Blown In

There are two big players in the blown in business cellulose and fiberglass. 

Cellulose mostly comprized of recycled paper products (cardboard and newspapers) is the better performer of the two. This is because when installed correctly with the proper density (fluff) your R-value will be aobut 10% higer than fiberglass. In addition to being a higher performer it is also treated with borax that makes it both fire and pest resistant. Another good quality is that it is denser that fiberglass so it has better sound dapening qualities in comparision to its compeditor. Additionally it performs better at preventing air movement in any cracks or crevices in your sheetrock that have formed or were missed during install. 

Fiberglass is made up of melted glass that’s spun into fibers. Many times it is white or pink in color and can resemble cotton candy. It is much cleaner product to handle during install due to producing much less dust as it is being blown in. Additionally it is more moisture resistant than its competitior. Other than that all other properties are inferrior to cellulose.

When blowing in either of these two products you want to be sure to achieve the proper density. This means that both your feed rate and the ammount of turbulance that the product experiences from its journey from the machine to the end of the tube is critical. If you do not have a blower unit with enough power or sealed airlock chambers, you will lack the necessary speed needed to break the product up on delivery. Additionally if the hose that you are using is not the proper length you will not enduce enough "bumps in the road" along the way to bread up the compacted product enough. These are two critical settings to be sure that the product is expanded or "fluffed" enough to achieve the proper R value. Otherwise the performance of the product will not meet the published standards from the manufacturer.