SW Insulating Paint

sparehair

Has anyone had the pleasure of applying the sw aluminum insulating paint for attics? It's kinda metallic looking.

B

world llc

the E-barrier? seen pdoduct desctipt, never used it...

WisePainter

Last time I used an e rated paint it sucked. But it was cool when we washed out the bucket to see a solid mass of metal sludge left over in the bottom.

__________________
My advice: Hire a real painter to do it.

Frankawitz

Must not have boxed that paint to good huh?


www.frankawitz.net

WisePainter

lol, we used a large amount of it and I tried everything to keep the metal where it was supposed to be. But alas gravity had its way with it every time.
It was cool stuff but this was 9 years ago and even then I didn't see it taking over the market.

__________________
My advice: Hire a real painter to do it.

nEighter

I have used it and like it. I have it on my own house. Is there anything you wanted to know about it? I took pics of the whole process too. The hardest part of the whole job was to navigate around the attic and move the insulation around to do the job.

nEighter

Thought I would throw up some pics for you. When you apply it you need to cover the rafters also. You are just spraying up a big envelope that is your roof decking. Stuff cleans up easy, smells... I couldn't put my finger on the smell of it.. not bad though. I am hitting this stuff hard on all my paints I do. I give out E-Barrier literature in every estimate/bid I give out. When this stuff finally catches on.. I plan on doing ALOT of it

Bender

I haven't used it but I think its a scam. Whats the R-value? Like .3 or something?

nEighter

It traps radiant heat.. not an R value, it traps the radiant heat in and blocks the UV from entering into your attic. It has a perm rating of .32 ( the lower you get from 1 the better) so basically it blocks 68% of the radiant heat from entering and escaping.
it isn't as simple as insulation..

Bender

Don't try trickin' me with them big fancy words Nate

nEighter

It didn't work.. drat!!

sparehair

Perm has nothing to do with heat. It's the ability of water to pass the paint barrier. The higher the perm the greater the ability of water to pass. It is not a ratio either; it's a scale. That's all I could get out of my SW rep anyway. SF-1 Stain blocker has a perm rating of 1. Water should not be able to pass through it ("It's like 6 mil plastic," says the rep).

The pics of the ebarrier were awesome. Thank you

nEighter

awe you know what I meant emissivity or emittance (which is the E in E Barrier).. I got my terminology wrong was thinking Vapor Barrier there for a second.

here is a good article to read:

http://www.enn.com/green_building/article/32849

Traditions2

looks like silverbrite. I've tried to sell ebarrier to some people on new home construction without much success.

Cache

If the above article is correct, then the appropriate time for a radiant barrier for new construction would be during the framing phase. Most builders have seen radiant sheathing products for roofing that have the foil laminated onto the sheathing. According to the article, those types of barriers are far superior to the paints. Seems that it would be hard to convince a builder or HO who passed on the better product to change his mind and decide at the end of the build to use the inferior product. That might be why it is a tough sell. You might try focussing your attention on the existing homes market for products like this. Assuming that they actually do work well enough to justify the cost.

Traditions2

good point

Tom Struble

so what exactly is it doing when you paint it on the bottom of your sheathing? reflecting attic heat back down towards the floor?I thought radient barriers only worked with an air space so it wouldnt be doing anything to lowering your attic temps?

Cache

I think the argument is mainly that it acts as a barrier against infrared radiation. Shiny metal roofing will do a lot toward reflecting heat away from the attic but I don't think that anyone is claiming that these paints will work in that way. Rather, they prevent infrared radiation from penetrating and creating an oven in the attic.

AFAIK, the air space that you are referring to has more to do with the resulting conduction that results from the radiation. IOW, infrared radiation hits shiny barrier and is no longer able to penetrate, but while the barrier stops radioactive penetration if the surface heats up, heat is still conducted through to whatever substrate the barrier is coupled to. So they specify an air gap that acts as a conduction barrier.

Tom Struble

remodeling joe

OMG!!!!!!!! will the damn thing work or not to keep the hot air from enter into the attic.???? if yes, then how much versus just having insulation between the joist????