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Can wet roof insulation be dried out?

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Abstract
Nondestructive techniques are being widely used to locate wet insulation in compact roofs. Now that wet insulation can be found, breather vents and so-called "breathable" membranes are being promoted to dry out wet insulation, thereby recovering its thermal effectiveness. Our exposure tests in New Hampshire indicate that the above venting features are all rather ineffective in drying sealed specimens of perlite and fibrous-glass roof insulation. It would take many decades to dry our specimens at the rates we measured over the past two years. Cross-ventilation within the insulation increased the rate of drying. For perlite insulation, the faster rate would still result in a drying time measured in decades. For fibrous-glass insulations, the drying time was reduced to 13 years. We have succeeded in drying fibrous-glass insulation in a roof by removing the water with a vacuum cleaner. Before the water was removed, the insulaton had only 21 percent of its dry insulating ability. After the tests, it had 83 percent.
Date
4/1980
Author(s)
W Tobiasson; C Korhonen; B Coutermarsh, A Greatorex
Page(s)
20
Keyword(s)
thermal insulation; moisture; vents; venting; water removal; drying


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