[Greenbuilding] Best bang for the buck in wall insulation

Jason Holstine jason at amicusgreen.com
Tue Mar 25 16:50:42 CDT 2014


OK, Ok, recovered/reclaimed/recycled steel SLAG leftovers/waste ...
Splitting hairs in the big picture. I believe that component is around 55%
off the top of my head. But, thanks RT for completing my economized point.

It's been like pulling Canadian moose teeth getting the Boards down here.
Tide is starting to turn.


On 3/25/14 5:31 PM, "RT" <archilogic at yahoo.ca> wrote:

> On Tue, 25 Mar 2014 15:56:08 -0400, Jason Holstine <jason at amicusgreen.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> Roxul ... doesn¹t burn (made of recycled steel and volcanic rock), deals
>> with vapor and water nicely,
> 
>>  Only downside is availability in your area may
>> still be dicey.
> 
> 
> I understand that economy of words is a good thing but in Jason's case, a
> few more wouldn't have hurt.
> 
> As far as I'm aware, Roxul is not made of recycled steel.
> 
> For the last 30-odd years I've been under the impression that the
> materials used to make Roxul are basalt and slag (a by-product from the
> blast furnace cycle of iron or steel production). Some of you may remember
> seeing chunks of the stuff when you were a kid, playing where you weren't
> supposed to be playing, alongside railroad tracks.
> 
> Roxul may still be relatively new to Murricans but it's been widely
> available in all building supply outlets since at least the early 1980s if
> not 1970s, in batts and rigid boards.
> 
> The Roxul area rep would often set up a table in the local building supply
> store and entertain passersby with his demonstrations of Roxul's fire
> resistance (destroying other insulations with a propane torch while
> gleefully achieving nothing with the same torch held onto a piece of
> Roxul) ... Roxul's ability to repel and float on water (even after being
> held underwater for an extended period of time and Roxul's ability to
> drain itself dry after water was forced into it under pressure.
> 
> Best of all, it doesn't make you itch all over or make you spit up blood
> when installing the stuff, like fibreglass does (makes me cringe just
> thinking about that F-G-ing stuff). Slightly better R-value than the same
> thickness of F-G too.
> 
> Guess I went a bit overboard with the words when all I really wanted to
> say was "Not recycled steel".






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