Insulation – Materials for All Types

In a sentence, insulation is the prevention of having heat or sound from being transmitted from one place to the other. There are materials for these that bar one condition (heat or sound) from spreading. With the work and lifestyle today, you want to keep them out from places you want to be comfortable and peaceful.

There are many ways to do this, and mostly with the help of materials we depend on to do the job. Insulators usually use tiny pockets of air in them. The air is one very good insulating materials, and confined pockets of trapped air gives many types of thermal resistance.

Heat and cold

To control heat, the first thing that comes to people’s minds is thermal insulation. This type of insulation is found in house walls, ceilings, and floors. Also, it is usually in the outside of the house where heat is gained or lost.

The main idea is simple to keep one side of the wall warmer than the other. This usually occurs in places where the weather has extreme variations during their times of the year.

Your insulating design needs to follow the climatic pattern. If your place is constantly cold or constantly hot, you need to pattern your design accordingly.

Measurements

The thermal insulation is measured in R-values (R stands for resistance). The higher the R-value, the better the material can provide insulation.

The R value of the material itself is known as Rm, while the total R value of the construction (including all the materials in it—concrete, plasterboards, bricks, etc.) is known as the RT. Those reflective membranes with air spaces added to the system add to the RT, while the reflective material itself does not have any Rm.

Sounds

Insulating materials not only controls heat, it also controls sound. In some degrees, every type of insulating material can do both control of sound and heat.  The acoustic type is usually found in walls, ceilings, and floors.

Specialized sound proofing is done in some special applications like home theaters, recording studios and the like.

There are now acoustic insulating measures for windows, ceilings ands walls. These are for areas where outside sound can be a nuisance (busy roads, airports, train lines, etc.), there are specialized ways in keeping out the sounds from the outside environment.

Double duty

These days, some materials meant for keeping thermal heat inside a house or building from the cold outside, can also prevent sound to seep through inside. The fact is that this ability depends on so many factors.

Pitch and volume of the sound, how your house is constructed, and the general noise level of your area govern the intensity of the unwanted sound. Keeping off the noise is better inside houses between rooms and living spaces.

Materials

Batts (usually made of glasswool or rockwool) are materials with plenty of trapped air inside them will be the insulating material for heat resistance. Others include blown-in cellulose, polyurethane foam, polyester matting and reflective foil.

Actually, most of them offer different insulation properties for you to choose from for your particular needs.