Compare · Polyester vs fibreglass batts · SE Queensland
Polyester vs fibreglass batts: I fit both every week. Roughly 2% of my customers pick the itchy ones over the King.
If it has to be a batt, polyester wins: non-itchy, no SDS warning, moisture-shrugging, locally made, and 20–30 years without settling. Fibreglass is cheaper. But it’s the itchy one rats love and that settles as it ages.
I fit both every week, so here’s how the two batts actually stack up: itch, the safety-sheet fine print, moisture, settling, pests and price. And one straight bit of advice: for a ceiling I’d steer you past both to pumped-in cellulose, while polyester is what I’d use under a floor.
Comfort Zone insulation.team
Family-owned insulation manufacturer, making comfy homes since 1986
The King of batts
white polyester, non-itch, laid wall-to-wall
Real reviews, real jobs
What our customers say
Genuine Google & hipages reviews from Comfort Zone customers across SE Queensland.
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Angela M.
SE Queensland
“The fact that I can't even tell it's 6 degrees outside when I wake up in the morning speaks for itself. Have wasted so much money attempting to heat and cool an uninsulated home. Worth every $.”
- Phipages
P Peter
Alstonvale, 2024
“Connected with Comfort Zone Insulation and would recommend them”
- J
Jessa B.
Brisbane
“It dropped about 4 degrees straight away, and we added another 3 with the second job. I appreciate Peter's honesty, and the team showed pictures before and after.”
- Nhipages
Nola M
Birtinya, 2024
“They were courteous and competent.”
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Iain V-B.
Brisbane
“Quick and polite service. Great follow-up advice and photos sent for our records. Above and beyond what we expected. Would highly recommend.”
- Jhipages
Jennifer's E
Upper Caboolture, 2024
“Excellent customer service. Highly recommended. Has a profound knowledge of insulation products and has the best interest of his customer.”
- G
Gerry S
Fitzgibbon, 2023
“I used Comfort Zone and they have a done an excellent job.”
- Jhipages
Jennifer
Upper Caboolture, 2024
“Excellent customer service. Highly recommend. Has a profound knowledge of insulation products and has the customer best interest.”
- J
Jung K
Riverhills, 2023
“An experienced family operation. Highly recommend. Thank you for the great job!”
- Dhipages
Diane A
Ormeau, 2024
“Peter and crew did a great job I would definitely recommend them”
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David H
Sunshine Coast, 2021
“Completed the job as quoted and to a high standard. Great personal service. Would highly recommend Comfort Zone for ceiling installation work.”
- Thipages
Timea
Highland Park, 2023
“I was extremely satisfied with the service they provided. They gave a very thourough explanation of the materials used, the way the work will be carried out and the price I had to pay was the exact amount quoted, no hidden costs included. They arrived on time, well prepared and workwas carried out exactly how they said it would be, they were super efficient, well prepared and were kind enough to even clean up after themselves. The services they provided was second to none! I don't hesitate to recommend them for any insulation job!”
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Benjamin H
Carseldine, 2019
“Very good explanation about their works. Advice of existing problems with the roof. Clean work. Very professional.”
- Mhipages
Mark
Pottsville, 2017
“Michelle, we are done - Peter from comfort zone insulation was very helpful. very honest with his recommendations - in fact he told me that the product my daughter had if installed correctly was superb. Thanks Peter you are a champion and i would recommend you to any person that was wanting professional advice and old school service.”
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Ian G
Burnside, 2019
“Good information, communication and professionalism.”
- Jhipages
Jessica
Pottsville, 2016
“This business offers a fantastic product that other businesses did not. Pump in ceiling insulation. Knowledge of the industry second to none.”
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Danny D
Boondall, 2018
“He explained everything he was going to do and the different types of insulation they used. He talked through the different options but made a recommendation for the one most people use, which is the one I chose. He was very understanding towards what I needed and not about himself.”
- Jhipages
Jack
Pottsville, 2023
“Excellent communication and informative. Professional.”
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Graham R
Riverhills, 2018
“Comfort Zone. Turned up ahead of time, completed in about 2 hours, cleaned up. All good. Very motivated installation team.”
- Thipages
Tony P
Redland Bay, 2023
“Very knowledgeable about insulation”
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Alex B
West Ipswich, 2018
“Fast, friendly, efficient.”
- Shipages
Steve
Redland Bay, 2017
“Excellent job and reasonable price.”
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Luke D
Mcdowall, 2017
“Peter did a good job. It was a quick and clean service. I'm happy to recommend!”
- Bhipages
Bruce H
Kuluin, 2023
“Prompt and efficient quoting.”
- B
Brendon
Brays Creek, 2016
“Peter supplied and installed roof insulation for me. He was very informative and provided good advice.”
- Ghipages
Gerry S
Fitzgibbon, 2023
“I used Comfort Zone and they have a done an excellent job.”
- T
Trevor G
Brookside Centre, 2016
“Excellent tradesmen from Comfort Zone Insulation. They were punctual and cleaned up after. Highly recommended.”
- Thipages
Tamara
Underwood, 2023
“Peter is honest, hard-working and came on time. Knew excally what he was talking about and answered my questions. Would 100% recommend”
- J
John G
Beaudesert, 2019
“Peter is an honest person who provided me with the information I wanted then performed a good job with great results for the benefit of myself and my family.”
- Shipages
Sterling G
Ashgrove, 2023
“Comfort Zone were very knowledge with great communication and follow up”
- Ghipages
Graham R
Riverhills, 2018
“Comfort Zone. Turned up ahead of time completed in +- 2 hours cleaned. All good. Very motivated installation team”
- Jhipages
Jung K
Riverhills, 2023
“An experienced family operation. Highly recommend. Thank you for the great job!”
- Khipages
Kathy A
North Lakes, 2023
“We connected with Peter through HiPages and he was prompt, professional and even came back after the job was complete to assist with a question we had. We would highly recommend Peter for further insulation works.”
- Dhipages
David H
Sunshine Coast, 2021
“Completed the job as quoted and to a high standard. Great personal service. Would highly recommend Comfort Zone for ceiling installationn work.”
- Shipages
Sue H
Sunshine Coast, 2021
“Incredible customer service”
- Ehipages
Eileen C
Cedar Vale, 2021
“Quality work, good customer service, prompt”
- Chipages
Craig M
Woody Point, 2021
“Called within 5 minutes of request. Very knowledgeable and explained job in great detail, provide great advice in prior preparation for works required. Very friendly and helpful.”
- Jhipages
Jenny C
Plainland, 2021
“Although I did not hire Peter I was impressed with the initial contact and the knowledge he was willing to impart. I was treated with respect which I appreciated. I would have hired but I received a lower quote.”
- Qhipages
Quinton
Coomera, 2020
“Professional installation without any short cuts. True to their word with high integrity. Response from Comfort Zone Insulation”
- Ghipages
Gary P
West Kempsey, 2020
“Came & Gave a free quote”
Start here
There are two batts worth talking about. One’s a lot nicer than the other.
Most people who ring me asking for “batts” picture the pink or yellow fluffy stuff. That’s fibreglass, the itchy ones. What they usually don’t know is that there’s a far nicer batt sitting right next to it on the shelf: the polyester batt, the King of batts. I fit both every week, so I don’t have a dog in the fight between them, and when I tell you the polyester is the better buy, it’s because I’ve handled and removed thousands of each over 40 years.
I hope you realise by now that you are buying a service as much as a product. The batt you pick still has to be cut to fit every bay and corner in your roof, so the install matters just as much as the brand. But between the two batts, the trade-offs are stark, and they all come back to a few things: itch and health, moisture, settling, and whether the rats want to move in.
“If you think you just must have batts, the polyester ones are the best of the batts. If batts are what you want, these are the only ones I’ll quote with a straight face.”Peter Johnson, Comfort Zone Insulation Team
Comfort Zone insulation.team
Family-owned insulation manufacturer, making comfy homes since 1986
The short version
Polyester is the nicer batt in almost every way that counts. Fibreglass is cheaper, and that’s about all it has going for it.
Comfort Zone insulation.team
Family-owned insulation manufacturer, making comfy homes since 1986
Polyester batts: non-itch, no SDS, locally made.
Polyester is the best of the batts, and I’m happy fitting them. They’re made from polyester fibre, the same family of material as a soft pillow or a fleece jacket, so there’s no glass fibre to itch, no dust to wash off your work clothes at the end of the day, and no Safety Data Sheet skin warning to worry about. They’re locally made, which keeps the money and the supply chain closer to home, and they’re pleasant to handle, which matters more than people think.
They also shrug off a bit of moisture without breaking down, which is a real advantage in our humid SE-QLD climate, and they last. In 30-odd years on the tools I’ve never seen a polyester batt settle over time. They hold their shape and their thickness, so a good polyester job should give you 20–30 years of doing its job. Under a floor, where pumped cellulose is the wrong product, polyester is exactly what I’d use.
The catch: a polyester batt is still a batt. It has to be cut into every bay and squeezed into every corner, so it still has joins and edges, and it still lets air pass through where a seamless pump-in wouldn’t. My team cuts every piece to fit so there are no gaps left, even the width of a pen. But a cut-to-fit batt always asks more of the installer than a hose does.
Fibreglass / glasswool batts: cheap, and itchy.
These are the itchy ones (Earthwool®, Gold Batts®, Pink Batts®) and they’re all fibreglass. They’re the cheapest insulation you can buy, and that’s the one thing they’ve got going for them. Fibreglass is a very cheap solution. But you really would be lucky if you’re just not buying trouble for the future. About 2% of my customers end up choosing them once they understand the trade-offs: itchy to handle, gaps from day one, settles after about ten years, and rodents love them.
They settle and break down as they age, too. I’ve removed plenty of fibreglass batts that sagged and broke down over the years, and once a batt settles or gets pushed aside, you get gaps where there used to be cover. They’re also the batt I most often find rats nesting in: the loose batts sit so lightly that mice push them up and nest underneath, leaving urine and droppings soaking into your ceiling sheets.
I’m not hiding fibreglass from you. If you decide on it after reading this, my team will still cut a piece to fit every gap. But if batts are what you want, I wouldn’t quote you fibreglass with a straight face. I’d quote you the polyester.
Comfort Zone insulation.team
Family-owned insulation manufacturer, making comfy homes since 1986
Read the fine print before you buy fibreglass
Fibreglass safety sheets: a P2 mask, and work clothes washed separately.
Here’s the single biggest reason I steer people away from fibreglass and toward the polyester, and I want to give it to you in both halves so it’s fair. On the front of the brochure, the fibreglass batt makers market a soft, safe, comfortable product. But read the fine print. Bradford’s own Safe Use Information Sheet for FBS-1 glasswool says a P1, P2 or N95 respirator is appropriate where dust is generated in an enclosed or poorly ventilated area, which is what a roof space is. Fletcher’s sheet for Pink Batts® says to wear an approved dust respirator when dusty conditions exist, and that work clothes “should be washed regularly and separately from other clothes before storage or re-use”. The fine print tells you more than the marketing brochure does. It’s telling you exactly what it is to handle.
Now the other half, so this stays straight. Fibreglass is a glass fibre, and the Australian Government’s CSIRO notes glass-fibre and rockwool can cause temporary skin, nose and eye irritation and that precautions should be taken when handling them. Polyester is a soft synthetic fibre with none of that glass: no SDS skin warning, no separate wash. That’s why I’d rather have my team handling it, and why your roof gets a better job out of it.
“An installer who has to wash their work clothes separately from the family laundry isn’t going to spend extra time dragging insulation into your tight corners, and that’s how gaps happen.”Peter Johnson, Comfort Zone Insulation Team
Pests & vermin
Rats love the itchy ones. Polyester’s a tougher nut. But neither deters them.
Fibreglass is the batt I pull rat nests out of week after week. The loose batts sit so lightly that mice push them up and nest underneath, and the urine and droppings soak straight into your ceiling sheets. Polyester is denser and holds together better, so it’s a tougher nut for a rat to crack and less inviting to nest in. But neither batt is treated to resist pests. With a batt you’re relying on the rodent staying away, not on the material putting it off.
That’s the real difference between a batt and pumped-in cellulose. Cellulose is treated with borax, a natural mineral salt about as toxic to you as table salt, and the insects rats feed on can’t survive in it. No insects means no food for rats, and no food for rats means no food for snakes. So if pests are your worry, no batt fixes it the way a borate-treated cellulose ceiling does. I’m so confident of that I back it with a $1,000 reward:
Comfort Zone insulation.team
Family-owned insulation manufacturer, making comfy homes since 1986
Side by side
Polyester vs glasswool batts: nine things, and fibreglass wins one.
Nine things a homeowner actually cares about. I've flagged the winner on each one, including the one axis where fibreglass wins (price to buy), and the one where they're even (a batt is a batt, so both have gaps).
| What matters | Polyester batts ★ King of batts | Fibreglass batts the itchy ones |
|---|---|---|
| Handling & itch | Polyester fibre: non-itchy and safe for your health, with no glass fibre. No dust to wash off your work clothes. better | Itchy glass fibre. The maker's own SDS tells you to wear a P2 dust mask and wash work clothes separately. |
| Safety Data Sheet | No SDS skin or dust-mask warning to wash off afterwards, locally made and pleasant to handle. better | Ships with an SDS warning; the CSIRO notes glass-fibre can cause temporary skin, nose and eye irritation. |
| Moisture | Shrugs off incidental moisture without breaking down, a real advantage in our humid climate. better | Damp and rough handling shorten its working life, and it sheds water rather than holding a leak in one spot. |
| Settling over time | In 30-odd years on the tools I've never seen a polyester batt settle. It holds its shape and thickness. better | I've removed plenty that settled and broke down as they aged, opening gaps where there used to be cover. |
| Lifespan | A good polyester batt should give you 20–30 years of doing its job without sagging. better | Often starts gapping and settling well before that, especially in tight, hot roofs. |
| Pests & vermin | Denser and holds together better, so it's less inviting, but it isn't treated to resist pests. better | Rodents love them. Mice push the loose batts up and nest underneath, leaving urine and droppings. |
| Where it's made | Locally made: the money stays closer to home, and so does the supply chain. better | Glass fibre melted in a furnace; the cheapest stock the big builders reach for. |
| Gaps (both are batts) | Still cut to fit every bay, so a batt's gaps and edges are still there. My team cuts each piece to fit. | Cut to fit too, and gaps from day one, the tight, hot corners get short-changed first. |
| Price to buy | A bit dearer than fibreglass, but for that little extra you get a far nicer, longer-lasting product. | Cheapest to buy. A very cheap solution, but you really would be lucky if you're just not buying trouble for the future. better |
That’s the scorecard. Polyester wins on every axis a homeowner cares about (itch, the safety sheet, moisture, settling, lifespan and pest-resistance) and the one thing fibreglass beats it on is the price to buy. The two are even on gaps. A batt is a batt: both have to be cut to fit. Want all three products side by side, including the pumped-in cellulose? See the full three-way comparison table.
The straight advice
Picked your batt? Now let’s put it in the right place.
Choosing polyester over fibreglass is the easy call. The harder, more useful question is where a batt belongs at all. After 40 years and 6,000 roofs, here’s how I’d steer you, and I sell all of these, so I don’t have a dog in the fight.
For a ceiling, I’d steer you past both batts to pumped-in cellulose. A batt, even the King of batts, still gets cut into every bay and leaves gaps, and an R-rating only counts if there are no gaps. Cellulose pumps in as one seamless blanket, covers over the joists, and the borate treatment has been shown to slow flame spread, while the pests a batt does nothing to put off can’t survive in it. It’s the only product I’d put in my own mother’s ceiling.
Under a floor, it’s the opposite. Pumped cellulose is the wrong product for a crawlspace, so polyester is exactly what I’d use: hydrophobic, non-itch, and it lifts straight out if you ever need to get at the bearers. So the answer is: polyester beats fibreglass every time. But match the product to the cavity and you’ll do even better.
Comfort Zone insulation.team
Family-owned insulation manufacturer, making comfy homes since 1986
Straight answers
Polyester vs fibreglass batts: the questions I get asked most.
Polyester or fibreglass batts, which is better?+
If it has to be a batt, polyester wins on every count that matters to a homeowner. Polyester is the King of batts: it's non-itchy and safe to handle with no Safety Data Sheet skin warnings, it's locally made, it shrugs off incidental moisture, and in 30-odd years on the tools I've never seen one settle. Fibreglass is the itchy one, cheaper to buy. But the manufacturers' own safety sheets tell you to wear a P2 dust mask and wash your work clothes separately, rodents love nesting in it, and I've pulled out plenty that settled and broke down as they aged. The only thing fibreglass beats polyester on is the price tag. For a ceiling, though, I'd steer you past both to pumped-in cellulose.
Why are polyester batts called the King of batts?+
Because if you've decided you want batts, polyester is the best of them and I fit them every week. They're made from polyester fibre, the same family of material as a soft pillow or a fleece jacket, so there's no glass fibre to itch, no dust to wash off your work clothes, and no SDS skin warning. They're locally made, they handle moisture without breaking down, and they last 20–30 years without the settling you get from fibreglass. If batts are what you're after, these are the only ones I'll quote with a straight face.
Do rats nest in fibreglass batts more than polyester?+
Rodents will get into either batt if there's a way in. But fibreglass is the one I pull rat nests out of week after week. Loose fibreglass batts sit so lightly that mice push them up and nest underneath, and the urine and droppings soak straight into your ceiling sheets. Polyester is denser and holds together better, so it's less inviting. But neither batt is treated to resist pests the way borax-treated cellulose is. That's the difference: with a batt you're relying on the rat staying away, not on the material putting it off.
Do polyester batts last longer than fibreglass?+
In my experience, yes. I've never seen a polyester batt settle over time. They hold their shape and their thickness. Fibreglass is the opposite: I've removed plenty of fibreglass batts that settled and broke down as they aged, and once a batt sags or gets pushed aside you get gaps where there used to be cover. Polyester also doesn't mind a bit of moisture, where damp and rough handling shorten a fibreglass batt's working life. A good polyester batt should give you 20–30 years; fibreglass often starts gapping and settling well before that.
If polyester is better, why is fibreglass still everywhere?+
One reason: price. Fibreglass is the cheapest insulation you can buy, so it's what the big project builders and the lowest-bidder subbies reach for. That's the whole pitch. It's cheap. But you really would be lucky if you're just not buying trouble for the future: itchy to handle, gaps from day one, settles after about ten years, and rodents love it. For a little extra you get the polyester, which is a far nicer product to live with. Only about 2% of my own customers choose fibreglass once they understand the trade-offs.
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Fixed-price quote in 48 hours for most houses, batt or cellulose.
Thanks for reading this far. You’ve seen why the polyester is the King of batts and the fibreglass is the itchy one, what the batt makers print in their own safety sheets, and where each batt actually belongs. Whatever you decide, I’ll give you a fixed-price quote within 48 hours for most houses.
Peter Johnson
Owner / installer · Comfort Zone Insulation Team® · Since 1986
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