Popular insulation based on glass wool. Differences between glass wool and mineral wool - let’s choose the best type of insulation together. Properties of mineral wool
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Today we will look at the popular and effective heat insulating material, known for more than half a century, which is called glass wool. What is it?
Compound
This fiber insulation is one of the types mineral wool. It is made by drawing fibers from silicon with additives from limestone, soda, dolomite, borax, etc. with the addition of a synthetic binder. It differs from other types of mineral wool in that glass wool has a thicker fiber and better elasticity.
Technical characteristics of glass wool
The thermal conductivity of glass wool is 0.039-0.05 W/m*K. The heat insulator in glass wool is the air itself, which fills the cavities formed between the weaves of fibers. It can be operated at temperatures up to 450 degrees.
Insulation properties:
- low thermal conductivity;
- good sound insulation characteristics;
- non-flammability;
- elasticity and compressibility;
- ease and simplicity of installation;
- durability.
Application of glass wool
Modern glass wool is a non-flammable insulation material that is used for thermal insulation of roofs, internal and external walls and partitions, floors and ceilings of residential and technical premises. Provided there is good moisture protection, glass wool can be used to insulate facades. Reviews about this insulation have been consistently good for many decades. It is ideal for insulating garages and basements. In the photos and videos you can see numerous application options. When installing the slabs, it compresses and forms a monolithic thermal insulation coating without cold bridges.
Advantages
One of the main advantages of glass wool over basalt mineral wool is its cost. It is much cheaper due to the more affordable cost of raw materials and cheaper transportation. Glass wool has excellent compressibility and elasticity and is capable of reducing its volume in packaging by 6 times. When unpacked within 20-40 minutes, it restores its volume. The most famous manufacturers of glass wool are Isover, Ursa, Rockwool, etc. Glass wool is produced in slabs, rolls and mats, and can be produced reinforced and with a reflective layer.
Flaws
Disadvantages include excessive water absorption. During installation, a mandatory vapor barrier is required. When saturated with moisture, the insulation deteriorates its thermal insulation properties up to 40%. In addition, when saturated with water, the fibers irreversibly change their structure to a more fragile one.
Glass wool is insulation made from molten silica or broken glass. If she good quality, then has light shade, but if phenol-formaldehyde resins or other dubious binders are added to it, it turns light gray. Glass wool insulation is affordable, but at the same time it differs from other types in its elasticity and greater strength - it does not break or crumble during installation. This is due to the fact that its fibers are four times longer than those of basalt mineral wool.
It is characterized by chemical resistance, shape stability, and sound insulation. Does not absorb moisture or release harmful substances under the influence of high temperatures. Available in rolls and in the form of mats. The length of the glass fibers is about 5 cm, which is why this type of thermal insulation combines lightness, softness and elasticity, which makes it possible to reduce the volume of matter by 5 times.
The description of glass wool insulation states that after being released from the packaging it returns to its previous shape. And if the products are of high quality, this is true.
The parameters depend on the brand and type. Glass wool can have a thickness from 40 to 200 mm, width - 600 or 1200, length - from 1,200 to 14,000. Density - from 18 to 75 kg/m3. Thermal conductivity is in the range of 0.034-0.040 W/m·K. Fiberglass melts and smokes, but does not ignite in a fire. Not suitable for thermal insulation chimneys, it is better to use basalt analogues for them.
Advantages and disadvantages of glass wool insulation
Glass wool is an excellent insulation material for a number of reasons, it:
- It is elastic, so it is advisable to use it for uneven surfaces, for example, pipes, ventilation shafts.
- Chemically inert.
- It does not shrink when heated and cooled, therefore it is suitable for water supply systems.
- According to reviews, roof insulation with mineral wool adds up to 5 °C in living rooms and creates additional comfort, protecting from external noise.
- It is not susceptible to mold and does not attract rodents.
- Durable, does not cake, does not wear out for more than 50 years.
- Helps maintain optimal temperature regime at any time of the year without additional energy costs.
A significant disadvantage is the brittle fibers of glass wool, which have the property of penetrating into the skin, clothing, and the lungs, swirling in the air along with dust. IN Lately Many counterfeits containing harmful substances are produced, but they can be distinguished by their shade and characteristic smell.
Top brands
When choosing fiberglass insulation, keep in mind that proven brands like Izover, Knauf or slightly less well-known ones - Tisma, Ursa, correspond technical requirements and gain the desired thickness within 24 hours. Chinese ones practically do not solve the problems of landscaping and sound insulation; moreover, they contain untested binders that can be potentially hazardous to health.
1. Knauf glass wool comes from Germany. It has increased elasticity and density up to 60 kg/m3, so it can be used for partitions, ventilated facades, pitched roofs, insulation of frame and wooden houses, under siding. It does not have a strong odor and is not very irritating to the skin.
The line includes rolls designed for insulating pipes, floors between joists, and floor slabs. The price of Knauf light yellow glass wool slabs starts from 980 rubles. It should not be confused with basalt rolls from the same manufacturer - they are more expensive and have a brownish-gray tint.
2. French products from Izover deserve special attention. Soft glass wool insulation is intended for those places where the load-bearing load on the structure is excluded. It can also be used in sandwiches as an internal insulating lining, since its density is only 16 kg/m3.
3. You can buy Izover fiberglass insulation from 620 rubles. It is safe, does not prick, does not cause irritation, due to the fact that its fibers are not so brittle and do not form dust. In addition, the assortment includes rolls with protective coating in the form of foil.
How to insulate with your own hands
Installation is carried out in 4 stages:
- frame installation;
- cutting sheets;
- laying sections between stiffeners;
- securing and sewing the insulating pad.
The main thing is to choose products in accordance with their purpose: softer ones should be taken for horizontal surfaces, pipes, and rigid - pitched roofs and verticals. Thin material suitable for interior decoration, wide – for external protection, attic spaces.
Safety precautions
Considering the harm of glass wool, it is necessary to take precautions during work - be sure to wear a protective suit or overall with gloves and a respirator. If, nevertheless, fragments get on the skin, you need to try to remove them, wash them off, without combing the affected areas, so as not to drive the fibers deeper.
Having finished insulating the house with glass wool, you need to take a cool shower without detergents and sponges, after shaking off the dust from your hair. After one-time use, clothes will have to be disposed of - they will not be washed off from fragments. If glass dust gets into your eyes or mucous membranes, you should immediately consult a doctor.
However, it has been noted that the better the quality of the product, the less harmful it is and the easier it is to install.
What buyers say - reviews
“I recently installed siding and laid Knauf under it as insulation. I would like to note that glass wool for external wall insulation creates a very reliable protection. In general, this method is the most justified, since it is environmentally friendly and does not create a feeling of suffocation. And if you insulate the walls from the inside, they will freeze excessively from the outside without having time to warm up, and accordingly they will collapse faster.”
Anatoly Korolev, Samara.
“I have long taken note that mineral wool is actively used in insulation systems. And since the house was inherited, I decided to renovate it for myself. First of all, I re-laid and insulated the roof. You can now create a living space in the attic - it has become so much warmer. I'm planning on next year and cover the outside with the same material.”
Glass wool is made from melted glass: at temperatures above +1400 °C, fiber is pulled from broken glass and sand. After this, the resulting products are collected into bundles using a special bitumen binding material, heated to +200 °C and pressed. The resulting materials are then cut or rolled into rolls and supplied to the market.
In its properties, this glass wool differs from basalt insulation. Due to its length and softness, glass wool is light, elastic and has the best elasticity characteristics. This is especially noticeable when transporting and storing materials, since glass wool takes up quite a bit of space. By the way, after unpacking, the material quickly takes the desired shape, which makes it easy to use when working with various structures.
Insulation is used when:
- carrying out external work;
- working with horizontal surfaces;
- carrying out roofing work;
- insulation of walls and partitions;
- soundproofing.
In this case, for each of the selected spheres, we select Various types glass wool by fiber type. And each of the materials differs in the presence or absence of additional coating, thermal conductivity, arrangement of fibers, and the density of glass wool is also different. That is why, when choosing products, purchase a certain type of glass wool for the work. After all, only in this case can the quality and durability of the products be guaranteed.
Advantages and disadvantages
If you decide to go with glass wool, you first need to study the pros and cons of this material. So, the advantages of glass wool include:
- frost resistance and fire resistance (after all, many are interested in whether glass wool burns or not);
- ease of use of products when working in hard-to-reach places;
- low cost, which is often a determining factor;
- resistance to high and low temperatures;
- the material is not susceptible to chemical reagents;
- Rodents do not like glass wool, so the material does not need to be equipped with additional protection against small pests.
True, one should also take into account the disadvantages of glass wool, which will “open up” when using the material. These include: 
- the material shrinks, which is important to consider during construction;
- increased level of fiber fragility;
- insufficiently high thermal insulation properties;
- low density level;
- fear of water, which leads to the need to use a waterproofing film to protect the material.
When paying attention to the insulation, you need to take into account the thermal conductivity of glass wool. So, the thermal conductivity coefficient should be below 1, and the lower this indicator, the better. You can often hear that this material is unsafe for health. Modern manufacturers produce products that do not contain substances harmful to health. However, due to the fact that this material crumbles, it is advisable to work with it in a protective suit, goggles and gloves. 
The main advantages of glass wool include the fact that it is quite easy to work with - even a beginner who picks it up for the first time can handle it. Building tools. Installation of glass wool begins with preparing the surface for fastening - for this, the surfaces need to be leveled. Next we attach them to waterproofing film, be sure to glue the joints using construction tape, and nail them to the surfaces wooden slats, placing them in increments of 60 cm. For fastening, it is best to use dowels or self-tapping screws.
Important: when cutting glass wool, it is advisable to use sharp knife, cutting the mats a few centimeters larger the right size. Thanks to this, the pieces of mat will lie as tightly as possible.
Laying of products begins from the bottom up - a vapor barrier is stuffed on top of the glass wool, and the mats are secured with staples or a stapler to the beam. All joints of the vapor barrier are also taped with construction tape.
After this, the surfaces can be sheathed with plasterboard or plywood, further finishing the coatings. Now you know whether glass wool burns, how to choose a material based on the advantages of the material, and how to carry out insulation using these products. Thanks to this, you can insulate the house yourself without spending a lot of money on paying for the services of professional builders.
For thermal insulation of various residential and production premises there are two popular varieties thermal insulation materials, this is mineral wool.
If you are going to insulate your house, then it is important to know what the difference is between them, what they are used for, what features and advantages they have. About the arguments in favor of choice the best insulation
and will be discussed in this article.
Glass wool Insulating a house with glass wool - effective method protect yourself from drafts and reduce the cost of heating the room. Glass wool is a fibrous insulation material that looks like cotton wool.
The main property of glass wool is a high degree of thermal insulation.
The insulation consists of parallel glass fibers made from glass production waste or from the same substances as glass (sand, soda, borax, limestone). Fiberglass is very strong, soft and elastic, and has many air voids between the fibers, which makes it an ideal soundproofing material.
Minvata
The fibrous structure of mineral wool is bonded during the production process using synthetic binders. Mineral wool is an excellent insulating material used to insulate both hot and cold surfaces.
Mineral wool also consists of directed fibers, but it is made from slags of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, silicate materials or molten rocks.
Depending on the type of raw material from which mineral wool is made, it can be stone or slag.
Noise insulation of glass wool ceilings The materials differ in the size of the fibers: glass wool has fibers with a thickness of 3-15 microns, and mineral wool - 2-10 microns. The length of glass wool fibers is 2-4 times greater, which provides fiberglass products with greater elasticity and strength.
Glass wool provides better sound insulation, due to the attenuation of sound waves in the fibers. However, glass wool shrinks over time. long term operation. In this indicator, mineral wool wins, which does not change size at all.
Mineral wool is slightly less flammable, but under normal conditions this does not matter, since the temperature limits are very high: 450 for glass wool and 600-700 for mineral wool. The thermal conductivity coefficient of both materials is almost identical.
An important aspect when choosing insulation is the price range. Mineral wool at this point is much more expensive, since the materials for its production have a higher cost and the products are many times larger, which requires additional transportation costs.
Important material characteristics
Glass wool is non-flammable, withstands high temperatures, does not smolder, and does not emit harmful substances. Thermal insulation made of glass wool is non-hygroscopic (does not absorb water vapor), has high chemical resistance and a long service life.
Mineral wool is not subject to combustion, rodents do not eat it. Mineral wool in granular form is often used to backfill hollow walls.
Advantages and disadvantages
The advantages of glass wool are as follows:
The disadvantages of working with glass wool include:
- high fragility of the fibers, which provokes the likelihood of small glass fibers getting into the eyes, respiratory tract and skin, which provokes irritation of the mucous membranes and itching of the skin;
- low heat resistance, up to 450 degrees (at more high temperatures the material begins to deteriorate).
Advantages and disadvantages of mineral wool.
Thermal insulation called "glass wool" is one of the oldest materials for insulation. Despite the fact that the modern market is filled with many solutions, glass wool is still preferred to be used in construction today. However, before you purchase it, you should familiarize yourself with its features and technical specifications.
Characteristics of glass wool
If you are faced with the question of what glass wool is, then first you need to familiarize yourself with its characteristics. Glass wool is made from melted glass melt, while the temperature is maintained above +1400 °C. It is based on a mixture of sand and glass, which is drawn into fiber. The resulting product is assembled into packs, using a bitumen-based binding material.
The raw material is heated to +200 °C and then pressed. The materials are then cut or rolled into individual rolls and are then ready for delivery to the market. If you also wondered what glass wool is, then you should understand that it differs from basalt thermal insulation. The first insulation option is lightweight due to the softness and length of the fibers, as well as their elasticity. Therefore, the material has excellent elasticity properties. This becomes especially noticeable when storing and transporting the material, since glass wool takes up a minimal amount of space.
After unpacking, it quickly returns to its original shape, which allows it to be used when working with different designs. If we compare with that, glass wool fiber has a thickness ranging from 3 to 15 microns. As for the length of the fibers, it is up to 4 times longer than that of stone wool.
The described insulation contains almost no non-fibrous inclusions, it has excellent vibration resistance. If you are faced with the question of what glass wool is, then you should ask about one of the important indicators - thermal conductivity. It is equal to from 0.030 to 0.052 W/mK. But temperature resistance reaches 450 °C.
Areas of use
Before purchasing the material described, you should familiarize yourself with the areas of its use. Among others, it is worth highlighting:
- external works;
- roofing;
- thermal insulation of horizontal surfaces;
- sound insulation and insulation of partitions and walls.
For each of the spheres, different types of glass wool are selected, which differ in the type of fibers. Each material has or lacks additional coating, for each variety. The fibers in them are arranged in their own way, which affects thermal conductivity. Different types They also have a certain density. Therefore, the choice of glass wool must be approached seriously, because this is the only way to achieve High Quality performance of work and durability of the product.
Basic properties
When consumers wonder what glass wool is, they also begin to study the basic properties, among which they should definitely highlight:
- fire resistance;
- frost resistance;
- low cost;
- Ease of use;
- resistance to low temperatures;
- immunity to chemical reagents.
As for ease of use, it lies in the fact that the described product can be installed even in hard to reach places. The determining factor when choosing insulation is often the cost, and for this material it is one of the minimum. The surface of thermal insulation can be affected by chemical reagents, but they do not have any effect negative impact. When installing glass wool, you don’t have to worry about the possibility of rodents infesting it. Thanks to this, the material does not need to be provided with additional protection.
Negative Features
You now know what glass wool is made from, but for a complete picture you also need to take an interest in the negative features of this material. Among others, it is worth highlighting:
- susceptibility to shrinkage;
- fiber fragility;
- insufficiently good thermal insulation properties;
- low level of density;
- necessity additional use waterproofing film.
The material may shrink during use, which must be taken into account during construction. It is also important to pay attention to the fragility of the fibers, as well as the fact that the material is afraid of water. For protection you have to use special means.
Glass wool, the characteristics of which were presented above, also has a certain thermal conductivity. This coefficient must be below one. It is important to remember that the material is of higher quality if this parameter is lower. Many people also know that glass wool is unsafe for health. However, on modern market products based on this material are presented that no longer contain harmful substances. But working with this thermal insulation is not very convenient, because it crumbles, so additional products should be used personal protection, namely:
- gloves;
- glasses;
- costume.
Cost of glass wool
Glass wool insulation, the price of which is acceptable for most consumers, is offered for sale in many varieties. This includes slabs and mats different sizes. For example, glass wool with dimensions equal to 10,000 × 1200 × 50 mm will cost the consumer 990 rubles. per m 3. If the material is foil, then you can purchase it for 1,731 rubles.
Product types
The range of fiberglass products includes:
- soft slabs;
- hard mats;
- semi-rigid slabs.
The latter are made on a synthetic binder and withstand high loads. A rigid sheet of glass wool, protected on both sides by glass felt, acts as an excellent windbreak. On the long sides of the product there may be lock connection in the form of a ridge and tongue, which ensures strong fastening and the absence of gaps. Soft materials pressed into rolls. Due to the fact that they have high elasticity, they are straightened and restored, returning their original volume.
Conclusion
Glass wool insulation, the price of which was mentioned above, can be made with additional layers in the form of foil or fiberglass. The first is necessary for steam, while the second is for wind protection. In addition, such an addition eliminates fiber migration.
