acoustic fabric over ceiling insualtion?

Started by cporro on 31 August 2009. 3 replies.

Originally posted at johnlsayers.com, topic 13561.

i put r-19 fiberglass insulation on my ceiling between framing. kind of a very large acoustic panel (460 sqft). but i'm not sure about having the kraft face (paper) exposed. my issues: 1) kraft face is flamable, yes? 2) small areas of exposed fiberglass between batts. will this trickle down over time? 3) paper is pretty delicate. what if i accidentally punture it. 4) i wanted the ceiling to be white to reflect more light. so i'd have to paint the brown kraft face white with a sprayer. 5) i'm concerned that over time the staples through kraft face paper might not hold and batts will sag or come down. it occured to me that i could cover the whole area (about 460 sqft) with fire resistent white fabric. this would address most of my issues. any thoughts on this approach? second, any recs on where to get the material on the cheap? looking at acousticsolutions.com right now. i'm about 20k down right now and my well runith dry. if fire resistant is too expensive maybe there is standard fabric solution. something that is a bit strong, acoustically transparent, and come in white, white-ish or a light pattern. i'm in the san francisco bay area. thx
asking my general contractor for ideas. he said try painter's canvas. cheap and light. also tyvek...which is a kind of house wrap i think. tyvek isn't breathable i don't think. i priced out 460 sqft of fire retardant material and it was 1k for around 900 sqft. painter's canvas would be around $100 i figure.
A coupla' things.... First, you're free to do what you want, but realize that canvass is usually not really all that breathable of a fabric.... think about it... it stops liquids from soaking through. The other thing is that I really wish you'd consider is the abundance of legal ramifications of not using an FR or IFR material. Either treat the material, or purchase one that will minimize your liabilities. I would call Guilford of Maine directly and ask to speak your local representative. They WILL give you better pricing on that much material. You can also safe money by selecting either a regular stocked material, or by accepting any of their materials that they have an excess of, or a factory second. When I spoke to my GOM rep, he was able to deep discount one fabric that he called a factory second which only had one or two stitches that were mistied. The problem was not noticeable to the naked eye.... go figure.
good idea with calling guilfords. priced them at acoustic solutions at 1k. i don't get the breathable thing. but the kraft face is already not breathable. so not much point putting breathable fabric on top yeah? i mean, i know that panels are supposed to be breathable. i just don't know why it would make a difference since bass will pass right through paper. are they thinking higher frequencies?