Mineral wool and fiberglass & Insulation Homes

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Fiberglass, Mineral Wool & Home Insulation

Fiberglass – loose-fill, or in the form of rolled blankets and batts – is by far the most common type of home insulation material. Fiberglass is made from molten glass, and is usually presented in yellow or pink.

Mineral wool (rock wool and slag wool) is manufactured similarly to fiberglass, with molten rock instead of glass, and also comes in batts or rolled blankets, or loose-fill. This material is more common in Europe, Australia, Canada and New Zealand than in the U.S. and it's a good alternative to fiberglass.

See also: Cellulose insulation

The uses of fiberglass and mineral wool

The uses of fiberglass and mineral wool in home insulation are the same.

Loose-fill

Fiberglass and loose-fill mineral wool are used in…

- unfinished attic floors;
- enclosed existing walls (or open new) wall cavities;
- home hard-to-reach places.

Loose fill fiberglass and loose-fill mineral wool are particularly adequate for adding insulation to existing home areas, or around obstructions and irregularly shaped areas.

Batts and rolls (blankets)

Fiberglass and mineral wool blankets are commonly used in foundation and unfinished walls, ceilings and floors. They are installed between studs, joist and beams, specially when they involve standard spacing and are free from messy obstructions.

Installation

Fiberglass and mineral wool blankets installation can be a do-it-yourself job, contrarily to loose-fill installation.

Loose-fill fiberglass and mineral installation demand special equipment to be blown into place, and some knowing about thickness and application…

Be carefull with batt installation: the R-value of the insulation is often significantly lower than that that is was supposed to be due to common deficient installation. If the batt aren't well fitted with the surrounding structures, the loss of efficiency will be greatly diminished.

Performance and Prices

Rockwool performance is higher than that of common fiberglass: approximately R-3.7 per inch, which amounts to high-density fiberglass batts or cellulose R-values.

Mineral wool has a higher density, and can provide better acoustical and insulating performance than fiberglass. Besides, mineral wool doesn’t lose its insulating value when wet and has an outstanding resistance to fire.

However, since mineral wool is a less common material, its prices are often higher than those of fiberglass (prices for mineral wool blankets may vary considerably).

Installers are also less familiar with mineral wool than with fiberglass insulation, and that may also be an advantage of fiberglass.

In the whole, final costs and global performance of installed fiberglass and mineral wool aren’t very different.

Safety

Mineral wool is a particular safe material. Several studies demonstrate that there isn’t any association between lung cancer/respiratory diseases with exposure to rock and slag wool.

Some health experts claim that fiberglass fibers, when inhaled, are carcinogenic. But institutions as the American Lung Association state that fiberglass insulation “is safe, when it is properly installed”. The very fact that fiberglass is in use as a home insulation material since the 1930 without reported health problems, supports this last position.

Be careful, anyway. Direct contact with fiberglass materials (or exposure to airborne fiberglass dust) may indeed irritate the skin, eyes, nose and throat, cause itching, and ultimately can be cause of lung cancer: installation should be properly done, to avoid unwanted exposure; fiberglass insulation packages display cancer warning labels in many countries (they are required by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the National Toxicology Program (NTP)).