Sources & References

We don’t hide our references in fine print.

Every performance, health, safety, and environmental claim on this site links to a source you can click — Australian Government publications, CSIRO research, peer-reviewed journals, industry council documents, and the relevant Australian Standards. We even reference our competitors’ own documents, because the strongest argument for cellulose fibre insulation is the one that comes straight from the competition’s own paperwork.

If you spot a claim on our site without a source, or you think we’ve got a number wrong, call us on 0414 586 315. We’ll either give you the source or we’ll fix the claim.

2. The mask tells you about the material

Why we use cheap paper masks for our cellulose — and proper respirators for everything else in your roof

A P2 respirator (conforming to AS/NZS 1716:2012, particulate-filter class P2) is what the glasswool and rockwool manufacturers mandate for their installation crews. A P2 filters at least 94% of airborne particles, including the respirable glass fibres that can penetrate the lung airways. These masks cost $5–$15 each and are uncomfortable to wear in a hot Queensland roof space for a full day.

For our cellulose on its own, a paper dust mask is the right tool — not because we’re cutting corners, but because cellulose fibre is paper, the same general fibre category as the dust in your workshop or the flour in your kitchen. The CSIRO’s building-technology resource notes cellulose “may contain high levels of dust, so dust masks should be worn during installation.” A dust mask is appropriate for dust. A P2 is appropriate for glass fibres. The difference in the mask tells you everything about the difference in the material.

But we don’t work in a clean room

Here’s the part that matters. A real roof is full of other people’s fibreglass before we ever turn up. Under a metal roof there’s usually a foil-faced glasswool “anticon” blanket — Bradford describes its own product as exactly that, “a premium foil-faced glasswool insulation blanket.” There’s glasswool lagging wrapped around the air-conditioning ducting. And in plenty of older homes there are decades-old glasswool batts already sitting in the ceiling. When we’re moving around the cavity — cutting past an old roof blanket, working over someone else’s batts — we disturb all of it.

The glasswool makers’ own safe-use sheets place their product in IARC Group 3 (“not classified as carcinogenic”) — but they still recommend a P1, P2 or N95 respirator whenever dust is generated, because the fibres mechanically irritate the eyes, nose and throat. So even on a job where the only thing we’re installing is cellulose, we’re still breathing the air around everyone else’s fibreglass.

Then there’s lead. For roughly 70 years — until leaded petrol was finally phased out in Australia on 1 January 2002 — traffic laid down lead along the roads, and a lot of it settled into the dust in roof and wall cavities, worst near busy roads. Lead doesn’t break down, so it’s still up there. Australian ceiling-dust surveys have measured lead averaging well into the thousands of milligrams per kilogram. We’re the ones crawling through that dust and stirring it up.

That’s why our crews don’t rely on a paper mask in a real roof. They wear a proper silicone half-face respirator — a Sundström SR 100 — fitted with a P3 particle filter. (On a half mask, under AS/NZS 1716, that delivers P2-level protection; true P3 protection needs a full-face mask.) Not because our cellulose demands it — because everyone else’s hazards are already up there, and we’re the ones disturbing them. The paper mask matches our product; the silicone respirator matches your roof.

4. Insects & mould resistance

Insects won’t live in it. Mould can’t take hold where there are no cold gaps.

Borax (boric acid / sodium tetraborate) is a recognised insecticide. Borate-treated cellulose fibre insulation was studied at the University of Hawaii (Mankowski & Grace, 2004) using Formosan subterranean termites: boric-acid-treated cellulose achieved 78.4–100% termite mortality, and the termites could not fully penetrate the treated material. The borate-treated insulation disrupts the insects’ digestive system when ingested during feeding.

Mould requires a cold spot — a place where warm moist air from inside the house meets a cool ceiling surface and condenses. The Australian Government’s Your Homeguide states: “Thermal bridges are pathways for heat transfer through components of the floor, walls or roof... they need to be identified and insulated to prevent heat flow and condensation.” Pumped cellulose eliminates the thermal bridges because it covers the entire ceiling with no gaps. The borate treatment also resists mould and fungal growth as a secondary defence.

APVMA note:“Kills insects” as a pesticidal advertising claim on a building product can require APVMA registration. The correct, fully defensible wording — which is also more accurate — is “insects won’t live in it” or “resists insects.” That’s the framing we use across this site.

6. Off-gassing

“No manufacturer in Australia has ever done this.”

There is one real, documented cellulose off-gassing scandal in history. It happened in Europe, between 2011 and 2013, and the culprit was not borate — it was a cheap replacement for it. European regulators reclassified boric acid as a reproductive hazard and capped its use in building products. European cellulose manufacturers, faced with losing their fire retardant, substituted inorganic ammonium salts (ammonium sulphate and ammonium phosphate) at 6–12% of product mass. In warm, humid conditions, these salts decompose to release ammonia gas — the “cat-pee” smell — and produce sulphuric acid that corroded copper wiring, metal fasteners, and heating elements. By early 2013, France had documented 43 patients (including 19 children) with respiratory complaints, including one new-onset asthma case. France banned ammonium-salt cellulose on 21 June 2013. The EU followed with Regulation 2016/1017, restricting ammonia emissions to <3 ppm.

Australian manufacturers never made this substitution. We use borate — the same formulation that the French ban explicitly confirmed as the safe alternative. Borate is a stable mineral salt. It does not off-gas under normal conditions. No Australian cellulose manufacturer has ever been implicated in an ammonium-sulphate substitution.

Read the full off-gassing guide → including the detailed chemistry of borate vs ammonium salts, the exact French timeline, and why Australian borate-treated cellulose has a clean record.

8. Coverage & gaps — the research that changes everything

R-value isn’t the most important thing to measure. Coverage is.

The Insulation Council of Australia & New Zealand (ICANZ) published its Ceiling Insulation Installation Assessmentguidelines in 2024, derived from CSIRO’s AccuRate/NatHERS simulation method and the Australian Standard AS/NZS 4859.2:2018. The core finding: gaps in ceiling insulation destroy effective R-value far faster than most people — or most installers — realise.

Read the full coverage and gaps guide → including why batts almost always gap at joists and edges, what the ICANZ gap classes mean in practice, and why steel frames make the coverage problem significantly worse.

10. Australian Standards

Manufactured and installed to Australian Standards — mandated by law

The Australian Government’s Your Homeguide states plainly: “All insulation materials that are sold in Australia must meet Australian Standard AS/NZS 4859.” This is not voluntary. It is a legal requirement under the Building Code and the ACCC product standards framework. No insulation product can be legally sold in Australia without compliance with AS/NZS 4859.1:2018 — Thermal insulation materials for buildings, Part 1: General criteria and technical provisions.

Installation is governed by AS 3999:2015 — Bulk thermal insulation — Installation. This is the standard our installers work to. It covers the required installation depth, density, coverage checks, clearances around heat-producing fittings (downlights, flues, exhaust fans), and the documentation we issue on completion.

12. ICANZ — the Insulation Council of Australia & New Zealand

What the industry council publishes — including research that works against batts

ICANZ is Australia and New Zealand’s peak insulation industry body. Its members include glasswool and polyester batt manufacturers. Its 2024 Ceiling Insulation Installation Assessment guidelines — which acknowledge the gap-class performance degradation described in Section 8 of this page — were produced by an industry body that represents the batt industry. The fact that the coverage-gap research came from ICANZ, not a cellulose lobby group, makes it significantly more credible, not less.

Read our ICANZ explainer → including what ICANZ membership means, how their certification scheme works, and why we welcome independent industry assessment.

14. Environmental credentials

Made from recycled paper. About one-tenth the embodied energy of commercial insulation.

A 2023 peer-reviewed paper in Frontiers in Built Environment analysed the embodied energy of cellulose insulation made from recycled materials. The finding: cellulose insulation contains 0.94–3.3 megajoules per kilogram of embodied energy — compared to 10.8–45 MJ/kg for commercial thermal insulation (which covers glasswool, rockwool, and rigid foam). The midpoint comparison is roughly one-tenth to one-thirteenth of the commercial figure. The paper also confirms that cellulose is composed of 75–85% recycled paper fibre, usually post-consumer waste newsprint. We make our own cellulose at our factory in Tiaro from recycled Australian paper.

The Australian Government’s Your Homeguide confirms the energy-saving impact of insulation itself: “Installing roof and ceiling insulation can save up to 45% (or more) on heating and cooling costs.” Sustainability Victoria quantifies the payback: “it reduces the cost of heating and cooling by over 40%; it pays for itself in around five to six years.”