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For anyone who has insulated with Havelock wool, I have some questions

3K views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  MOWO 
#1 ·
My basic plan is to use Havelock wool inside the cavities and then install DuraTherm liners over the top. I am doing DuraTherm on all doors, walls, and ceiling.

I have been following the "documentation" (YouTube videos mainly) for installing Havelock wool in oddly shaped cavities in vans. The basic idea is that you form kind of a mesh with nylon twine that temporarily holds the wool in place until you put the wall and ceiling liner over it. The twine doesn't really have to be super great looking. It just has to keep things in place until you can sandwich the wool behind the panels.

The lower panels have lots of holes I can use to thread the nylon through. As do the center 2 panels on the ceiling. The upper panels of the walls and doors, and the 2 ends of ceiling don't really have anything I can weave the mesh through.

I know @Shuttergirl has done something similar to what I'm doing. But according to this thread, I think she said she did not try to use the wool on the upper cavities or the ceiling. (It's not totally clear).

My options are:
1. Use Havelock in the lower panels, and wherever I can manage to get it to stay put on the ceiling (which is about half the ceiling), and then hope the DuraTherm provides enough insulation so that the heat from the roof and upper panels don't radiate through to the interior.

2. Use another method to attach the wool to the upper cavities. You can't glue this stuff (all instructions I've read/watched say this is futile). What are people's thoughts on creating the same nylon mesh, and then using tape to hold it in place?

3. Is #2 the dumbest idea ever? If so, does anyone have any other creative strategy?

My goal is to not use glue or other permanent attachments until I actually know what I'm doing. I am going to make loads of mistakes, and I want to be able to undo things fairly easily.

I'm loving this forum. It is a wealth of information.
 
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#2 ·
I think you're right about using some kind of highly porous netting to support the Havelock on the ceiling. But you must have seen this site -- it looks like it holds together pretty well.

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To keep your wall insulation from settling, you may want to anchor it to the top of the wall. This is not really an issue if your wall framing is divided into many smaller areas – it is more of an issue if you have tall wall cavities, perhaps all the way from the floor to the ceiling. Some approaches include:
  • Attach a wood header to the top of your wall and staple, nail, or screw your sheeps wool insulation to the wood
  • Otherwise nail or screw your sheeps wool insulation to the wall
  • Some customers glue their sheeps wool insulation to the van wall, though we do not have a recommendation on the best for indoor air quality
  • Insert vertical wood framing and staple the sheeps wool insulation to the wood framing
  • Compress thicker sheeps wool insulation into a more shallow cavity and rely on friction to hold it firmly in place
With cavities that are smaller you can probably rely on some combination of volume, friction, glue, or tape.
We also have a great deal on no-itch foil-faced cotton duct wrap (and pipe wrap) which is an affordable option for insulating your van conversion floor!
One of our Sprinter Van Conversion sheep wool insulation customers shared this article about their conversion experience.
Sprinter-Van-with-Sheep-Wool-Insulation

Another Sprinter Van converter documented his method for holding the sheep wool insulation in place: Installing Sheep Wool Insulation in Sprinter Van
 
#4 ·
Not that I know of -- It only needs to hold until you get your ceiling up.
 
#6 ·
Do consider Thinsulate. Will you be camping in hot and/or humid (65+) conditions? Many articles if you google 'wool vs Thinsulate'.
Either way you go, there's no 'easy way' to undo as both require significant time and thought for install. Did I mention the amount of time..even for a Metris. :D
 
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