Looking for a way to insulate your home that will help you save on energy costs, keep you warm in winter, cool in summer, is enviro-friendly and typically done from outside your home, without ripping out interior drywall? Northern is here for you!
Northern exclusively use Cel-Pak Cellulose Insulation, from National Fiber.
Read more on the National Fiber website and see videos on our video page. Here’s some additional information and some FAQs about this new breed of cellulose insulation,
Cel-Pak is a premium quality cellulose insulation. Cel-Pak is made primarily from over-issue newsprint, along with other high-quality over-issue paper sources, and carefully selected post-consumer newsprint, typically from paper drives. As just one example, if a New England newspaper printed 1,000,000 copies yesterday, but only sold 750,000, National Fiber buys the remaining 250,000 in bulk and turns them into insulation.
There’s a little more to it than that. The newspaper is first reduced to very small pieces in a machine called a hammermill, pieces just big enough to make out one letter from the original newspaper. In the next step, these tiny pieces are ‘fiberized’, that is, we go through another process that breaks them down to the component fibers of the original tree from which the newsprint was made. At this point, there’s no resemblance to the original newspaper. Then a borate, a naturally occurring mineral, is added for fire, mold and pest control. Lastly, there is a tiny amount of mineral oil added, for dust control. The product is then bagged in 25 lb. bags.
No, in fact just the opposite. The borate (a naturally occurring mineral) added to the cellulose fiber ensures that cellulose insulation won’t support combustion. In fact, here’s a picture of what happens when cellulose is exposed to flame, in this case from a torch. The very top layer of the insulation chars instantly, and that char protects everything underneath it, including the hands of our initially reluctant designer, John, who ‘volunteered’ for this picture at the photo shoot. (There is no trick involved in the photo, but we do not recommend you try this at home. And you should never, under any circumstance, try this with fiberglass or foam based insulations – you’ll get badly burnt.) The simple fact of the matter is that cellulose will perform better and provide better protection in the event of a fire than any other type of insulation.
See video here.
No. You’re not going to have that problem with Cel-Pak, because there have been two significant changes since the ‘old days’ of cellulose insulation. First, the way the product is manufactured. Today’s product is fiberized, which allows for increased coverage and lower settled densities.
Second, the machines and techniques to install the product have been greatly upgraded. It may sound like a simple job, but it requires a technically sophisticated, truck or trailer mounted machine to properly install Cel-Pak. It also takes specialty training to learn how to correctly install Cel-Pak.
So with today’s equipment and techniques, Cel-Pak is ‘dense packed’ in the walls of your building at twice its settled density. In simple terms, that means that the wall or ceiling cavity is filled and is actually under slight pressure from the material. It can’t settle because there is no space left for it to settle into.
There are many differences.
As you can see in this chart, Cel-Pak cellulose insulation offers some distinct advantages over fiberglass and sprayed foam. Cel-Pak offers:
The greatest insulating value
The best resistance to air movement through the wall or ceiling
No gaps or voids
The best resistance to noise transmission
In the event of a fire, Cel-Pak works to help prevent it’s spread
The best protection from moisture, mold and pests like carpenter ants
The highest recycled content, by far and
The least embodied energy
In short, Cel-Pak cellulose insulation is the best and the ‘greenest’ choice you can make in insulation for most applications.
Well that’s easy.
Just click here.
More info /resources for you:
Video: Benefits of Cellulose Insulation
Why Choose National Fiber Insulation
10 Things You Should Know About Spray Foam Insulation
10 Things You Should Know About Fiberglass Insulation
National Fiber Limited Lifetime Warranty
