Cavity Wall Insulation For Your Home

Posted under environment by Kathy Lambert

In order to be well educated in green home cavity wall insulation strategies, you should know were the various areas of insulation are best used.

Cavity walls are commonly the open space between wall framing members that form the inner and exterior surfaces of a home wall.

This open cavity space in the wall provides the ability to sufficiently insulate a home. If you think of the wall cavity similar to the cavity in a tooth that a dentist fill in, the contractor fills in wall cavities with an insulation product.

As you will observe, there are many special varieties of insulation that can be used to fill wall cavity spaces.

The most popular form of insulation that is used for cavity wall insulation are batts or blanket insulation that is a rolled form of the batts. Batt insulation is commonly used in new home construction when the wall is open, before drywall is installed.

There are a variety of batt insulation materials that can be used and that are a green rated product. By far the most popular is Fiberglass batts that are produced from recycled glass products now days. It is commonly thought of as the most cost compelling insulation variety, which is a major reason it is so common.

Cotton insulation is produced from recycled and scrapped cotton fibers, and can additionally be produced into batts for cavity wall insulation.

Rockwool, which is additionally referred to as mineral wool insulation is another environmentally friendly option for cavity wall insulation. Made from recycled slag and natural rock products, Rockwool mineral fiber insulation is a great green option for insulation of cavity walls.

If you are planning on insulating existing wall cavities a common option is the blown-in insulation type. It can be installed in existing cavities by drilling holes in either the exterior sheathing or interior drywall and blowing the product into the cavity spaces using some specially designed installation equipment.

Being made from recycled newspapers and magazines, blown in cellulose is about as environmentally friendly as you can experience of any of the insulation selections. Another sort of blown-in insulation that is a fantastic option, is Rockwool mineral fiber insulation that we mentioned earlier in this article.

Both Batt insulation types and blown-in insulation types have very comparable R-values per inch of thickness of between 3.0 and 4.0.

A more recent cavity wall insulation that is gaining more traction in the Eco-friendly community is spray foam insulation. These new foams can be installed either in open cavities or existing closed cavities, as the foam expands to provide a completely filled, void-free installation by foam expansion after application.

One outstanding aspect of the spray foams is some varieties possess a much higher R-value per inch of thickness than the batts or blown-in varieties of cavity wall insulation.

The quality of the insulation is governed more by the quality of the installation than the product itself. In order to achieve its potential R-value and energy efficiency, cavity wall insulation needs to be installed with complete coverage and without any gaps, voids or air spaces.

While Batt insulation is generally installed with various small cracks, gaps and voids, and blown-in cellulose insulation tends to settle over time, leaving gaps at the tops of the walls. Spray foams do not exhibit either of these deficiencies as they expand to fill every gap and air space, giving this insulation a distinct advantage.

Any insulation can fluctuate somewhat widely around any part of the country due to the market pricing of construction materials due to availability, shipping costs and available local installers. For comparison purposes, lets study the relative costs of these special insulation types for a square foot of wall that is insulation to an R-value of 19. The most costly cavity wall insulation would be the spray foams, next lowest cost would be rockwool mineral batts, then cotton batts and fiberglass batts and the least pricey would be the blown-in cellulose.

Be sure to team up with an experienced building contractor and an experienced home designer that is well versed in Eco-friendly products to help guide you in the correct selection of your cavity wall insulation. Even though the initial installation cost, additionally known as the first cost, may be very important, do not forget the importance of the Eco-friendly qualities and overall aged R-values in your decision.

If you want to know more about how to insulate your home’s cavity walls, be sure to visit our article: Cavity Wall Insulation. Also, we have more information on building up the r values of your home’s cavity in the article: Cavity Wall Insulation For Your Home.