Last Updated on: 18th March 2021, 09:56 pm
Last Updated on by Viliam
Different parts of the house – different insulation
On the building show, today we’re talking insulation, what insulation to use in the different parts of your house, whether it’s the exterior of the walls, the ceiling, joists, there’s a lot of options out there.
We’re also gonna take a deep dive into Rockwool. What are its benefits and why you might want to use it compared to some other insulation options out there?
Today’s video sponsored by Rockwool, let’s get going all right!
So, when I say the word, insulation, typically you’re, gonna assume, I’m talking about thermal resistance, right?
The ability to resist the flow of heat from the outside to the inside, but really there are so many other things that insulation can do and should do for you in your house and that’s why specifically I’ve used a lot of rock wool over the years and why I really like it.
The advantages of mineral wool insulation
Now let’s talk about before we get into where to use it and how to use it. Let’s talk about a few advantages that Rockwool has over some other things, There are really 8 things that I like about Rockwool:
No.1 – thermal resistance
All these products are going to resist the flow of heat from one place to another, but the next most important thing behind that that I really like about Rockwool is its fire resistance. Now I’ve done some demos before on this and you should check out my old videos.
No.2 – Fire Resistance
This is a really impressive product when it comes to fire resistance. This is really it’s. It’s kingpin the thing that makes it so different from the rest of the insulation out there. This can whisk the attempts greater than 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit and when you use it in various places in the house, it’s gonna add additional fire resistance to your structure. This is a really big deal now in particular, comfort board, which is the outside insulation, can be used in a wildfire urban interface area WI to give the overall house fire resistance from the outside, but you’re also going to see later in the video how we’re gonna use some of their other products like safe and sound for fire resistance inside the house.
No.3 – acoustic capabilities
Again, This is a killer benefit of Rockwool compared to traditional installations. It is much denser and, as a result, it’s really gonna do a great job of stopping sound transmission. Now, if you’ve ever been to a builder share, as the International Builder show Rockwool built a tunnel, a u-shaped tunnel, no door at either end and all they do is insulate this tunnel.
The stud wall, with mineral wool bats in the walls and in the ceiling, and when you go into the center of that you, you are gonna, be shocked by how quiet it is there. It really does a great job of knocking down sound transmission.
No.4 – water repellency
This is especially important on the outside of the house when you’re using a comfort board. This is a hydrophobic product, meaning it’s afraid of water, and if you see the water go on it, it just runs like water off a duck’s back.
You can see it’s not soaking in traditional installations tend to soak up like a sponge. This is gonna runoff. It’s not gonna soak in.
No.5 – it is made from recycled material
In fact, one of the big ingredients for this is slag, which is why you call it mineral wool or stone wool.
This is leftover from the steel industry and so you’ve got a great recycled content from this. There’s a really good green story behind this.
No.6 – Dimension stability, No.7 – Vapor permeability
Next up, it’s dimensionally stable compared to other installations, especially foam insulation, which tend to shrink over time. This is much more dimensionally stable and then another big deal, especially when we’re talking about the outside of the house, is that this is a vapor-permeable or vapor open insulation. If you’re in a cold climate, you’re gonna use a vapor-permeable house wrap on the outside of the house, you also want vapor-permeable insulation. So, for instance, when I went to Vancouver recently and saw those builders in that very cold climate, everybody was using comfort board in that climate zone and that’s a great place to use this because we want to be able to drive through to the outside in the wintertime in a cold climate and lastly,
No.8 – Insect repellent
There’s some new research coming out that insects will not tunnel through this.
So, if you’re using comfort board, for instance on the outside, you don’t have to worry about bugs tunneling through it, like you, would in a traditional foam insulation on the outside all right. Next, let’s talk about the different options and where to use it. Now, if you look at their website, they have a great website by the way, definitely worth getting on there for some case studies and some also amazing diagrams of wall assemblies where to use it how to use it. But let me give you the brief overview.
There’s basically, three products that you’re gonna see on their website:
Comfort Batt
First of all, that’s this right behind me. This is a 2×4 framed house 16 inch on center and these comfort batts, which are ar-15 very high insulation value. For that small amount of space are super easy to install and there you’re gonna cut it with basically a bread knife, just like you’d buy it. The grocery store serrated knife works. Well, or this is an insulation knife that can be resharpened and it cuts super easily.
You really just need gloves and some long sleeves and you’re good to go. Okay. Now, when it comes to comfort batt, you can get in all the flavors and options you want to buy for 2×6 construction, 16 inch or 24-inch centers. So that’s your exterior walls.
Safe & Sound Batts
Now another product, that’s really a big deal for builders like me, is safe and sound. This is a product, that’s not necessarily intended for thermal resistance, although it does have some, you won’t find in our value on the bag, it’s intended for two things: safety, specifically fire safety and sound transmission.
Now you want to use this on your interior walls, your interior, partitions, like between your master bedroom and the rooms next door, a perfect place to insulate between your laundry room between your kids, bedrooms, and bathrooms. Those are all walls that you’re gonna want to insulate for sound purposes, but this also has some fire resistance capabilities, and this is a big deal.
You know, there’re, all over the nation that are using, I Joy’s for their first floor and in their basement. Traditionally, they’ll deliver the basement to the client unfinished that they might finish it later and for years builders didn’t have to do anything for fire resistance there, but codes have changed.
As of the 2012 codes, you need to insulate, especially there’s I Joy’s, with something that’s going to keep fire resistance down and really about your best option out there, and one of the only options is Rockwooll’s safe and sound batts again, you can get this in different sizes, 24 or 16 inches on centers very easy to install you’re gonna use a metal wire to hold it in place and then, once those batts are in the ceiling down there. Now we’ve got a rated assembly now check with your local codes.
You may or may not have to add drywall on top of that for extra fire resistance, but what it’s doing basically, is it’s gonna protect the web OSB 1/2 inch web on those eye joists from fire, damaging those and making that structure crumble. If you had a fire, it’s gonna give you a longer amount of time before that floor assembly is going to want to crumble in the fire, so safe and sound.
Comfort Board
That’s going to be used on the interior, the house between floors and between rooms. Now. Lastly, let’s talk comfort board now I mentioned a couple of big deals about this and why you see it used so much is because it’s vapor open. This is perfect exterior insulation to use now it’s a little denser than are their installations. That’s why they also sell it in this two-foot by four-foot sections, so you can handle it a little bit easier, but you can see this two-inch Comfort board 80 is going to give you are eight on the outside of the building. So this is a perfect use to wrap your building and, as I mentioned, I saw that all over the place in Vancouver some builders just using a couple of inches and some builders getting really thick with their exterior insulation.
You know my friend, Joe says: don’t eat your sweater, wear your sweater, and what he’s talking about is this insulation is good here, but every time we’ve got a stud here, we’ve got a thermal bridge. We’ve got a place that heat is conducted through more easily than this area, so by wrapping your building with comfort board on the outside of the house, you’re really gonna stop that heat transmission and it’s going to really increase the overall thermal resistance of your walls.
Guys, thanks for joining me on this deep dive on insulation and specifically the advantages that Rockwool have over a lot of insulation options in the marketplace, now stay tuned for future information on this topic. I’ve got some California builders that have really had to change their practices over the last ten years, based on that WUI that wildland-urban interface we’re gonna do some videos on that later in the year. I also have a bunch of old Rockwool videos that are still applicable today, I’ll put a playlist on mineral wool down in the description below…
