Wood Fibre Insulation

Materials

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Find out which low impact materials are right for your building project.

What is wood fibre insulation?

Wood fibre insulation is a dense, highly vapour permeable natural fibre insulation made from waste virgin wood from producing other timber products, such as construction timber. Wood waste is ground down into fibres and mixed with other products to produce the rigid boards and flexible batts you can see below.

Wood fibre insulation has been used in Europe for more than 50 years in different forms and it is a well used, well understood material with many technical approvals and certifications for use.

Why use wood fibre insulation?

It has quite unique properties that make it an exceptional all-round insulation material, particularly for roofs and walls. These properties create very comfortable and healthy living spaces and it's sustainability can help reduce the impact of construction on the environment. Being made from waste wood, wood fibre insulation helps remove carbon from the atmosphere by storing it in the fabric of your building.

Wood fibre insulation is well known for it's amazing acoustic properties due to it's high density and vibration absorbing structure. It's high thermal mass (due to high specific heat capacity and density) brings winter comfort but most importantly it provides very effective shielding from the sun, keeping buildings comfortable in the summer heat.

The simplicity of construction used makes it extremely effective at achieving energy targets in buildings and when high quality work is required. It's durability with moisture makes it ideally suited to the wet UK climate as it enables fast drying of timber structures and it has good sustainability credentials, being made from a waste material. To discover more about the benefits of wood fibre insulation in detail, see our article here.

Where can wood fibre insulation be used?

Flexible wood fibre insulation can be used very effectively between timbers, whether studs, joists or rafters. It's high density and slump resistance means that is is easy to get a firm fit that eliminates air pockets in timber structures as well as providing very effective sound absorption.

Wood fibre boards can be used to insulate roof structures to provide thermal and acoustic insulation. They can be used externally over the rafters or internally, fixed to the underside of rafters. Out of all the locations, this is where wood fibre insulation can provide the most effective thermal comfort through it's ability to reduce summer overheating.

Wood fibre boards can also be used to insulate timber framed structures, both internally or externally. When used externally, they can be used as a render carrier for through-coloured, thin-coat renders.

Wood fibre insulation is very effective in retrofit, particularly with internal wall insulation of solid walls, due to the unique way it manages moisture while retaining it's thermal insulation properties. In this location we specifically recommend wet-process insulation boards, due to their higher ability to transport moisture.

Wood fibre boards can also be used externally on masonry as effective external wall insulation. Again it's ability to manage moisture makes it very useful when working with older buildings that rely on vapour permeability in the wall surfaces.

What is different about this wood fibre insulation range?

We have curated an extensive range of wood fibre boards, from a selection of different manufacturers, chosen for their unique properties. Each board excels in a specific area that makes it useful within our bespoke specifications, such as thermal mass, acoustic insulation, impact resistance or thermal insulation.

This is our full range of wood fibre insulation boards and flexible products and although they can all be used on roofs, walls and floors, some are better than others in certain locations. The range contains both wet process and dry process boards, which have different properties and can be used to tailor the way the building performs.

If you do need any help deciding which wood fibre insulation product will work for you, please feel free to use our Specification Generator which will create a specification with the correct wood fibre materials and thicknesses for you.

Alternatively, please feel free to contact us to discuss your requirements further.