What's this stuff in the ceiling? Brown dusty stuff, spread all over the ceiling.

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › What's this stuff in the ceiling? Brown dusty stuff, spread all over the ceiling.

tristanb

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#280555 22-Dec-2020 20:04

You can see some pink batts, but there's this brown stuff piled relatively evenly over the ceiling to about 10cm in depth.

You can see it's been moved where the LEDs are.

There are also rubbish sacks of it, which I assume was removing it to replace with batts?

tristanb

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#2625629 22-Dec-2020 20:08

Googling a bit more, it looks like cellulose insulation.

Is this better or worse than batts?

timmmay

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#2625631 22-Dec-2020 20:22

https://www.thespruce.com/cellulose-insulation-basics-1821904

Looks ok. Can compact down.

neb

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#2625663 22-Dec-2020 23:08

That's sneezed-in insulation, cellulose fibre like shredded paper or wood. Gets moved into corners if there's any air movement in the attic so you've got R0 in exposed areas and gets mouldy and mildewy if there's any moisture up there, which also reduces its R-value. It's the stuff you get sucked out before putting in proper insulation.

Journeyman

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#2625665 22-Dec-2020 23:09

That's insulfluff mate.

mattwnz

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#2625675 23-Dec-2020 00:09

Journeyman:

That's insulfluff mate.

I thought that was normally grey, but yes it looks like a similar consistency ? Horrible stuff though, seemed popular in the 70's and 80's with that black plastic piping.

Ironically, if you google it, the top listings are all about removing it