Best fabric for fiberglass panels???

[hardeight]

Hey everyone, what would you say is the best fabric to keep dem nasty fiberglass particles from escaping??? Burlap, fleece, felt??? Appreciate any help you can provide.

[Glenn Kuras]

Any of them will work just fine. I myself like GOM.

[riffster]

The only material that I have ever used was muslin. It works great for me.

[666666]

I checked out some standard burlap recently, I'd compare it to a window screen, lots of pretty big holes, small glass fibers would surely pass through this with ease. I would not use burlap for this reason personally.

Though of course fibers wouldn't be released unless you physically disturbed the trap.... which you would of course not do. Though I've wondered if having a fan blowing against a trap might cause a lot of fibers to be released, this is more of a realistic concern since you may have a fan or air-conditioner blowing in any given direction at any time, etc. But maybe it's not a problem.

For those who may have serious allergies to dust or formaldehyde, best bet is to wrap the fiberglass in a thin plastic sheeting to completely contain all potential dust / gas emission. Then add some batting material over the plastic to absorb upper frequencies (so they don't reflect off the plastic), and add whatever top layer material you want, at least as long as it is somewhat porous (so as not to reflect sound).

But of course wrapping the glass in plastic / batting etc is more time, work, effort, etc, so no need to do it unless you know you have serious allergy issues. Friends of mine can just about eat fiberglass batting and it doesn't bother them, but me, if I walk into a room that has a lot of exposed fresh fiberglass batting laying around, I instantly have trouble breathing, it can mess me up pretty bad... so I need to wrap it, air tight.

The Guilford of Maine material indeed looks really nice... and I believe it is relatively safe in terms of fire / smoke rating, this is important. Can't go wrong with this.

[hardeight]

Thanx for the info!! I've got the same allergy crap too. I took one piece of 703 out of the box yesterday and was all jacked the whole day. I was planning on hanging a few on the ceiling and I do have a ceiling fan that is on constantly. I was planning on obviously wrapping the entire panel, but maybe I will wrap it first with some batting, plastic, etc... Do you think it will still absorb the highs if it's wrapped with plastic underneath???

[666666]

Originally Posted by hardeight

...Do you think it will still absorb the highs if it's wrapped with plastic underneath???

The idea is to first wrap the 703 in thin plastic wrap (as thin as possible, like 1 mil). Then add about 3/4" of batting on top of the plastic... then cover with material. The material plus the 3/4" of batting should absorb whatever highs would have otherwise reflected off the plastic. So, it's just like hanging a blanket in front of the plastic.

You'd surely never want to leave the plastic exposed to the room, I tried this once as an experiment, it sounded horrible, was intolerable in fact... there was a super high-frequency "zing" that would seemingly go right through your skull.

I've asked on the forum on several occasions if having 1 mil plastic "in-between" layers of absorbing material would hurt the effectiveness and I've pretty much been assured it would be no problem. Remember too, 1 mil plastic sheeting is VERY thin, it's darned near like Saran Wrap. It's also completely flexible, not rigid, for whatever that's worth.

I'm working on my own custom traps right now (utilizing plastic sheeting wrap), some initial info is here:

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/4251909-post736.html

But soon, once I have the traps in a more complete state, I'll post some more pics, etc.

Please note, I am NOT an acoustics expert by any means, and my trap design is merely "experimental". It has not been tested. For solid, accurate advise, refer to posts by guys like Glenn of GIK, Ethan of RealTraps, etc.

It sucks being allergic to things. I'm also seriously allergic to all sorts of pollen, come spring and fall (the most beautiful times of year in the northeast), I'm either couped up inside my air-tight air filtered room, or so doped up on allergy meds that I don't even know what day it is.

[hardeight]

Whatever dude, you're very knowledgeable my friend!! Ima start calling you the Professor!! LOL!
I hear ya, allergies aren't any fun at all. I never had any until I moved to Vegas. Be careful, that allergy medicine can make you feel worse. ClaritinD with eff you up!!
I'm gonna do the plastic and batting thing 4 sure. Where did you get the plastic, just at Lowes or something??

[jwl]

If you are using rigid fiberglass, they use formaldehyde in the manufacturing process. Sometimes rigid fiberglass still has a lingering smell because of it, and many people are highly allergic to formaldehyde.

If you can, let your fiberglass air out for a while before you build the panels. This will eliminate the smell, and make it less harsh on your lungs.

Fiberglass itself has been shown to have no permanent negative effects. Many people believe it is cancer-causing, which has shown to not be true in testing.

[666666]

Originally Posted by jwl

If you are using rigid fiberglass, they use formaldehyde in the manufacturing process. Sometimes rigid fiberglass still has a lingering smell because of it, and many people are highly allergic to formaldehyde.

If you can, let your fiberglass air out for a while before you build the panels. This will eliminate the smell, and make it less harsh on your lungs.

Fiberglass itself has been shown to have no permanent negative effects. Many people believe it is cancer-causing, which has shown to not be true in testing.

I'd agree... I can be even ten feet away from a pile of fresh undisturbed fiberglass insulation sitting on a floor and I start choking... it's not the fibers / dust, it's the lingering odor / gas of the formaldehyde. Airing out does help. I don't know if the odor will completely disappear forever, but airing out does make a big difference.

Having said that, the dust / fibers ALSO cause big problems for me. Any small airborne particles (pollen, dust mites, etc) wreck me. So while tiny glass fibers in the air may not cause cancer, they can potentially cause some folks with allergies to be very uncomfortable.

But some folks have no issues at all with either dust or formaldehyde. I walked into a new half-finished room not too long ago that was just built by a friend... tons of fresh exposed fiberglass batt insulation present... I instantly felt sick... my friend and few other people there didn't seem bothered at all... when I complained about the strong odor they said, "what odor?" I was the only one bothered by it. So it appears it's not an issue for most people.

[therecordinghous]

i found some fabric at walmart for $1/yd. it was just like what you imagine office dividers being made out of. it was ugly, but perfect at that price..

[hardeight]

I found some great fabric at walmart last night for only $2.00 a yard!! It's 100% polyester and looks exactly the same as the polyester fabric acoustimac sells for $9.00! It held up to the "breath test" and later did the "sugar test". I took a small piece of the fabric, poured some sugar on it, wrapped it up and shook it, and not a singles grain escaped. Hit me up if anyone wants to know exactly what this stuff is called.

[Chris Williams]

I'm on a super low budget so I've been using rolls of landscaping fabric. Thin and allows air to pass through and actually looks good. I can get 4 traps out of one roll which costs me about 7 pounds.

[The MPCist]

Fiberglass bothers me too. I hate the smell of it and it's weird that most folks don't even smell it in the same room! I'm not allergic to it but I hate the smell.....

So, to make sure I got it factually correct, it's okay to 'seal off' the 703/rockwool/fiberglass with a thin plastic wrap before putting cloth on the walls....? But there's only like a thin layer of breathable cloth between the room and the plastic -- wouldn't that cause it to sound like a giant snare drum....?

[bpape]

Using thin plastic will just reflect highs. The thicker you get, the lower it starts to reflect.

You can also consider acoustical cotton. Though more expensive, it doesn't have the smell issue. This might be a good option for reflection panels where you don't want the plastic on it.

Bryan

[666666]

Originally Posted by The MPCist

...But there's only like a thin layer of breathable cloth between the room and the plastic -- wouldn't that cause it to sound like a giant snare drum....?

I would think that adding your final finished layer of fabric directly over the plastic sheeting might NOT be the best idea, unless your fabric is very thick.

As described earlier in this thread, my plan is to add plastic sheeting over the 703, then add 3/4" of polyester batting material on top of the plastic, then add my final finished layer of fabric over the batting. Thus, the plastic will be UNDER a 3/4" layer of soft fluffy batting as well as top fabric layer... pretty much the same as hanging a thick winter blanket on top of the plastic. I do not expect any reflections at all. I will soon be completing the construction of many traps with this described trap design and will be covering my entire room with them. I will report my findings. Might be a few weeks though, still need to finish some construction on the room itself before the traps can go up.