Insulation reduces sound transmission while conserving energy, helping lower air conditioning and heating bills. Standard insulation materials range from bulky fibers to rigid foam boards and reflective foils.
Insulation pellets offer a green alternative to the more commonly used fiberglass blanket and batt insulation options, consisting of recycled paper and other materials made up of recyclable waste. Blown into attics or installed dry behind netting in new construction projects.
Cellulose
Cellulose insulation is made from recycled paper and denim and offers multiple environmental advantages over fiberglass insulation. With an R-value higher than fiberglass and better air sealing features than its competitor, cellulose provides better seal against air leakage while repelling insects, deterring mold growth and fire resistant properties treated with boric acid for increased fire safety.
Blankets (batts) or loose-fill insulation panels can be found both for new construction and retrofitting old homes, and both options have an 85% post-consumer recycled content when dry blown out into blanket form or stapled over any opening in existing walls. When installed properly, when dry they present as soft gray appearance with no or very little shine when blown dry – great for retrofitting older properties as well. When wet sprayed into existing walls they provide damp spray or can dry blown into netting stapled over openings in new walls for added soundproofing properties compared with standard products that don’t contain post consumer recycled content!
Spraying damp cellulose fiber adheres securely to wall cavities by being saturated with water, enabling installers to maintain control over how much moisture enters a wall; striking an appropriate balance between enough moisture for long-term bonding and too much that causes mold or condensation issues.
Perlite
Perlite insulation material blocks unwanted airflow in walls and roofs to lower heating costs and provide noiseproofing, acoustic isolation, as well as providing noise reduction to keep rooms quieter. Perlite masonry loose-fill insulation offers higher R-value than its foamed-in-place alternatives like expanded polystyrene beads or vermiculite bead insulation options.
Insulation properties make polyurethane foam ideal for low temperature applications such as storage tanks (below -100 degC or -150 degF) and testing chambers used by cryogenic applications (-100 degC or -150 degF), testing chambers, or used as ladle topping or riser in foundries to prevent melting and solidification during pouring delays, as well as topping off ingots and castings.
Gardeners recognize perlite’s ability to retain moisture and improve soil aeration. Gardeners use it in potting soil mixtures for succulents or orchids that need constant moisture, such as succulents or orchids, but it’s also used as an effective acoustical insulator and fire retardant, making it suitable for speciality stoves such as rocket and wood-fire pizza ovens, saving energy costs while prolonging vinyl liner lifespan. Perlite also has various other uses including using it as part of concrete pool bases as it helps retain heat while saving energy costs and prolonging vinyl liner life!
Polystyrene
Polystyrene is an adaptable plastic that can be formed into complex shapes, offering outstanding heat insulation properties and boasting low production costs and ease of molding the melted polymer through injection molding operations. Furthermore, this versatile plastic boasts excellent optical and physical properties that have earned its place as one of the most widely-used modern plastics.
Polystyrene’s hard, tiny beads are heated to release pentane gas before being placed into expanding machinery that expands them up to 60 times their original size. Once expanded, polystyrene can be used in many different ways from packaging materials to building materials.
EPS (expanded polystyrene) and XPS (extruded polystyrene foam) insulation materials can both be manufactured without using hydrochlorofluorocarbons or chlorofluorocarbons for production, making them both eco-friendly alternatives to fiberglass or cellulose insulation materials. While XPS tends to be more durable than its EPS counterpart, both can be recycled easily in most locations for packaging uses; ground up pieces may even be ground into loose fill insulation instead of replacing cellulose or fiberglass in places.
Vermiculite
Vermiculite, in its natural state, is a shining silver-gold or gray-brown mineral similar to mica. When heated however, vermiculite expands eight or 30 times its original size into an ultralight, fire-resistant, chemical-resistant, odorless material – ideal for lightweight flooring materials!
Vermiculite insulation was widely used from the 1950s through 1970s when energy efficiency programs encouraged home insulation. If your home contains vermiculite, do not disturb it as doing so could release asbestos fibers into the air and be harmful.
If you are uncertain if your vermiculite insulation is safe, hire a professional asbestos abatement contractor to test it for asbestos. A sample will be taken and sent for laboratory analysis if any asbestos contamination exists in the insulation; once removed from your home they will also conduct an air quality test to make sure all contaminated materials have been eradicated from it.