[Cob] wool for insulation

[Elizabeth Evans]

I have worked with wool as a spinner and felter and done a lot of reading
about it -- I know there is research out there on using wool for insulation
and some companies experimenting with it as a green insulation material -- a
search with various key terms and a little persistence should dig it up for
you.  There is also research on wool moths and their prevention, etc.
I do recommend doing your homework.

Issues with wool:

Odor: minimized by washing - can be really nasty and include urine odor if
you don't at least sort the dirtiest soiled wool out. I would use a bathtubs
for large batches, but if you have a washing machine, you can try filling
it, putting in the wool, letting it soak with the machine STOPPED, then
setting it to spin and spinning out the dirty water. Remove, fill with water
again, repeat until wool is cleaning enough.

Moths: read up on them. There's lots of information. Minimized by washing
and proper storage. Look for information from universities, museums,
laboratories -- there are lots of home remedies and old wives tales floating
around.

Flammability: washed wool is flame-resistant. Wool with the lanolin in is
much more flammable. An ember falling on a wool rug may self-extinguish
because as the wool smolders slowly, it produces an ash that smothers the
flame long enough to keep it from spreading and let the spot burn out -- but
like  many other materials, wool WILL burn if enough heat and oxygen are
present, as they could be in a house fire. And when it burns, it produces a
really nasty gas with neurotoxic effects -- it is actually similar to (or
perhaps the same gas) produced when the kind of foam used in sofa cushions,
etc. is burned. When I first heard this, I didn't believe it --I spent most
of a day tracking this information down on the internet until I found
medical articles that verified this to my satisfaction--purely to satisfy my
pig-headed curiosity.

Having said that much, we ARE off-topic -- this is an interesting natural
building topic but not a COB topic....so please feel free to email me off
list if you want to disagree or ask questions...

Elizabeth

On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 12:01 PM, Christopher Reinhart <sandymud at gmail.com>wrote:

> When I visited the Heart House in Oregon, Ianto told me that they ruined a
> washing machine trying to wash the wool.  He said that after that they took
> the unwashed wool, put it in plastic bags, and used it that way with good
> results.
>
> Here's a link to a table of R-values on wool insulation that I found (it's
> for carded wool batts, so it probably won't be exactly the same as what
> you're using, but it can serve as an approximation).
> http://www.goodshepherdwool.com/Rvalue.htm
>
> -Chris
>
> On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 9:38 PM, Henry Raduazo <raduazo at cox.net> wrote:
>
> > I think heard that you should not wash the wool or at least not wash
> > it in such a way as to remove the lanolin. It protects the wool from
> > moths.
> > Ed
> >
> >
> > On Jun 2, 2009, at 12:48 AM, Kristen Davenport wrote:
> >
> > > Hi there
> > > I have a nearly unlimited source for wool if I want it. I was
> > > thinking of
> > > using this as insulation for our home remodel/cob addition. I don't
> > > want to
> > > have to do a lot to it-- I was thinking to wash it, soak it in the
> > > borax
> > > solution , and stuff it into the places I need it. Does anyone have a
> > > general guideline for the R-value of wool like this in its natural
> > > state?
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > > Kristen
> > >
> > >
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