17 Oct Keep Your Home Safe'n'Sound with ROXUL®

In the House host, Jared Mellick and show producer, Josh Smith speak with insulation expert, Dave Smith from ROXUL® about the benefits of their “Safe’n’Sound” Sound & Fire Resistant Home Insulation and their experiences with installing it in our Project House.
Jared: Today we have Dave Smith from ROXUL® on the line with us. How are you doing today, Dave?
Dave: I’m good, thanks.
Jared: Good to hear that. So we have a Project House which is an ongoing renovation that has practically turned into a “from the ground up” construction job because of some structural issues we discovered. It’s a two story house, and as Josh and I were discussing things about having a two story home we noted that one of the biggest complaints is the sound transfer from the upstairs to downstairs, especially in families with children.
Josh: Absolutely. When we did the engineering on the Project House we purposely designed it to build a recreation room on the second floor. So it’s a very large room designed for entertaining the family or guests with a reinforced floor that has a big, sturdy beam running under it that could carry the weight of a pool table, foosball table or other heavy gaming table. It also leads out to a walk out patio balcony so one of the things we wanted to do was minimize the sound transfer between the second and first floor. We decided to reach out to ROXUL® who makes a product called “Safe’n’Sound” that I’ve used before—and personally, I love it—and Dave is on the air with us today to tell us about it and how it’s made.
Dave: Yeah! “Safe’n’Sound” insulation is a perfect solution for the situation you just mentioned. It is an insulation, but it’s also great for soundproofing solutions. It’s made from Basalt, a type of igneous rock, and from steel slag, which is a byproduct of steel manufacturing, so it’s a very resilient product that perfectly fits into wall, floor or ceiling cavities that won’t slump or sag over time, keeping your home well insulation against both climate and sound pollution for as long as you have your home. It’s an easy product to work with, cutting and fitting it around electrical boxes and other tight spaces.
Another great property about this insulation beyond just soundproofing is that it’s fire resistant up to 2,150°F so it has a much higher melting point than any other insulation and it will not create smoke or toxic fumes since it is non-combustible. It is also water-repellant, so if it does come in contact with moisture it causes the water to bead-up on the skin of the insulation, instead of absorbing it, and it will eventually evaporate with contributing to mold, mildew or rot. So it’s a fantastic insulation not just for thermal use in exterior walls and getting that R-value, but also for sound absorption inside the interior walls.
Josh: Dave, you really aren’t kidding about the thermal transfer either! Jared and I saw a ROXUL® insulation demonstration a couple years ago at the International Builders Show where they had a hallway built out of this material. People could walk through it and it was just amazing to me how much sound it absorbed, but then at the end of the hallway they had a blow torch set up pointed at the insulation!
Dave: Yeah, we do that demonstration all the time at trade shows and some of the big box stores. The demo with the blow torch is especially  impactful at getting the message out about our insulation. We’ve even done some live burn demos where we set a miniature house made out of ROXUL® insulation on fire with a box of chocolates or something inside and it doesn’t even melt. We actually have the video on our Youtube channel where anyone can check it out. There are also helpful instructional videos showing how to install the product correctly in a variety of applications.
Jared: That ROXUL® sound tunnel demo at the International Builders Show Josh mentioned was really impressive! The convention center where the show took place in Las Vegas was so loud it was almost painful to the ears, but the noise level inside that sound-deadening tunnel was a huge improvement. Even in the Project House we’re working on where we’ve installed the ROXUL® Safe’n’Sound insulation you can barely—if at all—hear anyone walking, jumping or even using a hammer upstairs.
Josh: The sound absorption is so good that even though the drywall isn’t up yet and there are no doors it’s still almost impossible to hear someone a couple rooms away. I guess that might be the one down side during construction to using this product; when you need to yell across the house to someone for more nails or other supplies and they can’t hear you!
Dave: That’s totally true! Good point.
Jared: Well, Dave, it’s been good having you on the show and even though we’ve barely touched on just how good this insulation really is we are out of time, but tell us and the In the House listeners how we can find out more about ROXUL® and the products you offer.
Dave: If you’d like to find out more information you can visit our website at www.roxul.com. You can also check out all the interesting videos we have up on our YouTube channel. Thanks so much for having me on the show, guys!
Jared: Thanks again, Dave! To all our online visitors, check back soon for the next half of this discussion where help out Tony in Melbourne who has return on investment questions about upgrades to a new home.
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