Retrofit cavity wall insulation - which material to choose beads vs mineral wool?

[SSKK]

I am going to put in some cavity wall insulation in my 1980 build house. I was planning on using the beads simply due to the better insulating values. However, the last man that came around to quote spent quite a bit of time telling me what a bad idea the beads are. He said they are way more susceptible to a poor install - it's way easier to end up with patchy installation, the glue and beads flow from different outputs and it's so easy for the installer not to notice the glue not flowing and the ratios not to be correct etc. I can't remember if he talked about other mechanism to basically end up with cold patches. He said mineral wool is far superior in terms of being able to get a decent installation. 

 

Do people here have thoughts about the pros and cons of different type of materials to use for the cavity wall installation?

[MortarThePoint]

You have to bear in mind each sales person is going to try to make theirs look better. Even if there wasn't glue, the beads would fill the space.

 

I like the draining capability of beads. Watch some YouTube videos of that. Mineral wool on the other hand soaks it up and can go mouldy, though the newer wool may have biocides to stop that.

 

A patchy installation should be observable with a thermal camera in cold weather.

 

As a retrofit I would concentrate on minimising the negatives rather than maximising the positives.

[BotusBuild]

FYI - a surveyor inspected our 1980's built house cavity and told us we couldn't have the glue/bead solution as it would react badly with the waterproof layer on the internal timber frame.

Just another reason to build the new house 😀 

[SSKK]

15 hours ago, MortarThePoint said:

You have to bear in mind each sales person is going to try to make theirs look better. Even if there wasn't glue, the beads would fill the space.

 

I like the draining capability of beads. Watch some YouTube videos of that. Mineral wool on the other hand soaks it up and can go mouldy, though the newer wool may have biocides to stop that.

 

A patchy installation should be observable with a thermal camera in cold weather.

 

As a retrofit I would concentrate on minimising the negatives rather than maximising the positives.

Brilliant thanks, I'll do a google on the draining capabilities. And also more googling required on the mould susceptibility -  we already have internal mould we are battling, and that's one thing I am hoping this insulation will improve, I certainly don't want more mould issues.

[SSKK]

11 hours ago, BotusBuild said:

FYI - a surveyor inspected our 1980's built house cavity and told us we couldn't have the glue/bead solution as it would react badly with the waterproof layer on the internal timber frame.

Just another reason to build the new house 😀 

Hmm interesting, I'll check out if there is a similar issue on mine. 

I'd love to build a house! I'm actually an Aussie, and it seems way way way more common to do self-builds there. I can't figure out here how to get decently priced piece of land - if you have hints let me know! 😀

[BotusBuild]

10 hours ago, SSKK said:

I can't figure out here how to get decently priced piece of land

Inherit 🙂 Steal 🙂 Squat 🙂 

[IGP]

Beads everyday over blown in wool. 
 

They flow better and do not snag on the rough inside of the cavity and drain better. 
 

If I was building a fresh wall, have a nice wide cavity filled with mineral wool batts however.