It is hot, getting hotter, in the summer, cold and incredibly snowy at times in winter and torrential rain seems to feature in the news…
Wool Insulation
R-Value, U-Value and a Common Insulation Myth
In the insulation world, we all get caught up on R-Value, despite its shortcomings (of which we’ve written before). Another thermal performance measure worth attention…
A Tale of Two Climates
Yestermorrow implements Havelock Wool in Vermont and Utah Editor’s Note… The Yestermorrow Design Build School is one the coolest places to learn how to build…
What’s New at Havelock Wool
We’ve been hard at work making additions to our product line that address the needs of the trade, which we loosely define as architects, builders,…
Who Can Install My Havelock Wool?
We get this question a lot. The immediate answer is “You can!” We’ve gone to great lengths to make our insulation DIY friendly, especially our…
Real People, Real Wool, Real Walls
Our friend Jon insulates his workspace in the mountains of western North Carolina Jon, what’s the background on this project? We live in the mountains…
Blown-in Insulation and Batt Insulation. What’s the difference? Updated June 2023
When we started Havelock Wool we were adamant about offering the two main types of insulation, batts and blown-in (loose fill). There are advantages to…
Common Applications for Havelock Wool
You asked, we listened. Here are detailed architectural drawings for some common applications for Havelock Wool insulation in your home. To produce these drawings, we…
Wool Innovation with Sonoma Wool Company
We’re not the only company that loves wool and understands its advantages over synthetic, man-made products. Amy Chesnut and her team at Sonoma Wool Company…
How do I insulate my crawl space?
This question has always been a tough one and coincidentally it has been a hot topic lately. We’ve received multiple calls in the last few…
Moderate Energy Retrofits
As a building material company, we attend some pretty cool industry conferences. These are typically in-depth events designed for trade professionals like architects, builders, and…
Sustainable Building Science in Action
If sustainable building science is your guide, how would you build? One clear example is the Vali Homes Mews project in Phoenix Arizona. A Bit…
Vapor Barriers and Moisture Management in Vans
After insulating over 30,000 vans for the past 9 years and partnering with over 300 professional van upfitters, we’ve learned a thing or two about…
Meet Brett from Chewy Design Co – A Havelock Wool Partner
Ever wonder who the professional van upfitters are that use Havelock Wool? We’ve met a lot of them over the years and everyone has a…
DIY Sound Panels for Walls
Havelock Wool absorbs sound incredibly well. This performance characteristic is often overlooked as insulation’s main job is to insulate. However, insulation can also help create…
Discovering Mold in Your Walls – Part 1
“You better come over here…. we have a problem in the closet” And with that simple statement from my wife our odyssey into mold removal…
This Is Not Cheap Insulation
Havelock Wool insulation is not cheap. We would certainly argue it is full value and inexpensive when you account for everything it does (and does…
Saving Money with the Inflation Reduction Act
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed into law last month in Washington is a huge step forward in combating climate change and addressing our country’s…
Mold Free Living – Another Havelock Story
Huge thanks to Rachel for sharing her Havelock story with us. Hi Rachel, Please tell us a bit about your home project. How did you…
The Havelock Wool Insulation Calculator
How much insulation do I actually need? This is a common question we get from homeowners who are at the beginning of their DIY insulation…
Insulation Lowers Your Cooling Costs Too
Insulation is often overlooked in the summer when it is arguably just as valuable as in the winter. The figures are climate zone dependent but…
Natural fibers outperform as insulators: it’s science not conjecture. And it is on the mind of 9th graders.
We quote the abstract from Nikita’s report, which is below, to remove any ambiguity as to why a 9th grader might be interested in the…
Is there a best practice for insulation installation?
There is one in California where the state has instituted QII (Quality Insulation Installation), a procedure that ensures insulation and air sealing have been properly…
Meet Salt Vans – A Havelock Wool Partner
A great aspect of van life is meeting the people that make up this vibrant community. At Havelock Wool, we are fortunate to do it…
Building Science meets Time-Honored Building Technique
Timber Arched is definitely one of our more inspiring building partners. We were lucky enough to collaborate with them on a recent project and learn…
If it’s not wool, why do other companies call their products wool?
Insulation industry participants use “wool” in their product names. Why? Maybe it’s because wool conjures up feelings of warmth and protection from the elements? Maybe…
Havelock on the Build Show Build
We had a ton of fun traveling to Missouri to help Jake Bruton of Aarow Building and architect Steve Baczek with their Swofford Project –…
A Cool Passive House Project with Havelock Wool
In so many ways, this project represents the holy grail of the healthy building movement… a homeowner’s desire to build better, an architectural firm willing…
DIY Insulation Installation is Coming to Homes. Why?
Friends in the space notwithstanding, there is not a lot of positive commentary to shed on the insulation installer industry at large. We’ll use a…
Builders are Beginning to Change the Game Too
We got this in an email from a home builder just last week… “We do a lot of work in-house but have always sub’d out…
An Architect’s Perspective on Havelock Wool
Ever wonder how professional architects approach the design and build of their own homes? And how they choose materials? We had the great fortune of…
Insulation to Save the World
Have you heard about the movement in the UK called Insulate Britain? It was started just this fall by climate activists demanding that the UK…
Batts v. Blown-in Round 2: Where to use Havelock Wool products?
We wrote a piece back in the middle of the summer outlining the difference between blown-in and batt insulation. A copy can be found…
A Conversation about Healthy Building…Non-Toxic Insulation and Other Important Topics
As a company trying to improve the health of our built environment, we field many questions about non-toxic insulation and how to build a non-toxic…
DIY Blown-In Attic Insulation
We field questions every day from homeowners about how to improve the efficiency of their homes and lower their energy bills with insulation. Obviously, there…
Understanding Building Codes
Building codes are important for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is that failure to meet code can create a ton of…
Air Barrier vs Vapor Barrier
Do you need an air barrier or a vapor barrier? This is a heavily debated topic in building science. In this post, we’ll outline the…
The Truth about Thermal Conductivity
Thermal conductivity is an extremely important measurement when it comes to insulation. In the US an R-value, or resistance value, is assigned and, simplistically, the…
The Global Supply Chain: A Havelock Perspective
Global Supply Chain Though we are small we are indeed a global manufacturer. Our raw material comes from New Zealand; we make our products in…
Unvented and Vented Roof Assemblies
As our following in the residential insulation space grows, we receive more and more questions about general building practices. One topic that is particularly popular…
Installing Havelock Wool Insulation in a Vintage Airstream
This blog was written by Tom & Delmara of Ramona the Airstream. Back in the first weeks of our renovation in the demo phase we…
Wool is for Walls – Vans and Homes
The attributes that make wool insulation good for your van are the same ones that make it good for your home. Indeed, we began Havelock…
Did you know ducts are often lined with fiberglass?
It wasn’t until our forays in insulation began that we became aware of the relationship between duct insulation and the potential to inhale fiberglass particulate….
What does a whole house insulated with wool feel like?
It is almost impossible to relay the very real advantages of wool. It creates a temperate, comfortable, healthy, and just plain happy place. If you’ve…
Exterior Insulation….it’s coming in hot, and not hot!
Exterior insulation is on the scene and occupying a more commanding role as better building practices evolve. It offers an arguably superior opportunity to create…
Explaining the Surge in Home and Building Material Prices
The surge in home prices throughout the US has been startling, to say the least. Rewind back to March of 2020 and very few would…
Installing Havelock Wool Insulation In A School Bus Conversion
When it comes to insulating a skoolie there are a lot of big opinions out there and for good reason. Throughout this article, we’re going…
Indoor Air Quality in an Airtight Home
We recently wrote a piece about the importance of an airtight home. The core premise is that a structure that allows for air transport –…
Building Science – A Simplified and Useful View
A guest post from our friend Lucas Johnson of Vali Homes How I Met the Havelock Flock In the before times, when we met in…
What is a takeoff and why is it important?
What is a takeoff exactly? It is a measurement of material requirements often based on plans or architectural drawings. It applies to all materials that…
An Airtight Home
Building a healthy, high-performance home can be a daunting task. Advancements in building science have created many different approaches, techniques, materials, and yes, opinions on…
Wool insulation installation…. what’s the real deal?
Insulation installation is a crowded and underappreciated space. It is also one that detests change. It is hugely competitive – ie single-digit margins, which is…
What is a Thermal Bridge?
So you are ready to insulate your living space and R-Value is top of mind. And rightfully so, it is the most widely accepted measure…
A Noteworthy View of the US Insulation Market
The insulation industry is bigger than most people think. When we started Havelock Wool estimates were that the US market would grow to some $16bn…
Human-made mass now exceeds all living biomass
As we have written about before, the impact of the built environment on global carbon emissions is massive. Building materials, construction, and operations are responsible…
What’s going on with Havelock’s backlog?
The building industry is oft subject to increases throughout the calendar year but product availability is rarely an issue. These times are clearly unprecedented, at…
Quick Update from Havelock Wool
We turned 7 this year and finally had our break out party. Last year was great, a double on the one before, but it’s 2020,…
The Wall System Evolution
Walls used to be walls. A simple protector from the outside – wind, rain, cold, heat… you know the elements. Primitively, they were porous and…
Wool Insulation Going Mainstream
There is an interesting development in the UK which could bode well for the use of wool in home and commercial insulation, not just there…
Home Improvement
Home improvement might be marginally better than sitting in traffic. It is also how we run into operational problems at home. I’ll get to it…
Energy Transfer 101
We have an online forum for our vanlife community to share ideas and experiences around using Havelock Wool. Every so often there is a post…
Does your insulation store carbon?
As we have written about, the carbon emissions of Havelock Wool stack up extremely favorably compared to any other insulation material. It’s easy to understand…
We’ve learned quite a bit in 7 years….time to share.
We’ve been at this for 7 years. We began surrounded by building industry vets and were happy to keep our ears open and our mouths…
The Havelock Wool LCA / EPD
After a bit of hard work and investment, we have published the Havelock Wool EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) and LCA (Life Cycle Assessment). We began…
Havelock Wool is Mold Resistant
In this post we won’t get into why mold is a bad thing for your living space. This topic is widely covered and frankly there…
Talking Van Insulation with Wayfarer Vans
We recently sat down with our good friend and partner Ian Horgan from Wayfarer Vans. Ian’s company is one of the preeminent van upfitters as…
Havelock Wool is Fire Resistant
One of the most common questions we get about wool insulation is what about fire resistance? It’s a crucial factor when considering any building material,…
Behind the Studs with Havelock Wool
We were lucky to be invited onto the Behind the Studs podcast, hosted by Colin Shaw and Jimmy Driscoll, two great homebuilders and remodelers from…
Indoor Air Quality : Wool and Formaldehyde
Let’s start with understanding formaldehyde. What is it? Formaldehyde is a colorless, strong-smelling gas used in making building materials and many household products. It is…
The Havelock Wool Story – in a 3 minute video!
We started Havelock Wool because we saw an opportunity to effect positive change by re-introducing an incredibly dynamic fiber into the built environment. It has…
Hey Havelock…how is your LCA / EPD going?
We have enjoyed learning more about the LCA/EPD process and how our endeavors fit in the equation. We can skip over the process and let…
The Definitive Havelock Wool Insulation Installation Videos
We are excited to share our new Havelock Wool installation videos with you. We get many questions about the specifics of installing Havelock Wool and…
Havelock Wool Forging Ahead
Our process is uniquely simple. We procure raw material (wool) in New Zealand, send it to ourselves in Nevada where we run a lite-touch manufacturing…
The Better Building Club
The Better Building Club We attempt to write this week with no tone. This is simply an effort to raise awareness around a recurring theme…
The Importance of Indoor Air Quality
Indoor Air Quality is Important The air we breathe in our homes, schools, and buildings is often 2-5 times more polluted than outside air. While…
Implementing Biophilic Design in Your Living Space
As we’ve written about before, we believe strongly in connecting our built environment with the natural world. Biophilic design does just that by establishing direct…
How to Choose an Insulation Installer
For too long the consensus view has been that insulation doesn’t matter. ‘Just go the cheapest route, get it in the walls and cover it…
Insulation Terms….Make Informed Decisions
As our business grows we meet more people everyday interested in healthy building. Some are building experts but often people are just beginning to learn…
What’s so cool about wool?
Someone recently highlighted an interesting fact to us. If (insert big company name here e.g. 3M or Dupont) made a fiber that was renewable, managed…
Havelock 2020 Vision
We celebrated 6 years in October and just closed our best year ever – by a wide margin. At 6 we are more than halfway…
Construction Emissions Must be Addressed
We understand that more efficient structures can lead to reduced energy consumption. However, we also increasingly understand there is much more to the equation than…
What are others saying about Havelock Wool?
We are happy to share testimonials and quite proud of the feedback we are able to earn from our products. Wool and its high-integrity characteristics…
The Insulation Decision
Kristof Irwin of Positive Energy recently hosted our friend Lucas Johnson of 475 Building Supply on his podcast for a fascinating discussion around sustainable building….
What is Batt Insulation?
Figuring out your home insulation options can be confusing. There are a lot of variables to consider. In this post, we’ll explain the basics of…
Restoration and Insulation
There is an argument that the ultimate in sustainability is to ‘use what you have’. This certainly applies to the homes we live in. Home…
Why Wool Works
There are many unique qualities of the wool fiber that make it a high-performing insulation – moisture management, air filtration, sound absorption, fire resistance. One…
Sound Absorption
A Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC) is a rating for how much sound a material absorbs. The higher the rating, the better the sound absorption. So…
Stop Using Foam Insulation
As we’ve written before, we think foam insulation has NO place in a home. It is a toxic, high embodied carbon shortcut to insulating properly….
Vapor and Condensation – The nitty gritty (Updated April 2022)
At the avant-garde of building science there is an increasingly lively debate around the correct wall assembly to manage vapor diffusion. The conversation, though dense…
Aligned Interests
In this week’s podcast, we check in with Christine, a homeowner, mother of two and a repeat purchaser of Havelock Wool. Her compelling perspective reinforces…
A Quick Video : Installing Batt Insulation
You’ve probably never installed home batt insulation and frankly probably hope life will stay that way. To make matters worse, just google “installing batt insulation”…
Insulation Cost in Context (Updated May 2021)
Do the slightest amount of research and you will quickly find the cost of insulation varies greatly. Purchasing power and materials both play a role….
Borderline fun to install insulation
This week we sat down with our friend Cameron Reith, founder of Greenhome Solutions, a green building product supplier in Seattle. We had a great…
Misaligned Interests : Today’s Insulation Installation Industry
Misaligned Interests This week we’d like to give our perspective on the insulation installation industry. After six years of working closely with these companies, we’ve…
40% of Carbon Emissions Originate in the Built Environment
Despite compelling evidence, science and everyday events there are some folks that remain unconvinced concerning climate change. We are not here to try and change…
Why Wool in 100 Seconds
We’ve spent a long time trying to boil the why wool topic down to something easy and even a bit fun to view. Ideally, you…
A Quick Look at Havelock Wool Operations
Our friend Jarrod Tocci recently dropped by our facility to take a tour and catch up with our sales guru Josh Schohn. Jarrod by way…
The Simple Path to Sustainable Building
Are sustainable building practices becoming more common? This week’s podcast is an in-depth conversation with our friend Mike Horgan of Horgan Design Build. Mike is…
Does R-value even matter?
What is R-value? Updated March 4, 2021 Put simply, R-value is a metric used to judge thermal insulation performance. It’s expressed as a number and…
Checking in on some residential insulation projects
We recently concluded a road trip to check in on some Havelock customers to hear how their residential insulation projects are going. It’s always good…
Embodied Carbon Network – Renewable Materials Discussion
We are proud members of the Embodied Carbon Network (ECN) and try to be as active as possible on the renewable materials task force. The…
Insulation Measurement Doesn’t Need to be Complicated. The Easy Step-by-Step Process.
A common question we get from folks installing wool insulation (or at least thinking about it) is “How much wool will I need?” Insulation measurement…
A Few Proud Moments at Havelock Wool
On the back of a few recent events, we wanted to share two proud moments here at Havelock Wool. Both involve families with young kids…
More Nature: It’s good for you, really good!
Biophilic design means more nature in our daily lives. More and more folks yearn to get reconnected with their natural surroundings. Wool insulation is one…
If your house can’t breathe, what are you breathing? Rethinking moisture management
Moisture has always posed a challenge in the built environment, whether in your house, your kid’s school or even your van. It creates real problems…
What better high-quality building material is there than two age-old renewable resources: wood and wool
Globally, there are 2.4 trillion square feet of structures in the built environment, a number slated to double in the next 40 years. Instead of…
The simple reasons for using Havelock Wool (and how to convince your spouse, builder, architect)
Healthy building materials are entering the realm of organic, healthy foods. If you are exercising and eating right why go home to a house full…
Havelock Wool Podcast
Demand for sustainable and healthy building materials is experiencing explosive growth…. and not just in traditional residential construction. In this month’s podcast we sit down…
Fiberglass may be an industry staple but there are more risks than you realize
Fiberglass insulation is the industry standard. It is highly unlikely this will change any time soon, if ever. We are here to disrupt your thinking…
We need action, not more science and data!
Greta Thunberg’s Ted Talk simply says it all: We have the data and the science! Every so often someone finds a way to cut through…
Anyone Contemplating Foam Insulation Needs To Read This Post
The passage below is an excerpt from testimony given to the General Law Committee in the state of CT addressing the problems with spray foam…
Havelock Wool Podcast
We’re kicking off a podcast series. Conversations will focus on interesting and satiable topics around the built environment, the building envelope and insulation. We’ll do…
Common Misconceptions About Insulation
Insulation is a topic in building that most folks don’t care to think about much less discuss. Most products are low-grade fibers and/or some weak…
Does a vapor barrier belong in your home?
Vapor barriers are a common theme in our daily communique with the ever-increasing number of consumers who care and/or want to learn about the building…
A Palette for Architecture 2030
Over the next twenty years, an area equal to a 3.5x the built environment of the U.S. will be redesigned, reshaped, and rebuilt. How do we do it properly?
Garbage In, Garbage In – Our Own Thoughts On Velux’s “The Indoor Generation”
We were recently heavily affected by a video produced by the Velux Group. Talk about leading from way ahead of the pack! From a personal…
A Happy Customer’s Review
We often get happy customers more than excited to tell us how much they love our wool insulation. What follows is a letter written by…
Wool Insulation vs. Ecobatt
Want to know why we are still such a small business? Disinformation. See below and PLEASE use your brain when making decisions. Intuitively there is…
Is Common Sense Becoming More Common?
Michael Lewis has made a career out of learning, first hand, the inadequacies of the finance trade and subsequently spent decades narrating, exquisitely, on the…
What is a Building Envelope?
This topic delves straight into the science of a building envelope. Not only does it divide the educated from the less so, but it truly…
Is Wool For Insulation a New Thing?
“Is using wool for insulation really a new thing?” Seems intuitive to us that the answer would be a resounding NO. However, we get the…
Is Competition Always a Good Thing?
As a proud alum of University of Chicago Booth School of Business where the book on efficient markets was literally written one could safely assume…
Protect Yourself From Indoor Air Pollution Using Wool Insulation
How Can You Protect From Indoor Air Pollution? We’re delighted to report that we have a guest blogger. After reading our commentary Jackie contacted us…
Smart Wall Manifesto
The problem in today’s building materials market is not only large manufacturers, but consumer’s continually shocking inability to ask basic questions. By making low integrity products…
What Is The Story With Wool And Its Ability To Sequester CO2?
The following facts pertain to the textile industry. Frankly, most studies on the subject relate to either carpets or fashion. We’ll add to the mix…
What Do Gymnasts And The Problems With Insulation Have In Common?
Below is an excerpt from a recent piece from our friends @greensciencepolicyinstitute. They are on a mission to rid the world of halogenated bromide chemicals…
Who’s Up For A Few Facts On Insulation?
Ever had anyone invite you to check out his or her new fiberglass long underwear? We haven’t either! The following is an effort to share…
Wool Insulation… Let Nature And Longevity Prevail!
We’ve acquiesced and are putting our big toe into the social fray. Who knew insulation could be such an interesting concept. On its own it…