Head-to-Head: Mineral Wool vs. Fiberglass Insulation

When it comes to insulating residential wall cavities and attic spaces, two of the most common insulation choices are fiberglass and mineral wool batts. While both insulations are excellent choices, understanding the benefits of both materials can be helpful in making the right choice based on the requirements of your building project. The chart below compares fiberglass to mineral wool, followed by a more detailed description of each category below.

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THERMAL PERFORMANCE
The primary reasons people choose to insulate are for thermal and acoustical control. For both of these characteristics, mineral wool has slightly better performance than fiberglass. For example, JM&#;s mineral wool batt, TempControl®, offers an R-15 at 3.5 inches, while JM&#;s fiberglass batts offer an R-13 at the same thickness.

INSULATION WEIGHT
Notably, while you can get a higher R-value out of mineral wool, the material is denser than fiberglass &#; so, it weighs more. In applications where you might need a very robust R-value, such as an R-49, the weight of the mineral wool would be significantly greater than that of the fiberglass. As a result, in applications like an attic, where the insulation will be resting directly on the gypsum board, the weight of mineral wool could be prohibitive, making fiberglass a better choice.

SOUND CONTROL
In terms of acoustics, mineral wool has marginally better sound control properties; however, the difference in acoustical performance is so minimal that humans would not be able to distinguish a difference between the two materials in a wall cavity. Both fiberglass and mineral can be used in a variety of assemblies to meet specific Sound Transmission Class (STC) requirements.

FIRE RESISTANCE
In addition to thermal and acoustical performance, many people make insulation material selections based on fire protection. While, both unfaced fiberglass and unfaced mineral wool are noncombustible and help delay the spread of fire, mineral wool does have a much higher melting point than fiberglass, and as such it is often considered the more fire-resistant material.

INSULATION FACING & MOISTURE CONTROL
When it comes to water vapor, both materials would need a facing to prevent vapor drive; however, mineral wool does not come with a facing. As a result, if inhibiting vapor drive and condensation are a priority, a faced fiberglass solution may be a better choice than an unfaced mineral wool alternative with a separate vapor barrier.

INSULATION HANDLEABILITY
Finally, installers should consider their preferences in handling the materials. The lower density fiberglass tends to be much more flexible. It is worth noting that despite its flexibility, stable, bonded glass fibers will not slump within the wall cavity, settle or break down in normal applications. In contrast to the flexibility of fiberglass, mineral wool is much more rigid because of its density. Some installers prefer the rigidity of mineral wool to the flexibility of fiberglass. Handling preferences can vary among installers, and in this category, it comes down largely to personal preference.

IDEAL USE
While both mineral wool and fiberglass can be used in very similar applications, there are some applications where one is more common than the other. Mineral wool is commonly used to insulate exterior walls, basements, and heated crawl spaces. It can also be used in continuous insulation applications. Fiberglass is typically used to insulate interior and exterior walls, basements, garages, and attics, but it is not used as continuous exterior insulation.

You can use our insulation calculator to determine the recommended R-value for a project, as well as the type and amount of insulation you&#;ll need to complete the project.

Both mineral wool and fiberglass are excellent home insulations. To learn more about insulation products from Johns Manville, visit our website.
 

Jun. 22,

Glass Wool belongs to a category of glass fibers. It is an artificial inorganic fiber. Glass wool is the molten glass fibrosis, forming cotton material, the chemical composition of glass, is a kind of inorganic fiber, has a good shape, small volume density, low thermal conductivity, thermal insulation, sound-absorbing performance is good, decay resistance, stable chemical properties. 

Quartz sand, limestone, dolomite, and other natural ore as the main raw materials, with some soda, borax, and other chemical raw materials fused into glass. In the melting state, with the help of the external force blowing style to cast into the flocculent fine fiber, fiber and fiber for three-dimensional cross, intertwined together, showing many small gaps. This gap may be regarded as a pore. Therefore, glass wool can be regarded as porous material, with good insulation, and sound absorption properties.

  Glass Wool     

Glass Wool vs Rock Wool

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1. Different production materials and processes

Centrifugal glass wool is glass as the main raw material and then in accordance with a certain proportion with a variety of other accessories mixed into the glass furnace after fully melted, the melted solution through the leakage plate out, into the centrifugal.

Operate at a high-speed centrifuge, the centrifugal machine high speed will be thrown into a glass trickle, under the action of high temperature and high speed of a flame, glass was further stretched trickle into the fiber, then spray adhesives, in the collection of the cotton net with negative pressure under the action of wind, attached the fiber composed of resin adhesives in the movement of the network, formed a uniform cotton blanket, and then by the constant temperature curing furnace, complete the curing process, the product shape, finalize the design after cutting has become after the scheduled products, and then for packaging. 

Fine basalt rock wool products as the main raw material, by high-temperature melting, inorganic fiber is made from high-speed centrifugal equipment, add special binder and swinging with the oil in the dust mat and through special equipment, the changing structure of fiber array, finally by curing shapes and made of a new type of lightweight thermal insulation material. Rock wool board can be processed according to different purposes, seam rock wool blanket, rock wool pipe shell, and other products.

2. Acoustic performance

Both glass wool and rock wool have sound insulation properties. As sound insulation cotton, 24kg/m3 centrifugal glass wool, and 80kg/m3 rock wool have the same sound insulation performance.

3. Price comparison

Glass wool and rock wool per square meter price are basically the same, in transportation, construction, and other links to save more costs.

4. Hydrophobic performance

Glass wool will not be broken because of water and rain, is easy to dry after being soaked in water, stable performance. Rock cotton soaked in water immediately after the soft collapse, a lot of performance loss.

5. Service life

Huamei glass wool will not produce powder and performance of the phenomenon of a sharp decline, safety stability glass wool service life can be up to 30 years, rock wool easy to powder, after a certain time will appear slag ball down, or even broken, the service life is generally about 10 years.