Thermal insulation of a house with ecowool, its characteristics, advantages, disadvantages and insulation technologies. Ecowool is a free-flowing environmentally friendly insulation based on cellulose fiber. Thanks to its excellent thermal insulation properties, it has gained well-deserved popularity among numerous developers. From our article today you will learn about the methods of insulating a house with ecowool and the properties of this wonderful material.
Technical characteristics of ecowool
The raw material for the production of this insulation is waste paper, so it contains 80% cellulose. The remaining 20% are flame retardant and antiseptic additives. The fire retardant in ecowool is borax, which ensures the fire safety of the insulation, and the antiseptic is boric acid, which prevents the occurrence of fungus in the material, rot and protects it from insects and rodents. These additives help to give ecowool special advantages that other insulators lack.
The density of the insulation is 30-58 kg / m3, it is chemically passive and has a pH value of 7, 8-8, 3. The thermal conductivity of ecowool of 0, 033-0, 04 W / m * ° С depends on the method of its laying, while there is absolutely no shrinkage of the material. The fire resistance of the insulation is about 0.6 hours, it has three flammability classes - G2, B2 and D1. Class G2 is moderate flammability, B2 is moderate flammability, D1 is moderate smoke formation. Ecowool has excellent sound absorption, which starts from 62 dB, and vapor permeability of 0.31 mg / (m * h * Pa). The insulation is able to maintain its heat-insulating properties until a humidity of 20% is reached.
The insulator is supplied in the form of light gray briquettes, into which a loose dry mass of material fibers is pressed. Its compression ratio is over 110 kg / m3… This is done in order to save space when storing and transporting insulation. Before starting work, it is released from packaging and increases in volume several times after a certain time.
Advantages and disadvantages of home insulation with ecowool
The ecological purity of this insulation makes it stand out among similar coatings. Moreover, in fact, it is made from waste material - waste paper.
Thermal insulation of a house with ecowool fibrous mass has many other advantages:
- Affordable coating cost due to the use of cheap raw materials.
- Long service life of the insulation and suitability for its recycling.
- Efficiency of installation, as the material adheres perfectly to most surfaces.
- Lack of mold and fungal microorganisms.
- Improving the sound insulation of the room and creating a favorable microclimate in it.
- No risk of accidental fire.
- The coating does not emit toxic substances due to the absence of polymer components.
- The thermal conductivity of ecowool is quite low, which affects the quality of insulation in a positive way.
- When working with insulation, there is no waste, it does not need to be cut, the material takes up very little space during storage.
The disadvantages of home insulation with ecowool with your own hands include the following:
- Although the insulator is not flammable, it can smolder if the temperature of the environment is high enough for this. For this reason, chimneys, for example, are insulated with basalt or asbestos before insulation.
- Some methods of material installation require a special blowing technique - pneumatic industrial installations.
- If the insulation is moistened, the drying time of its fibers can be, depending on existing conditions, up to two days. During this time, finishing work will not work.
- The process of insulating vertical surfaces is more difficult than horizontal ones.
Ecowool house insulation technologies
With the help of this insulation, both the inner surfaces of the walls and the outer ones can be insulated. The choice of the side of the installation of the thermal insulation material in relation to the street depends on the calculation of the location of the dew point in the wall to minimize the formation of condensation, which can gradually destroy the structure when it is constantly humidified. The method of insulating a house with ecowool inside and outside differs significantly from other insulation methods and involves three options: wet application of cellulose thermal insulation, its dry mechanized blowing and manual laying.
Dry blowing of ecowool
Thermal insulation by this method is performed using a blower. In its bunker, after loading, the ecowool is loosened, and then under pressure is pumped through a special hose with a nozzle. At the same time, the fluffed insulation penetrates into the cracks and hard-to-reach places of the structure, forming a continuous heat-insulating coating.
There is open dry blowing of cellulose insulation and blowing it into the cavity. When insulating horizontal and inclined enclosing structures, such as floors, ceilings or attic, open blowing is used. In this case, ecowool is fed through the hose of the device to the place of laying with simultaneous layout and leveling on an insulated surface, taking into account the required thickness. At the same time, the amount of material is taken with a certain margin, given that the loosened mass, having a density of 30 kg / m3, over time compresses to a value of 35 kg / m3… Accordingly, the thickness of the layer decreases.
Dry blowing into the cavity is carried out when insulating ecowool walls of a house, sheathed with plasterboard sheets, structures of frame houses, as well as when installing soundproofing of ceilings and partitions. Work using this method is carried out in this way: technological holes are made in the wall with cavities, through which, using a special installation, cellulose insulation is blown into the structure. The material fluffed up in the apparatus and mixed with air during injection fills its entire free volume in the wall, penetrating into all hard-to-reach places of the internal cavity. At the same time, the ecowool is compacted to a value of 50-65 kg / m3.
The advantages of this method of insulation are:
- The ability to carry out work at any temperature of the air, its humidity also does not really matter;
- Affordable cost of insulation;
- After the thermal insulation of the walls, you can immediately start finishing them, since there is no need to dry the ecowool during dry blowing.
The disadvantage of this method can be called excessive pressure in the cavity of the wall from the air entering through the hose. Therefore, it is not acceptable in all cases.
Wet application of ecowool
This technology is indispensable when insulating an ecowool outside the house; it also provides for the presence of a blowing machine, but with different nozzles on the hoses. In this case, the fluffed insulation is mixed with a water-glue solution, which serves as a binder, and is sprayed onto any surface.
This method of insulation allows you to perform a perfectly flat surface and monitor the quality of its installation. At the same time, the insulation layer turns out to be denser, which is important, for example, for wall cladding with facade materials.
Before starting the insulation work, a special crate is installed on the insulated surface, which can be made from a wooden bar or a metal profile. It serves as a reinforcing element for the insulation and at the same time acts as a support for fastening the facing material. The vertical and horizontal profiles of the battens are located at equal distances from each other, forming cells.
In a pneumatic spraying machine, cellulose wool softens when wetted and becomes adhesive. After being fed under pressure, the material alternately fills all the cells of the wall structure, cavities and cracks. Its excess, protruding above the surface of the lathing guiding profiles, is removed with a special tool, similar to an electric scraper. The result is a perfectly aligned surface of the thermal insulation.
You can start finishing the facade after the insulation in the crate cells has dried. This process can last from one day to several days, depending on the drying conditions.
The advantages of wet insulation include:
- Its economy. With an equivalent quality of work and conditions for further operation, cellulose insulation applied by the wet method will need 1/3 less than when using the dry blowing method.
- The heat-insulating layer is resistant to deformation, aging, as well as destruction from the effects of high humidity, insects and various microorganisms.
- Wet application of cellulose insulation allows you to process hard-to-reach areas, excluding the possibility of creating cavities for filling: joints, abutments, etc.
- The finished coating is quite accessible for inspection, which allows you to identify defective areas and evaluate the quality of the insulation.
- Wet applied thermal insulation does not exert significant pressure on the substrate.
This method of insulating the facade with ecowool has some disadvantages. One of them is the cost of work, which is higher with wet application than with the dry blast method. Another disadvantage is the limitation of the temperature regime: work on the installation of "wet" thermal insulation can only be carried out at a positive temperature, ideally in the summer. This is due to the possibility of drying the coating.
Manual installation of ecowool
It is performed without the use of a blower. The insulation of horizontal surfaces, for example, floors or interfloor ceilings, as well as vertical and inclined planes with prepared cavities for filling material - walls, roofs and the like is carried out manually.
This method of insulation is considered to be quite laborious and "dirty". When using it, the cellulosic insulation material is loosened with a construction mixer in a container and then placed in place. In this case, it is necessary to achieve a sufficiently high density of the coating. For walls, it is taken approximately 70 kg / m3, for floors - 45 kg / m3.
Usually surfaces that have a small area are insulated manually, but this is almost the only way when you can do it yourself with ecowool without using expensive equipment.
How to insulate a house with ecowool - watch the video:
So, we can summarize that ecowool is an excellent sound and heat insulating material, no worse and even cheaper than other heaters. However, it is important to understand that its high-quality installation is possible only with the appropriate equipment. It is not economically feasible to buy it for home use, but you can rent a blow molding machine or entrust the work to professionals who have everything you need for it. Good luck!
