Charlie:
Ron in Magnolia writing to us. He says that he’s having a house built up there and he wants to know what kind of insulation should he use. I know that you are going to say fiberglass over foam.
Tom:
Formaldehyde-free too.
Charlie:
Right.
Tom:
Because the health of everybody is so important. We’re getting into all these water issues and outgassing issues. Now in Houston, you know what’s big now is going to be the mold deal again because of all the floods and everything.
Charlie:
No doubt, yeah.
Tom:
I read some stuff the other day on mold and it does a lot more harm than I thought in different ways in a body. With all the different issues, yeah, formaldehyde-free fiberglass, to me, for the dollar and what it does and the cost of electricity right now and energy, it works out really well. I think it’s the safe choice.
Charlie:
Not everyone has listened to every show we’ve ever done, so there has to be an application for foam that makes sense, other than a cooler.
Tom:
No, I wouldn’t use it in any home I would build for somebody because I don’t think it makes sense in Houston.
Charlie:
Right.
Tom:
I had a home that was filled with foam, but it was in Lake Placid, New York.
Charlie:
Your foam home?
Tom:
That was my foam home. It was built in 1896 and it was re-
Charlie:
They were ahead of their time.
Tom:
Yeah, really. Anyway, foam, to get a really super high tight R-value for a very cold, cold climate, it actually works well. But it was only in the walls. It was not in the basement. I had an old stone basement, we still had fiberglass down there, and in the attic it was fiberglass too. In the walls, because a breathing issue was not an issue in Lake Placid, New York. We didn’t have humidity, well, we had some humidity, but you didn’t have air conditioning. I didn’t have air conditioning in the house. It was fine. Anyway, foam in the walls worked well there. I don’t know if I’d do it here in Houston, though, Charlie.
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