Cotton (house) insulation (1 Viewer)

[Jay H]

Another thing that piqued my interest when I opened up an access door to my upstairs crawlspace. Cotton Insulation! It looked like it was like your standard fiberglass insulation, i.e. it had a backing paper to it, except it said 'cotton' and it was all falling apart.

What time in the past was cotton used as insulation popular? I know that some new "green" houses use cotton instead of fiberglass due to the health problems with fiberglass but anybody know roughly what timeperiod was it popular. House is from the 50s I think. Was this populat in the 1950s or 1960s?

Jay

 

[mylan]

Never heard of that. My parent's house was built in 1961 and they used fiberglass backing in Georgia. It could be a regional thing. Cool thing I found in my new house while installing in-ceiling speakers; my blown in insulation is wool.

 

[todbnla]

Is it really cotton or some fluffy stuff that looks like cotton? I have something like that in an older house I am remodeling too.

 

[Jay H]

I think it's cotton, it's kind of dark grey/blackish in color. The reason I think it's cotton is that the backing paper says "cotton" on it. I didn't read everything on the back and most of it was in such crumbly condition, the paper was all falling apart.

Jay

 

[Keith Outhouse]

http://www.ecoproducts.com/Building/...insulation.htm

 

[Jay H]

I knew the eco houses use cotton these days. However, this insulation is certainly a lot older, I'm guessing 30years by the looks of the wallpaper in my closet.

Heck, if I wanted cotton insulation, can't I just throw a bunch of old t-shirts between my ceiling joists?

Jay