Have you ever thought about better roof insulation, or isolatie in Dutch, for your home? That offers quite a few advantages. Especially with the ever rising gas and electricity prices. Think of good insulation of your roofs, which is called dakisolatie in Dutch, your floor and your walls. One of the commonly used insulation materials today is rock wool insulation. However, another great material to use when insulating your home is the PIR insulation board. Below you can read more about buying PIR insulation, which is called PIR isolatie in Dutch. This will include an explanation of what PIR even is, while the types of PIR insulation boards will be mentioned as well, just like the advantages and disadvantages of this great material to use when insulating your home.

What is PIR?

You may be familiar with PUR, the foam that you can use to close cracks and crevices in your home. PIR is similar stuff, but in the form of plates. These insulation boards are often used in residential construction as wall, cavity wall and floor insulation. But you can also insulate your flat roof with it. The plates are easy to process. They are light in weight and can be cut easily. The boards do not absorb moisture and their insulation value is very high. From a fire point of view, PIR insulation boards are more fire-safe than PUR foam because fewer harmful flue gases are released when heated.

What types of PIR insulation boards are there?

Usually PIR plates have a vapor barrier on both sides. You can then use the plates on both sides and you do not need to apply a vapor barrier. However, you do need to seal the seams between the plates well with tape. There are also PIR plates that combine with other insulating materials such as glass wool. The plates are then provided with a thin layer of mineral wool on one side. This has been specially applied to smooth out unevenness in the wall surface. Because these plates have a somewhat rougher finish, you can use these combination plates very well in cavity walls. The PIR plates are available in different thicknesses. They also meet the requirements excellently for small plate thicknesses.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of PIR?

Just like any other material you can use when insulating a building, PIR insulation boards have several advantages, but also some disadvantages. Below you will find a list of both the pros and cons.

Advantages of PIR insulation boards

• The insulation value is very high, even with thin plates
• The material does not absorb moisture and can therefore be used in humid conditions
• The material is light in weight and easy to process
• The plates have their own vapor barrier (no additional vapor barrier needs to be installed)
• The plates have good fire-retardant properties

Disadvantages of PIR insulation boards

• Environmentally harmful substances are used to produce PIR insulation boards
• The material is difficult to recycle