Masonry Magazine January 2003 Page. 36
The ease of use that vermiculite can claim helps offset the added cost factor - vermiculite is generally more expensive than foam. Moeller admits as much, "In terms of an installed cost per foot, it is more expensive than foam. The other biggest downside is, because it's free flowing, if you end up doing retrofits to those walls, and you're not careful about cutting into them, it's just like an hourglass the stuff will just pour out."
Huckabee agrees, "The bad thing about a loose fill material is it must typically be injected as the wall is going up. So at any point in time if a door is cut into the wall, or a window put in, or pipe chase is run, and the wall is cut into, the loose fill insulation will run out. That's probably the biggest complaint you'll hear from a mason contractor - 'I pour it in and something happens that I have to cut into the wall, and the product pours out and it's next to impossible to get it back in there and to make sure it's 100 percent full.'"
There are ways around that. Grace provides stickers that go on the walls during installation of Zonolite Masonry Insulation (ZMI) to advise people that if they're going to cut into the walls, they must put a seal around the cut. "But that never happens," Temple interjects. "They might recommend these things, but it never happens and it's one of the biggest reasons why architects and contractors were yearning for a different type of system 20 years ago when we came out with foam-in-place for commercial applications."
While pour-in is poured in as the wall goes up or near the end before the cap is placed, foam is done after the wall is completed, all the cuts are made and the masons are on their way home. "That's the beauty of our product," smiles Temple. "Typical installation guidelines are that all the block is up, roof's on, doors are put in, windows are put in, pipe chases are put in, electrical conduits are put in. Everything is in place and then we come in and seal up the building, seal the voids. It allows us to completely fill every void once everything is in place. Then if someone goes back and adds something like a door or window - or backs into it with truck - the insulation stays in place and does not come out."
Moeller brings up another factor: sound. "Both products, foam or pour-in material, provides other things besides thermal insulation. In an apartment complex situation, for example, you've got sound transmission, which is a big issue these days. Vermiculite has a pretty good sound transmission rating of 51. That's equivalent to cutting out about half the noise that would normally be transmitted through that CMU unit."
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TOOL MORTAR JOINT SURFACE
WITH A ROUND JOINTER
MORTAR TO INCLUDE DRY BLOCKE
AS A WATER REPELLENT
DRY BLOCKS WATER REPELLENT
HOLLOW CMU
EXTEND PERMA BARRIERD FLASHING
HEYOND FACE OF WALL TO FORMA
DRIP EDGE FOLD INTERIOR EDGE
OF FLASHING
WEEPHOLESZ-80C.
PARTIALLY OPEN JOINT HEADS
PEA STONE (WASHED)
FINISH GRADE
CONCRETE MASONRY UNITS
GROUTED SOLID
(ALTERNATE: CONCRETE FOUNDATION)