Do it Yourself Cotton Insulation

When you are ready for the finishing touches of your wall or attic project, the type of insulation you choose can mean the difference between comfort and financial ease of mind or a financial fiasco. This is because the level of detail you put into the effort, the more energy cost savings you will realize later on down the road. Not only that, but your own personal comfort is at stake; a house that is too warm in the summer and too cold in the winter works against the whole idea of a stress-free environment. You also want a safe home, free from as many potential health hazards as you can manage. Finally, if you are going to do it yourself, you want the job to be as simple and clean as possible; even a do-it-yourself project should not have to be too dirty.

This is where cotton insulation could become your best friend. First, though possibly not the most important feature, it holds the same effective R-value as fiberglass insulation. You could, in theory, replace all of the pink stuff with this and not see any drop in energy cost savings at all; that is a huge bonus once you read about the other positive features of cotton insulation.

Cotton insulation is produced in rolls, or batts, so there is no need to research all sorts of local environmental ordinances that cover the handling of airborne particles. Nor do you have to worry about costly machines and other tools related to the use of blown insulation. Unfortunately, you won’t experience quite the perfect R-value coverage that blown insulation offers but, again, other positive features of cotton insulation will make up for that minor loss.

Possibly the most important feature of cotton insulation is that it is the safest type of insulation you can use, made from organic materials mixed with flame retardants, but not just any organic materials are used. The materials used in cotton insulation left over denim particles from clothing manufacturers; material that would normally find its way into landfills, accelerating the growth of their ever increasing girths. This is where the loss of R-value effectiveness pays for itself in other ways; such as the minor reduction in expensive landfill cleanup. There is no formaldehyde, no carcinogens, no chemical irritants, and resists the growth of molds and fungi.

Finally, an important detail the needs of your do-it-yourself project is that it goes up clean without the skin irritants that other types of insulation have such as fiberglass. You can cut and trim the cotton insulation batts or rolls and install them while wearing shorts, t-shirt, and without the need of a dust mask.

Now, that is the kind of do-it-yourself work we can all appreciate.