What type of insulation is this?

[Cash only]

My house was built in 1959. I was up in the attic a while back and saw what looked like tore up cottonballs for insulation. Gazillions of them made up the attic floor. What the heck is this stuff? And does this stuff work good? Also, I could swear this home has no insulation in the walls. when i have drilled holes, everything was empty, seemed like no insulation.(?) And now I find THIS stuff in my attic. My A/C kicks butt but once it turns off it heats back up quick.

[CThomp]

My home was built in 1950. It has zero insulation in the walls. I had to tear the vinyl siding installed in the 70's and the original cedar shiplap off to get behind the walls. I found some rotten boards that I replaced, and zero insulation. I installed r-13 in both walls, re-sheathed with 1/2" plywood, installed three new windows, tyvecked, and will be covering with either solid-core vinyl siding or hardie planks. I have alot more walls to go.

The stuff in your attic is probably just some variety of blow in insulation. My attic has some ckind of cotton/wool sprayy in fluff stuff in it. It tends to settle out so eventually i'll probably have to have more blown in.

[mdshunk]

Blown fiberglass of that era are little fuzzy balls that can be black, grey, yellow, or white.

[Sweep]

Your attic is undoubtedly insulated with a mineral wool commonly called "rock wool" made by spinning and blowing air into melted basalt & limestone. Today, it is primarily used for firesafing, spray-on fireproofing, and acoustic insulation. The R value is better than fiberglass so its not a bad thing to have in your attic as long as you don't disturb it. The fibers are unusually irritating although not considered a carcinogen.

If you want to insulate your walls without removing interior finishes, I suggest finding a good insulation contractor who specializes in retrofitting. The contractor can do an infra-red scan of the exterior walls and tell you where you need insulation and he will get more insulation into the wall and verify coverage upon completion. If you are in a cold climate you will need a vapor barrier on the warm side of the insulation which, if needed, must be achieved in this case with a paint with a low perm rating (below .1 perms would be ideal).

[Cash only]

Thanks for the replies guys. I am going to take a pic or two. I want to be sure what it is. This house is insulated poorly. I would like to change that. Thanks in advance.