the story
Our cotton insulation goes by the brand name of UltraTouch. It's made by a company that has been in the insulation business for more than 20 years. The cotton comes from cutting rooms at companies that make denim clothing. The fiber is 100 percent post-industrial waste, meaning it comes from factories, not from jeans people have worn.
Carding machines pull the scraps apart to free individual fibers, similar to the fraying that occurs on the hems of well-worn jeans. The manufacturer saturates the fibers with a fireproofing solution, dries them, mixes in polyolefin fibers and heats the mixture. Polyolefin, probably the least-known of the major types of synthetic fiber, melts from the heat and acts as the glue that holds the batts together. The finished product winds up being 85 percent cotton, 10 percent fireproofing and 5 percent polyolefin. Batts contain no formaldehyde, the most common binder in fiberglass insulation.
performance
Cotton batts are evaluated for insulating value just as other materials are, and the results are expressed as an R-value. The higher the number, the better insulation the material provides. Our cotton batts have an insulating value of R-3.7 per inch. In a thickness that works for 2-by-4 framing, it rates R-13. Our thicker, better-insulating R-21 product works with 2-by-6 framing.
The fireproofing is boric acid, which is obtained from minerals mined in deserts in California and elsewhere. Borates are very low-toxic to humans and other mammals, but they are very effective in adding fire resistance. They also deter chewing insects (including termites, carpenter ants and cockroaches) and various kinds of fungi.
If UltraTouch does become wet, the fibers should dry without problems. The boric acid will work to deter mildew.
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