In our last blog, The Best Insulation For New Homes, we discussed the three most common insulations you’ll find with fiberglass being the happy middle ground. Out of the most common insulation used in homes such as foam board, cellulose, Rockwool, and even spray foam, fiberglass is chosen about at least 70% of the time. This percentage consists of either fiberglass batt or blown fiberglass. With these statistics, we wanted to dive deeper into what makes fiberglass so much more appealing.
Are there any problems with using fiberglass?
With how accessible this material is, it’s safe to say that the issues are minimal. The biggest complaint about fiberglass is poor installation. This necessarily isn’t the fault of the fiberglass, but how it was installed. Batts needs to fit as perfectly into the space as possible. There can’t be any areas of the batt that are scrunched up, overlapping, pieces that are too long, or worse, too short. All of these can affect the fiberglass’s quality and how much your home is being insulated.
What are some common myths about fiberglass?
- Fiberglass makes the house too leaky, resulting in high energy bills.
- If you’re noticing high energy bills with fiberglass insulation, it’s usually because of the age of the house, or the control layers of the moisture, heat, and air have not been thought out properly. Fiberglass is designed to be air-permeable insulation to work in tandem with an air barrier.
- Fiberglass will cause cancer.
- Fiberglass can irritate the skin and lungs without proper protection, but as of 2011, fiberglass has been removed from the National Toxicology Program as a possible carcinogen. Check out this article for more information.
- Blown fiberglass will lose half of its R-value in the attic.
- In the 1990s, when the first studies came out, this statement was true. Thankfully, they’ve discovered what caused the drop in R-value in the fiberglass and improved the way the insulation was made.
- Compressing fiberglass is bad.
- Compression isn’t the problem when it comes to fiberglass. The issue that you might run into is the cavity, or the space where the insulation is installed isn’t filled in enough. The key to having the right R-value is to make sure the cavity is completely filled in with insulation.
