[Greenbuilding] FW: How green is cellulose infill? / thermal bridging?

[Jefro]

All of the products I have compared list 75-80% cellulose by weight, and 
20-25% "other stuff" by weight.  It was the other stuff I was concerned 
about.  I very much like the idea of ordering borates only, and we will 
do that if we go with cellulose.

I read an article that I can't find now that talked about adhesives.  
Might have been a MSDS, but of course it would vary among 
manufacturers.  Anyway, as I understand it, the adhesive most often used 
is simple white glue (PVA: polyvinyl acetate).  Considering how much of 
that stuff we use around the house, I would say it falls within our 
acceptable range of toxicity.  It certainly does a good job binding 
cellulose together.  (fingers, too)

Thanks very much to Keith and George for following up on this 
information so carefully.

Keith Winston wrote:
> Are you saying cellulose is 20% (by weight? by volume?) additives? I 
> find that really hard to believe. But thanks for the list of possible 
> additives, I think I'll do some further poking around when I have a 
> moment. I believe wet spray versions have some glue additives that are 
> activated by the water, which you don't mention I don't believe. It 
> would be interesting to check into this further: just looking at the 
> MSDS for a couple different products would be a good first step.
>
> Keith
>
> George J. Nesbitt wrote:
>   
>> Cellulose contains approximately. 20% of the following mix of 
>> additives; borax. boric acid, ammonium sulfate, aluminum sulfate, 
>> lime, ammonium phosphate, mono and diammonium phosphate, aluminum 
>> hydrate, aluminum  trihydrate, and zinc chloride. (from The Healthy 
>> House, John Bower) Exact formula will very with manufacture, product 
>> line. Caccoon has three mixes, one of which is borate only for wet 
>> spray. Don't spray anything not designed for wet spray, I know a 
>> subcontractor that had a 10K sqft house that cost 50K to remediate 
>> after the client smelled ammonia! Always ask for borate only, no 
>> matter how or were you are going to install, dry pack in wall, loose 
>> fill on ceiling, or wet spray in open walls.
>>
>> Borate in enough quantity can abdominal pain, and liver, kidney and 
>> lung dysfunction. Personal protection is required, minimize skin 
>> contact, safety glasses , and good lung protection.
>>
>> I was talking with a builder friend the other day about using 
>> stainless steel nails in ACQ pressure treated rather than double hot 
>> dipped galvanized to reduce corrosion.  And that it wouldn't be a bad 
>> idea to use double hot dipped nails everywhere in a house, because 
>> when you remodel old houses you find corrosion on the steel nails. 
>> Simpson Strong Tie had a chart showing borate treated wood as more 
>> corrosive than ACQ, which as it turns out is more corrosive than CCA, 
>> and other older treatments.
>>
>> Corwyn wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> On Jul 10, 2006, at 17:24, Alan Abrams wrote:
>>>  
>>>
>>>       
>>>> Hmmmm, anyone have any hard data on this issue of thermal bridging?  My
>>>> guess is that what is observed (in infrared photography, etc) is to 
>>>> a large
>>>> extent convection along the edge of fiberglass batts.  How much heat 
>>>> does a
>>>> 2x6 actually conduct, particularly if it's snugly insulated, say, with
>>>> cellulose or sprayed in place polyurethane?  What is the moisture 
>>>> content of
>>>> wood members, when tested for thermal performance, compared to a 
>>>> stud that
>>>> lives in a thoroughly dried out wall cavity?  Is wood getting a bad 
>>>> rap,
>>>> thermally speaking?
>>>>   
>>>>         
>>> A 2x6  is about R-6.8 (edgewise) counting just the wood  (i.e. not in 
>>> a wall at all).
>>>
>>> An article on whole wall thermal performance can be found at:
>>> http://www.ornl.gov/sci/roofs+walls/whole_wall/
>>>
>>> Thank You Kindly,
>>>
>>> Corwyn
>>>
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>>       
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Greenbuilding email list
>> List info: http://listserv.repp.org/mailman/listinfo/greenbuilding_listserv.repp.org
>> List email: Greenbuilding at listserv.repp.org
>> Managed by BuildingGreen, Inc. http://www.buildinggreen.com
>>       publisher of Environmental Building News and GreenSpec(r)
>> Hosted and archived by REPP / CREST http://www.crest.org
>>     
>
>