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OT: Cellulose Insulation

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OT: Cellulose Insulation

#1

OT: Cellulose Insulation

Henry Higginbotham

>Just how "fire retardant" should cellulose insulation be? I just had a contractor blow some into the attic of my house, and was planning to have him come back when my shop ceiling is in to insulate that, too.

The contractor stated that the cellulose was very fire-retardant. He said that he'd recently insulated an attic, that the roof had caught fire a couple of weeks later. The roof was gone, but the ceiling joists were charred only a bit, and that the cellulose had stopped the fire from going further.

Out of curiosity, I picked up some of what they'd spilled and hit it with a MAPP torch. Poof! Okay, maybe that's unfair, so I tried a common butane lighter. The stuff caught fire and burned completely to ash.

So . . . are there different grades of this stuff. Did he bait'n'switch me? Or is this normal and nothing to worry about?

He hasn't been paid yet, by the way, and he's got to come back anyway since his guys didn't get the west end covered and failed to put any at all in the east end. Can't get good help these days, I guess.

Re: OT: Cellulose Insulation

#2

Re: OT: Cellulose Insulation

Ted Wong

>I think it depends on how dense it is blown in. But ultimately I doubt your insulation contractors claim. I think when they say fire retardent or resistant they mean it may not ignite if there is an indirect heat source or that it will resist ignition from an unsustained source.

Re: OT: Cellulose Insulation

#3

Re: OT: Cellulose Insulation

Gary Bindel

>When my dad put it in a number of years back, he tested it and it would not burn unless he kept the propane torch on it. I think you should have the contractor remove it and replace it with correctly treated material. No way should it have burned like you said.

Re: OT: Cellulose Insulation

#4

Re: OT: Cellulose Insulation

Bart Leetch

>Cellulose insulation

I used to install insulation professionally. We used to vacuum out cellulose because it loses its fire retardant ability after a few years. I literally lights off like a torch. Several times we had cellulose vender's come to try & sell us on cellulose insulation & we always showed them our test of aged cellulose insulation by taking some out of the vacuum truck hopper & dropping a match on it whoosh it was gone their embarrassed look & answer I guess I don't have much to sell do I was all we ever heard.

If you value your life, home, or shop stay away from cellulose.

The only proof of fire retardant abilities of cellulose is being able to take old & I do mean old 25 - 35 years old or older cellulose out of an old building & try & light it. No one has provided this proof to me yet.

I won't accept any other proof & you shouldn't either.

Talk & words of assurance are cheap your life & home & shop are not.

I have had insulation contractors on other forums E-mail me & tell me of their similar experiences. One told me he would only install cellulose if the person wanting it would sign a release that obsolved the contractor of all responsibility if there was a fire.

Re: OT: Cellulose Insulation

#5

Re: OT: Cellulose Insulation--UPDATE

Henry Higginbotham

>First, thank you for the responses. I just spoke with the area sales rep for Enviromate. He is supposed to come by and pick up a sample for testing. He asserted that it should NOT burn. Meanwhile, I've put the contractor on hold until the fire issue is settled. We'll see.

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