A Guide to Foam Glass Insulation

If you want a comfortable home that is less expensive to operate, putting some thought into your home’s insulation is helpful.

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Insulation can help address the many ways a home can lose heat (for example, through walls, the floor, and roofs). Insulation works by putting a thermal barrier between the inside of a house and the outside of it. Better insulation means less heat is transferred between the inside and outside of the house, saving energy and money on both heating and cooling. Ensuring your home has effective insulation is an essential part of achieving the benefits of a highly energy-efficient home.

There are several different insulation options on the market. The most common include fiberglass batting, cellulose insulation, spray foam insulation, and mineral wool insulation.

There are also less common insulation types that are worth considering. These types include, among others, sheep wool and foam glass insulation. While foam glass isn’t typical in North American residential building projects, the material has been around for decades. Foam glass was invented in the s. Pittsburgh Corning (later Owens Corning) invented a patented version of foam glass called Foamglas® that decade.

Table of Contents

1. What Is Foam Glass Insulation?
2. What Is Foam Glass Insulation Used For?
3. Is Foam Glass a Good Insulator?
4. What Are the Advantages of Foam Glass?
5. What Are the Disadvantages of Foam Glass?
6. Foam glass manufacturers in North America
7. Wrap-up

What Is Foam Glass Insulation Used For?

Foam glass is a hard, solid building material with exceptional strength and load-bearing properties. It can be used as sub-slab insulation and can replace both the aggregate and thermal layers underneath a building.

Foam glass is also lightweight, which means you can use it as roof insulation, with particular value in buildings with green roofs. Green roofs can be quite heavy, so the lightness of foam glass is advantageous for green roofs.

The strength and insulation properties of foam glass also make it useful for large infrastructure projects like roads and pipes. In some cases, you can use foam glass as a heat and sound insulator around pipes.

Although residential use of foam glass is more common in Europe, it is less common to use foam glass in North America. Although, if a homeowner is committed to the idea of foam glass, it makes an excellent replacement for extruded polystyrene.

What Are the Advantages of Foam Glass?

The advantages of foam glass as a building material are in both the manufacturing and use phases of the material.

When compared to extruded polystyrene, the foam glass manufacturing process and materials have less environmental harm. Foam glass manufacturing does not require the use of a potent greenhouse gas that is necessary to make extruded polystyrene. Foam glass is also sometimes made from recycled glass, which further reduces its environmental impact.

Foam glass is made mostly of glass, which means it does not burn. This fire-resistant property is an advantage of foam glass in itself. Also, toxic brominated flame retardants are not necessary when manufacturing foam glass. Avoiding toxic flame retardants protects both workers who manufacture the foam glass and homeowners who use it from exposure to toxic chemicals.

Health concerns about air quality are also a problem with some forms of spray foam insulation options, and foam glass does not have these health concerns because it is made of fire-resistant glass and is inert.

As a building material, foam glass has the advantage of being water-resistant, and it won’t break down at all when exposed to water. Also, foam glass is pest-resistant, meaning wood-boring insects like termites or ants cannot break down the material. These properties make foam glass a long-lasting building material, which can make it a more sustainable option than other insulation types.

What Are the Disadvantages of Foam Glass?

The most significant disadvantage of foam glass, particularly in North American markets, is the price. It is more expensive than other forms of insulation on a per-unit basis.

However, foam glass can serve more than one role because it is insulating and porous (meaning water can get through). And while foam glass is porous, it does not break down with water exposure. Therefore, foam glass can replace two other building materials – those used for insulation and drainage. For example, foam glass can replace both the aggregate needed for drainage and polystyrene insulation when used under a slab foam. As a result, foam glass can become more cost-competitive in some building contexts.

The other disadvantage of foam glass is that it is not yet a widely used residential building material in North America. It can be hard to find for use in residential construction. Many builders may not yet know how to work with the material in residential contexts. Therefore, a homeowner may need to work with builders as they figure out how to use the material.

Foam glass manufacturers in North America

While foam glass is more common in Europe, in early , there was news of two foam glass companies in North America making the push on foam glass fill in the U.S. market. Aero Aggregates uses 100% post-consumer glass to create a foam glass aggregate as a superior backfill in construction projects. Glavel is a Vermont-based company that offers several foam glass products for larger infrastructure projects. The use of these foam glass products can reduce these projects' carbon impact compared to projects using more traditional kinds of fill and insulation.

Owens Corning, the original Foamglas® company, operates in North America. It has a range of foam glass products. However, Owen Corning has exited the U.S. residential foam glass market because of cost issues and a lack of large orders. 

Contact us to discuss your requirements of Aerodynamic Glass Insulator. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.

Wrap-up

Overall, foam glass insulation offers environmental and health benefits as insulation in both large infrastructure projects and homes. From a lower-impact, healthier manufacturing process to properties that make it resistant to fire and pests, foam glass has many benefits that homeowners will appreciate.

However, if a homeowner in North American is interested in using foam glass insulation as insulation in their home, it will take some work. Doing some research by reaching out to foam glass manufacturers and connecting with local builders, and asking about foam glass insulation is one place to start.

Johns Manville Micro-Fiber® Felt is manufactured using Type 475 borosilicate glass fibers using a water deposition process that results in a lightweight, flexible, binderless felt with excellent handling qualities and superior thermal and acoustic performance. Micro-Fiber Felt is designed for the insulation of aircraft components and jet engine ducting and can be used as air and gas filtration media. It is available in a variety of densities and can withstand continuous exposure to hot face temperatures of up to 900°F (482°C).

Availability: Americas, United States, Asia, Canada, Europe
Type: Binderless Felt
Temperature Limit: 900°F
Density: 3.0 - 6.0 pcf
Thickness: 0.188” – 1.0”

Johns Manville Microlite® AA Premium blankets are lightweight, flexible blankets that provide superior thermal and acoustic performance similar to Microlite AA Standard but at 20% less weight. These blankest are designed for a variety of aerospace applications where space and weight are key considerations. They are particularly well suited for insulating the fuselage wall cavities of commercial and business aircraft. Microlite AA Premium blankets are available in a variety of density and thickness combinations.

Availability: Americas, United States, Asia, Canada, Europe
Temperature Limit: 450°F
Density: 0.34 - 1.20 pcf
Standard Thickness: 0.375" & 1.0"
Color: Varies

Johns Manville Microlite® AA Standard blankets are lightweight, flexible blankets that provide superior thermal and acoustic performance for a variety of aerospace applications where space and weight are key considerations. They are particularly well suited for insulating the fuselage wall cavities of commercial and business aircraft. Microlite AA Standard blankets are available in a variety of density and thickness combinations. For applications that demand even greater weight savings our Microlite AA Premium blankets are an option providing similar performance at 20% less weight.

Availability: Americas, United States, Asia, Canada, Europe
Temperature Limit: 450°F
Density: 0.42 - 1.50 pcf
Thickness: 0.375" to 1.0"
Color: Varies by thickness

Johns Manville Microlite® AA Unbonded is a lightweight, binderless insulating blanket designed for applications in which intermittent temperatures may reach as high as °F (538°C). Because of its binderless construction, Microlite AA Unbonded eliminates outgassing or binder vaporization in such applications as cold face insulation in thermal fabrications for aircraft engines or thermal insulation in solar collectors. Microlite AA Unbonded provides superior thermal and acoustic performance and withstands temperatures up to °F (538°C) for short-term exposure and up to 850°F (454°C) for continuous exposure.

Availability: Americas, United States, Asia, Canada, Europe
Temperature Limit: 850°F - °F
Weight: 0.05 psf
Standard Thickness: 1.0"

Johns Manville Microlite® AA Uncured insulation is manufactured using flame-attenuated borosilicate glass fibers bonded with an uncured thermosetting resin and provides superior thermal and acoustic performance.  It can be molded into a wide range of sizes, shapes, densities and thicknesses to fit odd-shaped parts, special configurations and applications in which precise insulation fit is critical. After proper curing, the molded or sized insulation material is excellent for aerospace or high temperature equipment applications where space and weight are key considerations.

Availability: Canada, United States
Temperature Limit: Varies (see data sheet)
Weight: Varies (see data sheet)
Color: Varies (see data sheet)

Johns Manville Microlite® B is a lightweight, flexible blanket manufactured using flame-attenuated borosilicate glass fibers and bonded with a thermosetting phenolic resin. The flame-attenuated process used in the manufacture of Microlite B provides uniformly distributed glass fibers with low heat transfer characteristics, excellent acoustic performance and high tensile strength. The resilient glass fibers prevent vibrational settling. Microlite B blankets are designed for applications where temperatures do not exceed 450°F (232°C).

Availability: United States, Canada, Europe
Temperature Limit: 450°F
Density: 0.5 - 1.0 pcf
Thickness: 0.5" - 1.0"

Johns Manville Microlite® B Unbonded is a lightweight, binderless insulating blanket designed for applications in which intermittent temperatures may reach as high as °F (538°C). Because of its binderless construction, Microlite B Unbonded eliminates outgassing or binder vaporization in such applications as cold face insulation in thermal fabrications for aircraft engines or thermal insulation in solar collectors. Microlite B Unbonded provides excellent thermal and acoustic performance and withstands temperatures up to °F (538°C) for short-term exposure and up to 850°F (454°C) for continuous exposure.

Availability: Canada, United States
Type: Binderless Blanket
Temperature Limit: 850°F - °F
Density: 0.625 psf
Thickness: 0.25"

Johns Manville Q-Fiber® Felt is formed from exceptionally pure silica fibers using a water deposition process. It is clean, flexible, binderless, and possesses the thermo-physical and chemical stability of pure amorphous silica. Q-Fiber Felt is effective in a wide range of applications and provides superior thermal and acoustic performance for aircraft, missiles, spacecraft and special industrial applications. It offers high heat resistance, remaining effective up to °F (982°C) for steady state applications.

Availability: Canada, United States
Type: Binderless Felt
Temperature Limit: °F
Density: 3.0 - 6.0 pcf
Thickness: 0.188" - 0.50"

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