How to choose the right foam glass for insulation and soundproofing

Today there is a huge amount heatersthat are able to more or less effectively retain heat in the house. Among them, one of the most versatile and unique is foam glass. Its feature is that it is excellent holds up soundsspeaking thus heat and sound insulator. Using such material, you can be sure that the home will be protected from the cold, heating costs will decrease, and inside it will become calm, quiet and comfortable. Unfortunately, foamglass is a relatively new material in the domestic construction market, not everyone knows about it, so its main pros and cons, features of choice and key manufacturers require more careful consideration.

Foam glass was created on the territory of the Soviet Union as far back as the 30s of the last century, and its use at that time was built on floating properties. Then it turned out that the material is able to act as an excellent heat and sound insulator, so it can be used in housing and industrial construction.

The material composition is in fact, ordinary glass, but with one difference - there are many bubbles filled with air in it. Broken glass and waste from the glass industry are often used as raw materials. All this is ground into powder, a blowing agent, which often acts as coke, coal or anthracite, is added, put into molds and sent to the furnace, where heating to 1000 occurs⁰C. First, the powder melts under such conditions, then a reaction that promotes expansion occurs, and as a result, the volume of the initial mixture increases up to 15 times. After slow cooling, the product can be sawn into separate blocks with specified parameters. In terms of chemical composition, blocks are ordinary silicate glass, but the difference is the presence in the foam glass of a huge number of bubbles with air or carbon dioxide. Such a structure determines all the unique properties of this heat and sound insulating material.

Most often foamglass can be seen in the form of blocks or platesbut there’s also another form - granules with different fraction sizesthat are made using a slightly different technology. Plates and blocks are more versatile scope of use: this is the insulation of the outer walls, facades, partitions, roofs, soclesindustrial buildings etc. Pellet-like foamglass can be used as bulk material in walls with a layer or can be filled up as a heater and soundproofing for the floor.

Advantages and disadvantages

Many experts who have already encountered foamed glass call it a unique material consisting of only the benefits. Here are just some of them:

• excellent thermal insulation properties, which allow the material to retain heat in the house, while allowing good savings on insulation. So, the coefficient of thermal conductivity is about 0.045 W / m * K;
• foam glass - excellent sound insulatorwhich absorbs noises of different nature.So, a slab 10 cm thick can reduce noise by 56 dB, which means it will become effective protection even if the house is located near a noisy street or roadway;
• durability: in the characteristics of the material indicate that it can retain all its operational properties in full for 100 years. Of course, not every wall will last a century, but still the foamglass will allow you not to worry about heat and sound insulation for a very long time after installation;
• foam glass is good withstands temperature differences, tolerates very high and very low temperatures, and at the same time its structure does not deform, and the main properties are not lost;
• there are no organic compounds in the foam glass that may be of interest to different types of bacteria, so there’s never fungus or mold will not develop. This property allows easy use of foam glass even in rooms with high humidity;
• this material has tremendous strength, which allows you to do without auxiliary fasteners, which facilitates the installation process;
• dimensional stability and material properties for a time due to its structure, so the close-to-end foam glass is approaching concrete or brick, becoming a strong and reliable material;
• absolute resistance to high temperatures and incombustibility. To verify this property of foam glass, you need to remember the technology of its manufacture: glass melts at high temperatures, about 1000⁰C, i.e. when such indicators are achieved, the material will also begin to melt, but not burn, and no harmful substances will be released;
• foam glass does not pass watertherefore it will become an additional hydrobarrier;
• material able to breathecreating an optimal microclimate in the room;
• high adhesion to many building materialsm, including to the plaster.

The only drawback of foam glass is at its high cost, since the technology of its manufacture remains costly and complex. But even in spite of this, the material becomes irreplaceable heat and sound insulator in some casescompeting with other cheaper options. So, in the construction of high buildings, it is used due to its high strength and fire resistance, and in pools, water parks and baths it is used due to absolute inertness to water. Food or medical buildings also often use foam glass, since it is safe from a sanitation point of view. Its unique properties allowed it to be used even in industry, as well as in the construction of nuclear power plants.

How to choose foam glass?

It is still quite difficult to choose foam glass, as this is a relatively new heat and sound insulating material on the market, and the criteria for its quality are not completely clear to everyone. Pay attention to so that the plates or blocks are the same size, and that the structure consists mainly of separate, non-communicating bubbles. As for granular foam glass, the production technologies of different manufacturers are slightly different, therefore, as a result, material with good or not very vapor permeability can be obtained, and it is better to clarify the indicator in the accompanying documentation. The absence of such means that you will buy foam glass at your own peril and risk.

Before starting insulation and buying materials, it is better to carry out a calculation that will show the optimal thickness of the heat and sound insulator layer, so that the dew point is in it, and the outer wall does not cool below +5⁰C, otherwise condensation may form that adversely affects the wall of the house. Such a calculation is relatively complicated, it can be entrusted to professionals, but the experience of using foam glass in our climate suggests that most often a layer of 12-20 cm is enough.

It is worth noting that the foamglass will "work" better if used for warming a newly built building, which is designed taking into account the use of such a heat and sound insulator. This is due to the fact that it is best to insulate thin strong and cold walls with foam glass, for example, a brick wall of 1.5 bricks. If the thickness of the brick wall increases to 2.5 bricks, or are used foam blocks or gas silicate blocks, which are already a material with thermal insulation properties, it will be necessary to use a thicker layer of foam glass. This is explained by the same location of the dew point, which will need to be displaced into the insulation layer.

When choosing foam glass today is better focus on the products of those manufacturers who have already proven themselves. As a result, you get not only quality products, but also consultations that allow you to maximize the use of the unique properties of this material.

The largest manufacturers on the market in Russia

Pittsburgh Corning

A leading manufacturer of foam glass in the US and the world. Production began here in 1943, and in the 60s three new plants were opened in Belgium, the Czech Republic and Germany. Foam glass is available under the trademark FOAMGLAS, and is used in industry and civil engineering.

The company offers not only foam glass blocks, but also mass of auxiliary products: sealants, decorative coatings, adhesives, etc. The manufacturer has an office worldwide, incl. and in Russia. One of the main goals of the company is to maximize customer satisfaction of products. That is why Pittsburgh Corning also offers services such as energy audit of buildings, calculation of the necessary thickness of thermal and sound insulationinstallation assistance, etc.

Saitax

Domestic company, which is one of the largest players in the Russian foam glass market. She specializes in the production of this material, therefore, has already managed to gain enormous experience and establish itself. In the product range foam glass blocks and boards different parameters as well foamglass granules. The company does not stand still in its development, constantly modernizes the technologies used, expands the range of products.

The company's products have a certificate of conformity, but much more about it is the fact that it was this foam glass that was used for heat and sound insulation of important state facilities, sports complexes, and administrative institutions.

STES-Vladimir

The company from Vladimir, which became first domestic producerwho began to revive the technology for the production of foam glass in the country after all of them were lost and forgotten in the 90s of the last century. As a result, already in 2000, the new company entered the domestic market with its unique production technology, which made it possible to produce a heat and sound insulator that was not inferior, but in some ways even superior in quality to the best world analogues.

Today it is a modern, powerful company that uses in production only the most technologically advanced equipment purchased from world-renowned supplier companies that are leaders in their field. All this helps STES-Vladimir to produce products of the highest quality and in an ever-growing volume. It is in great demand in the national market and begins to go beyond it.

The product range today is very extensive, and includes both plates with different parametersso and shaped productsincluding shells, segments and elbows, which can be useful when warming industrial facilities, and if you want to warm the pipeline.

Gomelsteklo OJSC

The Belarusian company, which has existed since the pre-war time, and for this period has entered the international level. Foam glass has been produced here since 1956, so many years of experience have been accumulated, the production technology of this material has been improved. The manufacturer publishes in the public domain all the necessary documents and certificates that confirm the high quality of the products. Anyone can read the documentation regarding foam glass in blocks and granules: certificates of conformity for Russia and the Republic of Belarus, a certificate of state hygienic registration, as well as test reports.

The manufacturer provides extensive information about its products, actively promotes it in the Russian market, where it provides customers with not only plates and blocks of different sizes, but also provides full support. So, if necessary, company specialists will help to calculate the required layer of foam glass, depending on specific conditions.

Penosital

Penosital is another domestic manufacturer of foam glass, which has established itself well. Its products are perfectly sold in all regions of the country, it has all the necessary quality certificates, including sanitary and hygienic conclusion, fire certificate, certificate of conformity TU, test report.

The assortment of the company includes foam glass in slabs, granular and small-fraction foam glass, as well as foam glass rubble. All the necessary information can be found on the company's website, where you can also completely free and very easy to calculate which layer of foam glass you need to use for a particular structure in a particular climate zone.

TD "Glass Product"

A company whose products are in demand not only in private construction, but also for the insulation of industrial and public buildings. Along with other glass products, foam glass of the highest quality is produced here. Assortment includes blocks of different geometric sizes and granules. The products have passed all the necessary certification and have been used including during the construction of facilities for the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

LLC “Plant of building heat-insulating materials”

The plant, which was the first in Ukraine and the second in the CIS to start the production of foam glass - a unique heat and sound insulating material. The first batch of this material was made here in 2007, and a completely new technology was used that was not borrowed from anyone. Several research centers and foreign experts worked on it.

Today, the company produces foam glass blocks and boardswhich are of the highest quality. In the near future, plans to expand the range of products with granular and shaped foam glass.