I work in a company producing building insulation materials and do not have an architectural background or much experience in your field.
So I am curious to know, what most matters to architects and designers such as yourselves when deciding on what insulation material to use? For example, is it safety, ease of installation, product flexibility, price,...?
I have a great amount of respect and admiration for the work architects do and enjoy being taken aback by buildings that seem to defy the laws of nature (e.g. Beijing CCTV building) or just look spectacular, whether old or new (e.g. Bilbao Guggenheim, European cathedrals, Soviet-style bombast, etc.). I would thus greatly appreciate your professional (and personal) opinion on this or any other thoughts you may have on the topic.
Thanks so much, look forward to hearing your opinions.
Sincere regards,
Theis
bowling_ball
Jul 20, 15 1:42 pm
For my work...
1. Cost per unit of R-value or similar (we're transitioning to thermal conductivity, but that's another matter....)
2. In my cold climate, what's the ACTUAL thermal resistance at a given temperature? Some R-6/inch products lose half their resistance at -40.
3. Having your product properly tested by an accredited lab. If you can't back up your numbers, we can't use your product.
null pointer
Jul 20, 15 3:34 pm
kickbacks.
err i mean.. the quality of the documentation on their website.
Jul 20, 15 4:09 pm
What is most important can vary some based on the project. Project criterion will effect some but generally I look to cost of the insulation and R-value and R-value per inch. These all are considerations.
For the most part the factors bowling_ball indicated, I concur with.
Which is #1 is somewhat project dependent. Several attributes are of relative equal importance and project criterion has affect on my decision making.
Kickbacks, however, are rather low because professionally, I do not really choose products for kickbacks to me for ethics.
alphabits
Jul 20, 15 4:31 pm
NFPA 285 testing as part of a wide range of assemblies. Or completely non-combustible products.
Unless you have the data for 285, or alternately your product is 100% non-combustible, I can't even consider the product for any use except in Type V (combustible - typically wood frame) construction.
gruen
Jul 20, 15 6:48 pm
The products absolutely have to be able to meet spec, and have documented proof. Then, R-value vs cost. NFPA 285 is huge too. Beyond that - there are really only a few products that we are using and a lot of them are commodity products.
Pritchard Stalkins, FUFEE
Jul 20, 15 11:00 pm
Safety is ranked my either first or second in terms of importance for insulation. Freshness is the other top value for products. In contrast, the values of environmental impact, animal welfare, color and ease of moving and storage is less important for the insulation products as for some products.
Sometimes it would depend on the nature of the project because it follows if the project is to be built in Canada then it might need more or less insulation. If it was built in New Jersey I can't comment because of architecture and engineering licensing statutes.
curtkram
Jul 22, 15 10:25 am
leed credits!
Everyday Intern
Jul 22, 15 11:36 am
NFPA 285 data that resembles an assembly that we would actually use in a building. I'm not impressed when I get NFPA 285 tests that show that a foam insulation can pass the test with brick veneer over a CMU backup wall. Show me cold-formed metal framing, gyp sheathing, and various types of lightweight cladding. Otherwise, I'm using mineral fiber.
Hi,
I work in a company producing building insulation materials and do not have an architectural background or much experience in your field.
So I am curious to know, what most matters to architects and designers such as yourselves when deciding on what insulation material to use? For example, is it safety, ease of installation, product flexibility, price,...?
I have a great amount of respect and admiration for the work architects do and enjoy being taken aback by buildings that seem to defy the laws of nature (e.g. Beijing CCTV building) or just look spectacular, whether old or new (e.g. Bilbao Guggenheim, European cathedrals, Soviet-style bombast, etc.).
I would thus greatly appreciate your professional (and personal) opinion on this or any other thoughts you may have on the topic.
Thanks so much, look forward to hearing your opinions.
Sincere regards,
Theis
For my work...
1. Cost per unit of R-value or similar (we're transitioning to thermal conductivity, but that's another matter....)
2. In my cold climate, what's the ACTUAL thermal resistance at a given temperature? Some R-6/inch products lose half their resistance at -40.
3. Having your product properly tested by an accredited lab. If you can't back up your numbers, we can't use your product.
kickbacks.
err i mean.. the quality of the documentation on their website.
What is most important can vary some based on the project. Project criterion will effect some but generally I look to cost of the insulation and R-value and R-value per inch. These all are considerations.
For the most part the factors bowling_ball indicated, I concur with.
Which is #1 is somewhat project dependent. Several attributes are of relative equal importance and project criterion has affect on my decision making.
Kickbacks, however, are rather low because professionally, I do not really choose products for kickbacks to me for ethics.
NFPA 285 testing as part of a wide range of assemblies. Or completely non-combustible products.
Unless you have the data for 285, or alternately your product is 100% non-combustible, I can't even consider the product for any use except in Type V (combustible - typically wood frame) construction.
The products absolutely have to be able to meet spec, and have documented proof. Then, R-value vs cost. NFPA 285 is huge too. Beyond that - there are really only a few products that we are using and a lot of them are commodity products.
Safety is ranked my either first or second in terms of importance for insulation. Freshness is the other top value for products. In contrast, the values of environmental impact, animal welfare, color and ease of moving and storage is less important for the insulation products as for some products.
Sometimes it would depend on the nature of the project because it follows if the project is to be built in Canada then it might need more or less insulation. If it was built in New Jersey I can't comment because of architecture and engineering licensing statutes.
leed credits!
NFPA 285 data that resembles an assembly that we would actually use in a building. I'm not impressed when I get NFPA 285 tests that show that a foam insulation can pass the test with brick veneer over a CMU backup wall. Show me cold-formed metal framing, gyp sheathing, and various types of lightweight cladding. Otherwise, I'm using mineral fiber.