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Wool Insulation

Indoor Air Quality in an Airtight Home

April 6, 2021 by Andrew Legge 1 Comment

We recently wrote a piece about the importance of an airtight home. The core premise is that a structure that allows for air transport –…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, wool insulation

Building Science – A Simplified and Useful View

March 17, 2021 by Andrew Legge Leave a Comment

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, wool insulation

What is a takeoff and why is it important?

February 15, 2021 by Andrew Legge Leave a Comment

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, wool insulation

An Airtight Home

February 4, 2021 by Phil Walsh 1 Comment

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, wool insulation

Wool insulation installation…. what’s the real deal?

January 29, 2021 by Andrew Legge 8 Comments

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, wool insulation

What is a Thermal Bridge?

January 21, 2021 by Phil Walsh 5 Comments

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, wool insulation

A Noteworthy View of the US Insulation Market

January 15, 2021 by Andrew Legge Leave a Comment

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, wool insulation

Human-made mass now exceeds all living biomass

December 18, 2020 by Andrew Legge 2 Comments

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, wool insulation

What’s going on with Havelock’s backlog?

December 3, 2020 by Andrew Legge 12 Comments

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, wool insulation

Quick Update from Havelock Wool

November 13, 2020 by Andrew Legge 14 Comments

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,…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, wool insulation

The Wall System Evolution

October 7, 2020 by Andrew Legge 1 Comment

Walls used to be walls. A simple protector from the outside – wind, rain, cold, heat… you know the elements. Primitively, they were porous and…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, wool insulation

Wool Insulation Going Mainstream

September 28, 2020 by Andrew Legge 6 Comments

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, wool insulation

Home Improvement

September 10, 2020 by Andrew Legge 5 Comments

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, wool insulation

Energy Transfer 101

August 21, 2020 by Andrew Legge 3 Comments

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, wool insulation

Does your insulation store carbon?

August 7, 2020 by Andrew Legge Leave a Comment

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, wool insulation

We’ve learned quite a bit in 7 years….time to share.

July 29, 2020 by Andrew Legge 7 Comments

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, wool insulation

The Havelock Wool LCA / EPD

July 16, 2020 by Andrew Legge 2 Comments

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, indoor air quality, mold resistance, wool insulation

Havelock Wool is Mold Resistant

June 25, 2020 by Andrew Legge 5 Comments

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, indoor air quality, mold resistance, wool insulation

Talking Van Insulation with Wayfarer Vans

June 9, 2020 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: sustainable building, van insulation, wool insulation

Havelock Wool is Fire Resistant

June 5, 2020 by Andrew Legge

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,…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: fire resistance, healthy building, indoor air quality, wool insulation

Behind the Studs with Havelock Wool

May 28, 2020 by Andrew Legge Leave a Comment

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…

Filed Under: sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: batt installation, healthy home, wool insulation

Indoor Air Quality : Wool and Formaldehyde

May 14, 2020 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, indoor air quality, wool insulation

The Havelock Wool Story – in a 3 minute video!

April 24, 2020 by Andrew Legge 4 Comments

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…

Filed Under: sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: batt installation, healthy home, wool insulation

Hey Havelock…how is your LCA / EPD going?

April 17, 2020 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: biophilic design, healthy building, wool insulation

The Definitive Havelock Wool Insulation Installation Videos

April 2, 2020 by Andrew Legge 8 Comments

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…

Filed Under: sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: batt installation, healthy home, wool insulation

Havelock Wool Forging Ahead

March 26, 2020 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: biophilic design, healthy building, wool insulation

The Better Building Club

March 12, 2020 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: biophilic design, healthy building, wool insulation

The Importance of Indoor Air Quality

March 6, 2020 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: biophilic design, healthy building, wool insulation

Implementing Biophilic Design in Your Living Space

February 28, 2020 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: biophilic design, healthy building, wool insulation

How to Choose an Insulation Installer

February 13, 2020 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, insulation cost, sustainable building, wool insulation

Insulation Terms….Make Informed Decisions

January 30, 2020 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, insulation terms, sustainable building, wool insulation

What’s so cool about wool?

January 17, 2020 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, insulation cost, sustainable building, wool insulation

Havelock 2020 Vision

January 7, 2020 by Andrew Legge

We celebrated 6 years in October and just closed our best year ever – by a wide margin. At 6 we are more than halfway…

Filed Under: r value, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: eco friendly insulation, sustainable insulation, wool insulation

Construction Emissions Must be Addressed

December 20, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: r value, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: eco friendly insulation, sustainable insulation

What are others saying about Havelock Wool?

December 5, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: r value, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: eco friendly insulation, sustainable insulation

The Insulation Decision

November 21, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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….

Filed Under: r value, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: eco friendly insulation, sustainable insulation

What is Batt Insulation?

November 15, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: r value, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: batt insulation, batt insulation cost, batt insulation r value

Restoration and Insulation

November 8, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, sustainable building, wool insulation

Why Wool Works

October 31, 2019 by Andrew Legge 2 Comments

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…

Filed Under: sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy home, sound absorption, wool insulation

Sound Absorption

October 22, 2019 by Andrew Legge 8 Comments

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…

Filed Under: sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy home, sound absorption, wool insulation

Stop Using Foam Insulation

October 8, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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….

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, insulation cost, sustainable building, wool insulation

Vapor and Condensation – The nitty gritty

October 3, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, insulation cost, sustainable building, wool insulation

Aligned Interests

September 25, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, sustainable building, wool insulation

A Quick Video : Installing Batt Insulation

September 20, 2019 by Andrew Legge 1 Comment

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”…

Filed Under: sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: batt installation, healthy home, wool insulation

Insulation Cost in Context (Updated October 2020)

September 12, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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….

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, insulation cost, sustainable building, wool insulation

Borderline fun to install insulation

August 27, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, sustainable building, wool insulation

Misaligned Interests : Today’s Insulation Installation Industry

August 15, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, healthy home, insulation installation, wool insulation

40% of Carbon Emissions Originate in the Built Environment

August 8, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, healthy home, wool insulation

Why Wool in 100 Seconds

July 24, 2019 by Andrew Legge 2 Comments

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…

Filed Under: sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy home, wool insulation

A Quick Look at Havelock Wool Operations

July 18, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: #VanLife, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, sustainable building, wool insulation

The Simple Path to Sustainable Building

July 10, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, sustainable building, wool insulation

Does R-value even matter?

July 10, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: r value, sustainable building, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, healthy home, wool insulation

Checking in on some residential insulation projects

July 1, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, renewable materials, wool insulation

Embodied Carbon Network – Renewable Materials Discussion

June 26, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, renewable materials, wool insulation

Insulation Measurement Doesn’t Need to be Complicated. The Easy Step-by-Step Process.

June 11, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: insulation measurement, Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, insulation measurement, wool insulation

A Few Proud Moments at Havelock Wool

June 4, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, healthy home, wool insulation

More Nature: It’s good for you, really good!

May 30, 2019 by Andrew Legge 2 Comments

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, wool insulation

If your house can’t breathe, what are you breathing? Rethinking moisture management

May 16, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, vanlife, wool insulation

What better high-quality building material is there than two age-old renewable resources: wood and wool

May 3, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, vanlife, wool insulation

The simple reasons for using Havelock Wool (and how to convince your spouse, builder, architect)

April 17, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation Tagged With: healthy building, vanlife, wool insulation

Havelock Wool Podcast

March 20, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation

Fiberglass may be an industry staple but there are more risks than you realize

March 7, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation

We need action, not more science and data!

February 26, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation

Anyone Contemplating Foam Insulation Needs To Read This Post

February 20, 2019 by Andrew Legge 3 Comments

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation

Havelock Wool Podcast

February 14, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation

Common Misconceptions About Insulation

January 30, 2019 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: Uncategorized, Wool Insulation

Do vapor barriers belong in your home? (Updated Oct. 2020)

January 25, 2019 by Andrew Legge 8 Comments

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…

Filed Under: Uncategorized, Wool Insulation

A Palette for Architecture 2030

September 20, 2018 by Andrew Legge

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?

Filed Under: Uncategorized, Wool Insulation

Garbage In, Garbage In – Our Own Thoughts On Velux’s “The Indoor Generation”

June 21, 2018 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation

A Happy Customer’s Review

May 15, 2018 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation

Wool Insulation vs. Ecobatt

May 15, 2018 by Andrew Legge

  Want to know why we are still such a small business? Disinformation. See below and PLEASE use your brain when making decisions. Intuitively there…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation

Is Common Sense Becoming More Common?

May 8, 2018 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation

What is a Building Envelope?

April 26, 2018 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation

Is Wool For Insulation a New Thing?

April 24, 2018 by Andrew Legge

“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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation

Is Competition Always a Good Thing?

April 17, 2018 by Andrew Legge

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation

Protect Yourself From Indoor Air Pollution Using Wool Insulation

October 12, 2017 by Andrew Legge 1 Comment

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation

Smart Wall Manifesto

March 16, 2017 by Andrew Legge Leave a Comment

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation

What Is The Story With Wool And Its Ability To Sequester CO2?

September 21, 2016 by Andrew Legge 4 Comments

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation

What Do Gymnasts And The Problems With Insulation Have In Common?

August 18, 2016 by Andrew Legge Leave a Comment

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation

Who’s Up For A Few Facts On Insulation?

June 21, 2016 by Andrew Legge Leave a Comment

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation

Wool Insulation… Let Nature And Longevity Prevail!

May 17, 2016 by Andrew Legge Leave a Comment

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…

Filed Under: Wool Insulation

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