WeatherShield™ and WallBar™
settles in your walls.
Dense-packed cellulose doesn't settle, because it can't. It's installed at
twice its settled density, which means that it's under slight pressure in
the wall or ceiling cavity. Those home show displays that show cellulose
settling, or worse, blowing around in a box? They're tricks. They're
purposely under-filled to promote the myth that cellulose settles and help
them sell you some other product. Don't be fooled.
WeatherShield™ and WallBar™
Insulation is made from newspapers, so it will burn.
WeatherShield™ and WallBar™
has an 85% recycled content, primarily over-issue newsprint
and other ground wood paper sources. The paper is fully fiberized (reduced to
cellulose fiber) and infused with borate, a naturally occurring mineral. Borate
gives cellulose a Class A fire rating. In fact, a cellulose insulated structure
is arguably safer than one insulated with another insulation, because borate
treated cellulose helps limit the spread of a fire and produces no smoke.
WeatherShield™ and WallBar™
Insulation is expensive.
As a rule, WeatherShield™ and
WallBar™ Insulation costs more to
install than fiberglass and less to install than sprayed foams. Because it
saves so much more energy than fiberglass, the extra expense is quickly
recovered, and the savings just go on and on. Because cellulose offers
better or comparable savings to typical sprayed foam installations, you save
money on installation, and the savings just go on and on. So the right
answer is that cellulose represents the best value, dollar for dollar, among
common competing insulations.
WeatherShield™ and WallBar™
produces funny smells.
WallBar™ cellulose
insulation, an all borate formulations (for fire, pest and mold
resistance). Borate is on odorless mineral that doesn't outgas, which is a
fancy way to say these Can-Cell Industries cellulose products don't produce funny
smells. WeatherShield™Insulation produced by Can-Cell Industries uses an
ammonium sulfate/borate mix
which can produce objectionable odors, under the right conditions. If you
insist on our all borate formulations, you'll never have this problem.
Houses need vapour barriers.
WeatherShield™ and
WallBar™ Insulation requires no vapor barrier in
the overwhelming majority of installations. It does an excellent job of
limiting air movement, and because it is
hygroscopic, it manages moisture as well. Some insulations require vapor
barriers because they do such a poor job of preventing air movement, air
that can carry moisture with it. The problem is that, where we live,
moisture and air don't always move in the same direction through a building,
depending on the time of year. So what about those products that need a
vapor barrier? Effectively, half the year it's on the wrong side of the
wall! Cellulose doesn't have that problem.
Sprayed foam insulations can be green, too.
Sorry, no way. The only thing green about sprayed
foams is the money you pay for them. Sprayed foam insulations are made with
petroleum and petroleum byproducts, and that just isn't green.
What about soy based foams?
Sorry, not green. First, they're not soy 'based'
- they contain a small amount of soy additive. While soy added to foam does
save a little bit of oil or chemicals, the soy had to be grown, watered,
fertilized, harvested, trucked, processed - well, you get the idea. Foams
with soy additive are heavily marketed for their soy content, which is
something called greenwashing.
Unlike WeatherShield™ and
WallBar™, foam insulations air seal and insulate at the same time.
They can, certainly. But we have a lot of
experience inspecting structures in the field that says that foams,
especially the more rigid foams, don't have the flexibility to move as the
structure does. That means there can be separations between the foam and the
framing members as the lumber dries, shrinks and moves, which can allow air
infiltration. In addition, there are areas that aren't routinely foamed,
like the junction of a wall's bottom plate with the floor, or top plate with
upper story framing and flooring. The bottom line is that proper
installation of any insulation should include air sealing.
R-Value is R-Value, so if the numbers are the same, the products perform the same.
R-Values are determined in labs, and they only
measure one of the (4) ways that heat moves through a wall. For instance,
there's no wind in a lab. So if we compare an R-19 fiberglass wall to an
R-20 cellulose wall, say, in February, on a 20-degree day with a 20-mile an
hour wind, that fiberglass wall is delivering actual performance around
R-11. The WeatherShield™ and
WallBar™ cellulose insulated wall? Still R-20.
I just want my insulation to do a good job insulating.
Of course you want your insulation choice to do
a good job insulating. But to do that, it has to do a lot of things -
effectively prevent air infiltration, manage moisture, etc. And you don,t
want it to create problems - make a good home for pests, outgas, etc. And
then there are things you want it to do that you might not associate with an
insulation product, like make your home safer in the event of a fire, do the
best job of reducing noise, and have the least impact possible on the
environment.
WeatherShield™ and WallBar™ cellulose
insulations do a great job at all the things a great insulation should do, with none of the potential downsides.
WeatherShield™ and WallBar™
is made from paper, so if it gets wet, that's a problem.
First, no insulation will handle a failed
structure or assembly that is allowing liquid water to enter in any
meaningful quantity. None.
With that out of the way, the other moisture that you find in walls is
airborne humidity. Among commonly used insulations, cellulose is the only
one that can manage this moisture by dispersing it and transporting it
through the cavity. In other words, WeatherShield™ and
WallBar™ Insulation manages the natural moisture
drives that occur in every structure. No other commonly used insulation
product can make that claim.
Sprayed WeatherShield™ and
WallBar™ is applied wet - and that's a problem.
Nope. Spray applied WeatherShield™ and
WallBar™Insulations, which is most
often used in new construction, is damp-sprayed, not wet - an important
distinction. In the old days, it was a wet applied product, and you could
squeeze liquid moisture out of it. For quite some time now, only a very
small amount of moisture is added to damp-sprayed WeatherShield™ and
WallBar™Insulation, definitely not
enough to be able to squeeze water out of it. Under normal conditions, the
cellulose is ready to be covered by drywall in 24 hours, far less time than
is routinely scheduled between the insulation and the drywall jobs. In
addition, cellulose manages moisture. (see 'Houses need vapor barriers',
above)
I just need to insulate my attic, so can I do it myself?
Well, you can - but that doesn't mean you
should. There is a proper way to install WeatherShield™ and
WallBar™Insulation, and lots of ways that
aren't. A proper loose-blown attic job will be inspected for problems, may
have old insulation removed, have the soffits blocked off, have air-sealing
done - you get the picture. There's more to it than just renting the machine
and blowing the cellulose. Besides, don't you have
better things to do with your weekend?
Do yourself a favor - use a qualified installer
and have the job done right.
WeatherShield™
and WallBar™
Insulation and Friendly Insulators, the choice is Natural!