
The federal government is attempting to create demand through such measures as the Environmental Protection Agency’s comprehensive procurement guideline for products containing recovered materials. Cellulose unquestionably meets all requirements for insulation specified by the guideline.
When you choose cellulose insulation you help solve the waste disposal problem and help fight air pollution. This may help your community hold down taxes or refuse disposal charges. It certainly contributes to a cleaner environment.
Paper that is not recycled ends up in landfills, where it may contribute to environmental pollution, or at incinerators where energy is wasted reducing it to ashes, soot, and smoke.
. . . and a responsible use of resources
Even if waste paper did not create a disposal problem, most people believe we have an obligation to make maximum use of the resources we consume.
Cellulose insulation does not “save trees,” but it makes maximum use of the trees we have already harvested.
Blown-in cellulose has higher savings, lower costs
“R-Value” (an expression of heat transfer resistance) is the standard for measuring insulation performance. At R 3.6 to 3.8 per inch, blown-in cellulose insulation is considerably better than fiberglass insulation which has an R-value of about 2.2 to 2.6. But R-value is only one factor in the energy efficiency of a home. Studies of actual buildings regularly show that cellulose-insulated buildings may use 20% to 40% less energy than buildings with fiberglass, even if the R-value of the insulation in the walls and ceilings is identical. One reason for this is the capacity of cellulose to stop air infiltration and heat-zapping convective air currents within your walls and ceilings, which are inherent with most fiberglass insulation.
Cellulose has low embodied energy
Embodied energy is the energy consumed in producing products. Mineral insulation comes from furnaces that gulp natural gas to melt sand, slag, or rock and fiberglass insulation comes from finely spun glass. Foam plastics are petrochemicals and are literally made out of energy!
Cellulose insulation, on the other hand, is made by processing recycled wood fibers -usually newspapers – through electrically-driven mills that consume relatively little energy when they are operating, and which can be shut down completely at the end of the day or even for lunch or coffee breaks.
Insulation Removal
Fiberglass, rock wool, and plastic insulation may have from 50 to over 200 times more embodied energy than cellulose. By choosing cellulose insulation, you are not only saving money at home but are also decreasing our overall energy demand.
Cellulose makes homes safer
Many residential structures contain large amounts of wood. Cellulose insulation is the only wood-based building material that is always treated with fire retardant. We only use cellulose that has been treated with non-toxic Borax and Boric acid and is U.L. listed. This makes cellulose insulation one of the safest materials used in home construction.
If a fire occurs, the dense structure of cellulose and its fire retardants slow its spread through the building by blocking flames and hot gases and restricting the availability of oxygen in insulated walls and ceilings. Scientists at the National Research Council in Canada report that “cellulose in the wall cavity provided an increase in the fire resistance performance of 22% to 55%.” Air and fire roar right through fiberglass. This is due to the most flammable tar used on the paper vapor barrier and the low density of fiberglass batts which doesn’t block air movement. The NRCC study showed that “the fire resistance of an assembly with glass fiber insulation was slightly lower than that of a non-insulated assembly.”
Several fire demonstrations have been conducted in which cellulose-insulated structures have remained virtually intact while uninsulated and mineral-fiber insulated structures burned to the ground.
If cellulose outperforms fiberglass, why is fiberglass still prevalent in new construction?
It is a matter of production vs. performance. Since fiberglass is lower density, it is easier to handle, warehouse and transport. The marketplace still dictates that builders emphasize production, not performance, for the end user (homeowner).
As a homeowner, you can choose performance, more comfort, better fire safety and lower energy bills by choosing Cellulose to “retrofit” and upgrade the insulation in your ceilings, walls and floors.
Cellulose has the highest standards of any insulation material
Today’s cellulose insulation is covered by American Society for Testing and Materials Standard Specifications C-739 for loose-fill insulation and C-1149 for spray-applied serf-supporting insulation. Developed and refined over many years through the consensus standard development process of ASTM, the cellulose insulation standards cover several material properties, including: Heat transfer resistance (R-value) Settled (or design) density Critical radiant flux (a measure of surface burning characteristics) Smoldering combustion (an assessment of tire resistance within the insulation layer) Corrosiveness Starch content Odor emission Moisture vapor absorption Fungi resistance Adhesive/cohesive strength (spray-on only)
This industry standard is more comprehensive than the Consumer Products Safety Commission regulation, which has strict requirements for flammability and corrosiveness, but does not address other important characteristics that are not safety-related.
