Full Product Manual

ROCKWOOL
10
Many home and cottage owners can enjoy additional
benets by insulating their crawl spaces. In some cases,
the most difcult aspect of insulating a crawl space is
having enough room to work around to properly install
the insulation. If the crawl space area is easy to get at, the
installation of ROCKWOOL insulation is quite simple.
Typically, there are two types of crawl spaces – they
are dened by either being vented or non-vented. The
difference in how the two crawl space types are insulated
is dened by either applying insulation to the exterior
wall, or to the ceiling/oor between the heated living
space and the crawl space.
ROCKWOOL Insulation: a two-tiered solution to
insulating crawl spaces
ROCKWOOL has two thermal insulation products for
interior crawl space wall assemblies:
ROCKWOOL Comfortboard
®
80 (Insulation Sheathing) and
ROCKWOOL Comfortbatt
®
. When used in tandem within
the 2 x 4 stud wall cavity, these two products help create
a drier, more comfortable space.
A vented crawl space can be notorious for dampness,
but ROCKWOOL insulation is water-repellent, moisture-
resistant yet vapor-permeable. The permeance of
ROCKWOOL products allows moisture vapor to pass
through the insulation without being trapped. In the
unfortunate event of basement leak where the insulation
becomes wet, ROCKWOOL insulation quickly dries out
and maintains its R-Value. ROCKWOOL won’t absorb
water and is not susceptible to mold.
Comfortboard
®
80 and the effects of
thermal bridging
Before recommending the Good, Better, Best R-Values
for the crawl space wall assembly, we need to understand
thermal bridging – the process that describes a material’s
capacity to conduct heat from one material to another.
In a typical crawl space, cold air transfers from the
outside concrete foundation through the wood studs and
eventually into the living space. The studs perform as the
conduit or “thermal bridge”, lowering the R-Value of the
wall assembly. A continuous layer of insulation such as
Comfortboard 80 installed against the studs reduces this
thermal bridging, blunting the effect of thermal bridging
between the concrete and the studs.
Crawlspace