Exposing the Myths of Fiberglass

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:15 am

Well, yes and no. I have seen some truely hairy contructions and 'studios' that are just death traps. Damp, foul walls covered with rockwool. Electrical supply wires just twisted together. No ventilation. Removal of support walls. Removal of structural timbers. Glass doors and iso-booth windows made out of float glass. You name it and the chances are that I've seen it.

So may I suggest a sticky -- how about 'Things that can kill you!' as a thread?

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:46 am

The Byre wrote:

Well, yes and no. I have seen some truely hairy contructions and 'studios' that are just death traps. Damp, foul walls covered with rockwool. Electrical supply wires just twisted together. No ventilation. Removal of support walls. Removal of structural timbers. Glass doors and iso-booth windows made out of float glass. You name it and the chances are that I've seen it.

So may I suggest a sticky -- how about 'Things that can kill you!' as a thread?

Byre,

I suppose I could put together one of those - and perhaps I will.

However - you do understand that the same people who constructed the death traps you've seen - would still do exactly the same after reading it......

It will only educate the same people that we are educating through other means already.

Sincerely,

Rod

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:30 am

I beg to differ! Some of them will read a bit here and there in a forum and then maybe they will come across such a thread and think twice. I have seen a girl cut in half and bleed to death because Daddy decided to replace a broken window with ordinary float glass. He just did not know that there were different types of glass! (This was not a studio build though.)

I have seen one studio owner have his studio explode because he impregnated rockwool with some stuff and it just went up in flames when he lit a cigarette in the studio. Unfortunately he survived, though it took several months for his hair to grow back!

The number of people I have seen give themselves electrical shocks through blinding stupidity must run into double figures (myself included, but I was seven at the time!) One guy just connected the wires together any old how. It never occured to him that they had different colours for a reason. I kid you not - though he did end up shooting himself in the head.

In my days on the road, I have seen two roadies set themselves on fire, one guy try to strip the electrical supply wire using his teeth when it was still connected to the mains and a roadie knock himself out by pushing a follower-spot away that swung back and knocked him off the stage and into the orchestra pit. Now that I come to think of it, I could sit here all day and write up this stuff. There was the guy who killed himself moving a piano . . .

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2006 12:14 pm

Natural selection at work.

Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2006 9:04 pm

Brian R wrote:

So, can you smell formaldehyde coming off your rockwool? probably not.

Brian

I'm new to this forum - so first, hello everyone Smile

What Brian wrote is exactly my problem! I try to improve my acustics and bought to big blocks of glass wool (Isover) to experiment with them.
I covered them with very thin plastic foil (as far as I know this only affect the highs) but some days later a smell formaldehyd in the air. To comfirm this, I stabed a small hole into the foil and immediately smelled a remarkable(!) amount of formaldehy coming from this small hole.

I returned the glass wool the next day...

My room temperatur really wasn`t greater then 150° Smile

, so why does I smell formaldehyd? Maybe a failure ?

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 7:49 pm

Ok, other question... Cool

Your glass wool don't smell of formaldehyd, right?

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 8:44 pm

JCR wrote:

Ok, other question... Cool

Your glass wool don't smell of formaldehyd, right?

JCR,

sorry I missed this -

Some products are manufactured with formaldehyd compounds - and it isn't a big deal if you set them in a safe dry place and allow them to air out for a few days to a week or so......... they will stop off-gassing in time - and then will not release any more gasses......

Sincerely,

Rod

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 1:38 pm

I was looking for something to make some absorber panels from at home depot a couple of weeks ago.

I found that they sell 2'x2' 1 inch (r-board) backed plenum panels to build a plenum box out of.

Just what is this used for? At the intake or the hot air feed in residential forced-air handlers they use stuff like 705 foil backed fiberglass panels too build return or feed manifolds so the ducts can have a common place next to the air handler to terminate in.

What? You mean that they use this nasty fiberglass board, raw side toward the airflow for the heating/ventelation/air/conditioning system in places where people live eat and sleep. YEP they sure do!

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 8:17 pm

Phil,

not on my projects they don't -

any duct board on my projects is of the JM Superduct type - polymer lined board - so no chance of fiberous release over time.

Rod

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 6:08 pm

Wow! The US government and so many subsidized research agencies are such reliable sources of information. (Never covered up anything to prevent a loss of revenue).javascript:emoticon(' Laughing

') Perhaps completely ignoring the independent research material presented by so many people with no economic motivations is a great idea! Believe what you want, but if there is a 10% risk that this crap causes cancer under normal "static" conditions why the hell would you sit in a room covered in it and pump vibrations through it to it's release fibers? I Know you cover it with fabric so those 20 micron particles can't get out. Ever tried to carry a gallon of custard around in a onion bag? Fabric won't stop it! Why tempt fate when there are so many alternatives that are completely safe.The Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) Recently had to refit half its production facilities because this crap was making it's employees seriously ill. The Australian Government tried to put a gag order on this case study so what makes you think the US government or a huge manufacturing company wouldn't do the same. Where there's smoke we usually find fire....javascript:emoticon(' Twisted Evil

')

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:18 am

z60611 wrote:

HockeyMike:

It's not a 'health hazard' due to above.
Fluffy Pink fiberglass and the rigid rockwool that I've got both flake -- so they're an irritant and dusty and need a cover IMO.

For ventilation systems, you should only use materials that are rated for duct work. Linacoustic is an example. It's got enough glue on it to keep the fibers in place even if a gale force wind blows on it.

For the return air duct, you certainly don't have any concerns because the furnace filter will catch anything that falls off.

i think you need to replace it for a new one, if this nothing to fix

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Furnace Filter

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