The buyer’s guide, from the bloke who quotes both
Fibreglass batts — what you’re actually buying
I’m Peter Johnson. I’ve been quoting insulation jobs in Brisbane since 1986, and most weeks I’ll price up the same house in fibreglass batts and Cellulose Fibre Insulation. This is the plain version of what a batt actually is, why it ended up in nearly every Queensland ceiling, and what you’re really paying for when you buy a pack off the shelf.
Insulation batts, Brisbane
both products quoted straight
Why it’s in nearly every roof
Fibreglass batts didn’t win on merit. They won on speed.
I walk into new houses constantly, and the ceiling is glasswool batts, the pink and yellow kind you’ll recognise from Bunnings, whether it’s Fletcher’s Pink Batts, Knauf’s Earthwool, or a home-brand pack of the same thing, nearly every single time. That’s my own observation from four decades of quoting both products, not a published market-share figure. Nobody publishes an Australian time series of insulation market share broken down by material type, not the ABS, not the industry council, not anywhere I’ve been able to find.
What is on the public record is the shape of the industry. Fletcher Insulation, one of the big fibreglass and mineral-wool multinationals, was producing about 40% of Australia’s insulation on its own by 2010. Chris Lewis, “A Recent Scandal: The Home Insulation Program,” ANU Press, p.166 — “Fletcher, which produces about 40 per cent of Australia's insulation” ↗ Before the grant, the whole Australian insulation trade was around 200 established businesses installing 65,000 to 70,000 jobs a year. ANAO Audit Report No.12 2010–11, para 3.6, p.66 — “an estimated 200 established businesses in the industry” ↗ A batt goes in fast. It needs no machine, no hose and no trade ticket, and a builder can hand the line item to whoever’s on site that day. Blowing in Cellulose Fibre Insulation needs a truck, a machine and somebody who’s done it before. When a builder’s pricing a house against a deadline, the fast one wins.
The grant that flooded the trade, then pulled the plug
In 2009–10 the Federal Government’s Home Insulation Program, the “pink batts grant”, offered free ceiling insulation across the country. The number of registered installers rocketed from that baseline of roughly 200 businesses to over 10,800 registered installersat the scheme’s peak, chasing the free-insulation money. ANAO Audit Report No.12 2010–11, footnote 106, pp.99–100 — “over 10,800” registered installers at the program's peak ↗ Then, in early 2010, the government pulled it. Foil insulation work was suspended after deaths and fires, the whole scheme was halted days later, and it was formally cancelled that April, leaving “significant volumes of surplus insulation products” across the trade. ANAO Audit Report No.12 2010–11, p.100 — “significant volumes of surplus insulation products in Australia” ↗ For the full timeline, including who was still standing afterwards, read what happened to Australia’s insulation companies.
In my own experience, and this is my recollection from being in the trade since 1986, not a published study, I watched that grant specifically clean out the small Australian cellulose makers. They carried higher overheads than the big fibreglass and mineral-wool multinationals, and most of them couldn’t survive the two to three year slump in customers that followed the grant collapsing. The multinationals had the balance sheet to sit it out. The little local makers didn’t. It was the grant aftermath that thinned out cellulose, not anything wrong with the product, and I’ll say that plainly rather than dress it up as a statistic.
The bit I tell every customer
You pay for insulation either way. The question is when.
“You either pay for good insulation now, or you pay the cost of bad insulation over the next 10 to 30 years in higher power bills and higher home maintenance. The builder doesn’t live in the house, so he doesn’t care which one you pay. The one who makes the most money out of it today is the one who’s going to recommend it.”
A builder specs the house once and moves on to the next job. You’re the one paying the power bill every summer for the next thirty years, and you’re the one who’ll notice if the ceiling needs topping up again in a decade because the batts have shrunk and gapped. That’s not a reason to rule out fibreglass batts outright, plenty of jobs are priced in batts for good reasons. It’s a reason to ask what you’re actually being offered, and to get the alternative priced before you sign off on whatever’s cheapest to install today.
What you’re actually paying for
Easy for anyone to throw in, cheap to make in bulk. So what are you buying?
A fibreglass batt is built to be handled by anyone. No machine, no hose, no truck, no apprenticeship. Cut it to length, push it up between the joists, done. That’s not a knock on the tradesmen who lay them well, it’s the whole design brief of the product: any chippy, labourer or builder’s mate can throw a pack in on the way to the next job. In Queensland it’s been perfectly legal for anyone to do that, trained or not, since 1 September 2003, when insulation installation was specifically taken out of the licensed building trades. Queensland Building Services Authority Regulation 2003 (SL 2003 No. 173) s5(1)(zk) ↗
It’s just as easy to make. Fibreglass batts are spun from molten glass on a continuous, largely automated line, at huge volume, by a small number of big multinationals. Cellulose Fibre Insulation is a different manufacturing model, made in smaller batches from recycled paper, and it needs a trained crew with the right equipment to install it properly, not a Stanley knife and a free Saturday. Nobody publishes what a batt costs to make against what it sells for on a hardware shelf, so take this as trade logic rather than a verified number: bulk manufacturing at that scale, sold through every hardware chain in the country, is exactly how a product ends up cheap to buy and profitable to sell in volume. Easy to make and easy to install badly isn’t the same thing as the right product for your roof.
My own QBSA insulation licence (#731884), dated 2006, the last time a licence was required to do this job in Queensland. Anyone can legally lay a batt today, trained or not.
Already got fibreglass batts up there?
Do you have fibreglass batts in your roof now? We can quote to remove them or fix your insulation so there are no loose particles floating around up there.
Or skip the loose-particle question entirely
If you’d rather not think about loose particles at all, the two products that don’t have the problem are Cellulose Fibre Insulation (a plant fibre) or polyester batts, get a quote.
Keep going
The rest of this guide.
This page is the overview. Each of these covers one part of the batts decision properly, rather than trying to cram it all onto one page.
Pink Batts and Earthwool quotes in Brisbane
Fixed online price for the batts themselves, no inspection required, and the same job priced in Cellulose Fibre Insulation for comparison.
Get a batts priceBatt installers in Brisbane
Who’s actually up in your roof, what our crew wears, and what happens to downlights, mess and old batts.
Meet the crewAre fibreglass batts safe?
Particle size, respirable dust and what the makers’ own safety data sheets actually say, with every figure linked to its source.
Read the safety guideHow much fibreglass dust ends up in your house
The exposure arithmetic in one place: kilograms in the roof, where it travels, and how it compares to Cellulose Fibre Insulation.
See the numbersFibreglass insulation removal
Old batts shot, gappy or full of vermin? We’ll quote to remove them and dispose of them properly, or top over them with cellulose.
Removal serviceThe two products without the particle question
Cellulose Fibre Insulation and polyester batts, compared properly.
We install fibreglass batts, Cellulose Fibre Insulation and polyester batts. If you'd rather see the full comparison before deciding, here's where to look.
Recycled paper fibre treated with boric acid, made by us at our own factory in Tiaro. See why we recommend it.
The same fibre that’s in your pillow, no respirator asked for on the maker’s own paperwork. Good for underfloor and acoustic work.
Want the full side-by-side across every product we install? Compare cellulose, polyester, fibreglass and foam.
Straight answers
Questions about buying fibreglass batts.
What's the difference between fibreglass batts, Pink Batts and Earthwool?+
Fibreglass batts (glasswool) are the general product. Pink Batts is Fletcher Insulation's brand name for theirs, and Earthwool is Knauf's brand name for theirs, sold in the same pink-and-yellow pack format at every hardware chain. Bonded fibreglass batts are the pre-cut, wrapped kind, and they're a different product to loose-pumped fibreglass, like Knauf's Jetmax, which is blown in rather than laid by hand. Don't confuse the two: batts have a resin binding the fibres together, loose-pumped fibreglass doesn't.
Is it legal for anyone to install fibreglass batts in Queensland, or do you need a licence?+
Since 1 September 2003, Queensland has specifically excluded 'preparation for, or installation of, insulation for acoustic or thermal control' from licensed building work, carried through to today's QBCC rules. In plain English, anyone can lay batts, trained or not, with no building licence required. That's a real reason batts became the builder's default: any chippy or labourer on site can throw a pack in on the way to the next job.
Why are fibreglass batts in nearly every new Queensland roof?+
Speed of installation, not necessarily quality. A batt needs no machine, no hose and no trained crew, so a builder can hand the job to whoever's on site that day. Blowing in Cellulose Fibre Insulation needs a truck, a machine and somebody who's done it before. When a builder's pricing a house against a deadline, the fast line item usually wins the spec, whether or not it's the better product for the person who'll live there for thirty years.
What do fibreglass batts cost compared to Cellulose Fibre Insulation?+
We quote both online with a fixed price, no inspection required, so the real answer is to get both priced for your actual roof rather than take a number off this page. See our pink batts and Earthwool pricing for Brisbane, or get a quote and we'll show you what the same job costs in cellulose too.
Do you remove old fibreglass batts, or top over them?+
Both, depending on the roof. If the old batts are still in reasonable shape, capping the downlights properly and pumping Cellulose Fibre Insulation straight over the top fills every gap they left and puts a seamless blanket over them so nothing gets stirred up for another thirty years. If they're shot, we'll quote to pull them out properly. Either way, we can quote to remove them or fix your insulation so there are no loose particles floating around your roof.
Can fibreglass batts and Cellulose Fibre Insulation go in the same roof?+
Yes, and it's a common job for us: topping an old batt roof with cellulose rather than tearing it all out. What you shouldn't do is mix fibreglass batts with polyester batts in the same layer expecting a clean result, they compress differently. If you're planning a mixed job, get it quoted properly rather than guessing.
The documents
Every figure on this page, linked to where it came from.
- ANAO Audit Report No.12 2010–11 (Home Insulation Program), Australian National Audit Office ↗ — pre-grant industry scale, the installer-number jump, and the surplus-stock finding.
- Chris Lewis, “A Recent Scandal: The Home Insulation Program,” ANU Press (peer-reviewed) ↗ — Fletcher Insulation’s ~40% national production share, 2010.
- Queensland Building Services Authority Regulation 2003 (SL 2003 No. 173) ↗ — insulation installation excluded from licensed building work, 1 September 2003.
- Royal Commission into the Home Insulation Program (background) ↗ — background on the scheme and its collapse. Full timeline on what happened to Australia’s insulation companies.
No published Australian time series of insulation market share by material type exists anywhere I could find, government, industry body or academic. The market-share and grant-era sections above say plainly where they’re backed by one of the documents above, and where they’re my own recollection from being in this trade since 1986.
Got batts quoted straight by us? Tell the next person what that looked like.
A quick honest review genuinely helps a small family business, and helps the next person decide. Thank you.
We’ll quote both products straight. You choose which one you pay for.
Send us your address and roof type and we’ll give you a fixed-price quote for fibreglass batts and for Australian-made Cellulose Fibre Insulation, side by side, no inspection needed.
Peter Johnson
Owner / installer · Comfort Zone Insulation Team® · Since 1986