Aerogel blanket installs much like conventional blanket, which is one of its practical advantages, but there are a handful of differences that catch experienced crews out on the first job. None are difficult; all are worth briefing before work starts.
Handling and cutting
- Cut with a sharp knife against a straight edge. A blunt blade tears the fibre and creates more dust
- Cutting generates fine dust. Use extraction or cut outdoors, and follow the safety data sheet for respiratory and eye protection
- Cut on a board, not against the pipe, so the blade does not damage the layer underneath
- Do not compress the material to force it into a gap. Compressed blanket has lost the thickness the calculation assumed
Wrapping
- Butt joints tightly. Gaps are direct thermal bridges and there is no forgiveness in a thin system
- Stagger joints between layers so that no thermal path runs straight through
- Overlap in the direction that sheds water when the run is outdoors
- Band at the spacing in the specification. Over-tightening bands compresses the material and loses performance
Cold service specifics
- The vapour barrier detail is the job. Everything else is secondary
- Follow the lap direction and tape sequence in the installation guide exactly
- Do not puncture the barrier for temporary fixings, ever
- Reinstate the barrier fully at supports and penetrations before cladding
Common mistakes worth briefing out
- Treating thin material as forgiving. A 5 mm gap in a 40 mm system is proportionally far worse than in a 120 mm one
- Leaving fittings, flanges and supports uninsulated because they are fiddly. These often dominate the total loss
- Cladding over damage rather than reporting it
- Assuming the crew that did the last mineral wool job needs no briefing
Support available
We supply an installation guide with every order and can provide contractor training for larger projects. On first-time installations we recommend a supervised first section before the crew is released to work independently.
