14 Reasons why I recommend you only trust Cellulose Fibre Insulation for your Customers
1) Pumped in Cellulose Insulation means no gaps, Seamless insulation cover means it has a greater effective R value, about 40% higher than batts after installation (witch is why batt companies recommend much higher R values than recommended in the NCC ( National Construction Code). The NCC only recommends R2.5 for on ceiling insulation in your climate zone and that will give most houses the minimum System Value of R4.2 This is very important to your result, Just a small gap in a fridge seal will stop your fridge getting cold and the un avoidable gaps in batts will ruin your insulation outcome in the same way.
2) Cellulose Fibre is the only product treated (With natural Borax) for vermin than can actually kill the ants, spiders,
silverfish and other insects that are living in your roof. Borax is a natural insect killer and Roofs that have had cellulose in
them for 40 years are far cleaner environments that roofs with batts. No insects means no food for rats and mice, No mice means no food for snakes and having no animals in your roof means no dropping or urine smells
3) Boric acid is a natural disinfectant, deodoriser and mould killer, so your roof will not smell bad, even if it smells a bit
now. If moisture gets into your roof this insulation is the only insulation that will kill the dangerous mould that can form with moisture on your ceiling.
4) Cellulose insulation is treated with Borax witch is a really great natural Fire Retardant with a melting point of 734 deg
(about 200 deg above the temperature of a house fire). Cellulose fibre has been shown to save lives in the case of a fire which batts have never done, see how it stacks up against 15 other insulations in this flame test. Batts melt away from a flame leaving the timber structure of your house exposed. Also when you burn batts there are poison gasses produced (think 200kg of burning plastic over every room in the house). The only gas produced from burning cellulose is Co2 and steam which you breath out all the time.
5) Made from all recycled waste paper this product has a lower embedded energy than any other insulation (about one tenth of the energy to produce), so it is more environmentally friendly, it is also the only insulation that can be vacuumed out and reused over and over.
6) Definitely no rats or mice building nests in your roof please see my Rats in batts videos
7) Handles all kinds of roof leaks better than batts because it is the only Hydroscopic insulation, meaning that it completely dries out without needing to be removed dried and put back. Hydrophobic insulation like batts lets the water sit on the ceiling below the batts causing mould and rot.
8) Borax is actually a mould killer and so it is the only insulation that helps stop mould in your roof
9) The only product with a life of house Guarantee that is transferable and cellulose insulation will not blow around or settle over time like batts do (This roof is not even on when we installed the cellulose fibre insulation).
10) Effective Sound rating of Cellulose is about 3 times that of batts for the same thickness. Batt companies do not even rate their sound batts with a sound rating normally, still using a R value instead of the STC rating.
11) Cellulose is air impervious to air witch means that hot air can not be forced though the product, this is a big deal when
meeting your energy ratings for your home. Just hold a batt agains a fan and see how air just blows right though them.....
12) Entry level equipment to install cellulose insulation (About $50k) keeps a lot of the fly by night contractors out of the
industry but all you need to put batts in is a box trailer and a stepladder (both could be rented and your house could be the
installers first job, especially during summer when big companies put on more staff to meet the demand).
13) Pumped insulation can improve the energy efficiency of your water piping as the pipe work can easily be pumped over to help keep cold pipes cold in summer and hot pipes hot in winter. This is normally an additional extra, please ask if you want this service as well. Batts can not do this either because it is not a seamless insulation cover.
14) Cellulose fibre insulation will last forever or as long as your home is still standing because it is only made from Recycled Paper, Boric Acid and Borax (No Ammonium sulfate, No Asbestos, No Formaldehyde, No Sulphuric acid, No Chemical De dusting agents or Dyes like is in some fibreglass batts, No Fat and No Salt) and nobody I know is allergic to paper. This is a really safe produce but some google research will find some less reputable manufactures who use cheaper chemicals to make the product fire retardant like Ammonium sulfate Just because one manufacturer is doing the wrong thing does not mean we all are and this is true of some batt companies too.
Is Borax safe ? Boron that is found in boric acid is actually important for maintaining a healthy body (this is an essential
mineral in the body but just like salt to much of it can be very bad for you) - 27 thing borax is used for in your home already
that you might not know about.
Bonus Reason - It is the only solution for "A" frame, Flat, Super 6, raked or exposed beam roof, it can be pumped in without
lifting the whole roof and only one installer on the roof during installation means added safety. If you have raked areas of roof or exposed beam areas, most batt companies will say the job can not be done but we can do it with cellulose fibre insulation, No Problem.
Problems with all batts for your roof
a) Batts sit so loosely in your roof and if you have ceiling batons under your joists you definitely should not use batts as the gap where the batt does not sit flat on the ceiling lets air flow in from the edges. Steel frame homes are even worse and batts just do not work because steel is such a good conductor of heat.
b) Batts can not easily be installed in tight places and the effectiveness of your result depends on the installers integrity but it is far harder to drag batts though a hot roof than a cellulose hose (pump in cellulose hose also brings in a lot of cool air). All the hard to get to places will suffer if it is a very hot day, I have even seen many jobs where the batts are left in the roof still in the packets.
c) There is only one way for a contractor to steal from you with cellulose, pump less in and that can be easily seen and measured. If the company gets caught they will say it blow out or the roof for some reason or it settled but the truth is they just did not do the job properly. With batts there is may ways to steal from the customer and the problem is mostly they never get caught. Watch my DIY tips to batt install and I mention just a few things that will wreck a batt job. I have seen jobs that look perfect at first glance until I figure out what they did to make a 100 meters of R3.0 batts cover 300 meters of ceiling at R1.0. The customer saw R3 packs turn up and get loaded into the roof, he even had so much stock on site he took some home. Customer said he was a real nice guy too.
d) Water and air can easily flow though a bat, this means roof leaks are not isolated to one area and mould can form on the damp ceiling plaster.
e) Bats do nothing to help stop a fire spreading through your home, which should tell you something about how good they are at stopping heat transfer.
f) I dump whole trailer loads of Bad Batt plastic bags every year that just goes into land fill, Cellulose comes to site in
reusable poly bags that go back to the factory to be refilled 1000 times and so ZERO waste plastic on your job.
Like any good tradesman I am in high demand this time of the year and often cannot answer the phone during the day, so please email me if you have any questions and I will answer them as soon as I can or if you would rather call me, this is my personal mobile number and I am happy to take customer calls upto about 8pm at night as I am hard to catch during the day sometimes.