[Greenbuilding] How green is cellulose infill?

[Mike O'Brien]

Hi, Jefro--

Here in Portland, we are building a house with framed walls, 2x6 on  
16" centers and interior horizontal strapping to create a 7-1/2" wall  
depth. We plan to blow cellulose into these walls.

As far as I can tell the fire retardant, which also acts as a bug  
retardant, is boric acid and borax pentahydrate. The cellulose fiber  
is from recycled newsprint. And from all the research I have done,  
the borates are safe unless you eat them.

Best,

Mike O'Brien


On Jul 7, 2006, at 5:29 PM, Jefro wrote:

> Thanks, I should have been more clear with our intentions.
>
> This house is sort of a hybrid.  There are several posts/beams on the
> interior, where we will be able to see them.  The exterior is a solid,
> contiguous, insulated stud wall (with openings for windows/doors,
> naturally).
>
> The original plan was for either a standard bale wrap, with no  
> notching,
> or a hybrid with some large (12x12) posts and some stud walls which
> would hold notched bales.  We are sticking with the same  
> dimensions, but
> we will very likely change insulation to a material more acceptable to
> the building and planning office.
>
> I'll do some more research on what is available locally before we  
> make a
> decision.  If what we can get is filled with toxins, we might well
> decide to stick with bales and duke it out with the building office,
> although in that case we almost certainly won't get the house  
> closed in
> before winter, which throws our whole schedule out of whack, financial
> and otherwise.  (We are working with a 12-month bridge loan, hopefully
> closing in about a month.)
>
> Thanks for the information!  I'll post more about our project at  
> some point.
>
> Corwyn wrote:
>>
>> On Jul 7, 2006, at 17:22, Jefro wrote:
>>> My questions are:  what sort of chemicals are mixed into  
>>> cellulose to
>>> make it fireproof?  Is it simply a set of inert borate compounds,  
>>> or are
>>> there hardcore chemicals involved?  I imagine this might be  
>>> specific to
>>> different applications and even locales.
>>
>> Mostly borate compounds, you are correct, but of course you should
>> check with the particular brand you intend to buy.
>>
>> You might check out my website
>> http://www.greenfret.com/house/house.html for an examples of a post
>> and beam OUT-filled with cellulose.  Although infill is recommend by
>> some for strawbale, I would not recommend it for cellulose filled.
>> Putting the cellulose on the outside is much easier, provides better
>> insulation, and allows inspection and maintenance of the post and  
>> beam.
>>
>> Thank You Kindly,
>>
>> Corwyn
>>
>
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