Processing Raw Fleece Into Loft Insulation

[aockenden]

Ok, I’m going to make another thread to record our process of taking raw, dirty, greasy fleece from local farmers and turning it into loft insulation.

We started by picking up 3 huge builders bags full of dirty greasy fleece from 4 local farms / homesteads around our village. Total cost: 25 quid. We probably got about 60 sheeps fleeces for that price. Some black, some white, some ewe, some ram.

 

[aockenden]

The plan is to pre-soak all the raw fleece for 24 hours to soften up all the dirt and poop, then bring it up to a simmer for a few mins with some biodegradable detergent to kill off any bugs and degrease the fibers. It doesn’t need to be perfect like if you were making yarn, just less greasy, less stinky, less dirty and bug free.

We’ll do all this in a steel 55 gallon drum and build a fire under it. I’ve cut the top off an old oil drum with an angle grinder and then washed it out thoroughly in preparation for this work.

 

[aockenden]

For those wondering, sheepswool meets grade A building standards for fire retardance. It is a self-extinguishing material which refuses to begin a self-sustaining, chain reaction of combustion. In fact many fire-blankets designed to smother out fires are made from wool! Even the local farmers that sold / gave us these fleeces were surprised to hear that wool is flame retardant.

I had already tested the fire retardance of store-bought wool insulation, but I wanted to confirm the behavior again with this raw, greasy fleece. I used a blowtorch this time and found that its fire retardance characteristics are still fully intact despite the “greasy” lanolin coating. It refuses to ignite and the places that are singeing / glowing red and smoking directly under the flame do rapidly self-extinguish (within a couple seconds at most) once the blowtorch is removed.

 

[fernicarry]

When we were on summer hols in the far North we stopped to watch some crofters shearing sheep. I asked where the fleeces go, he said they bury them as there is no market.

 

[aockenden]

When we were on summer hols in the far North we stopped to watch some crofters shearing sheep. I asked where the fleeces go, he said they bury them as there is no market.

Yes, it’s the same here in wales. It’s a national disgrace. This extremely precisely evolved and engineered natural material which has a huge intrinsic value, and they are literally burning it in the fields or sending it off in skips (we’ve had this independently confirmed by 4 or 5 different local farmers). Our modern civilization is truly pathetic.

 

[aockenden]

We’ve now got another huge builder-bag full of wool for literally 5 pounds. It would’ve been completely free but we asked them to deliver it as it wouldn’t fit into the back of our car, so we gave them 5 for driving it over.

 

[aockenden]

Ok first batch is starting its 24 hour soak. I’m going old school on this batch; instead of detergent I’m using wood ash. So I dumped in a half-bucket of wood ash, then filled the barrel halfway with water. This already produced a nice soapy bubble effect on the water surface. Then I chucked in about 5 or 6 fleeces of raw wool, then topped up the water and added another half bucket of wood ash ontop. Then gave the whole barrel a good stir with a stick. I’ll stir it every waking hour for the next day and then bring it all up to a simmer for 10 mins tomorrow around lunch. Then just let it cool, dump it all out and lay the fleeces out to dry.

 

[aockenden]

Ok after soaking I brought the entire barrel up to a simmer by building a fire underneath it. I kept it at a simmer for probably 20 mins. Then I dumped the barrel out and let the wool cool before hanging it to dry.

I definitely wouldn’t recommend using the wood ash, as it introduced a lot of gritty bits which got caught in the wool. In terms of cleaning, the water I dumped out of the barrel was truly filthy, like thick chocolate milk, so it’s all got to be much cleaner than before.

I also need a better place to dump the barrel out once it’s done simmering, as it picked up some crap off the ground.

 

[aockenden]

Well it took a while to dry (I should’ve wrung it before hanging), but it finally did and I’ve packed that first batch into the loft. It’s not pretty but it totally works. I think I’ll need another 2 batches of similar size to finish the rest of the loft.

 

[aockenden]

I also simmered my next batch of raw fleece using a modern biodegradable liquid laundry detergent instead of wood ash. It definitely benefited from the modern detergent as it got cleaner and didn’t have any grit from the wood ash caught in the fibers.

Once it finished simmering in the soapy water I used a pitch fork to scoop it out and dump it onto a pallet to cool. This kept it all off the ground which kept it cleaner as well, and it gave me a free draining place to rinse any detergent residue off the wool with clean cold water. After rinsing it, I then walked / jumped all over wool laying on the pallet to squash all the water out of the wool and therefore speed-up the drying time. This batch went WAY better overall.

 

[Lacan07]

Kudos to you for trying this, the fact farmers have to give this excellent product away is an absolute disgrace.

 

[aockenden]

Kudos to you for trying this, the fact farmers have to give this excellent product away is an absolute disgrace.

Agreed

 

[elizabeth]

Well done aokenden! It is impressive you could make use of this underused valuable material and insulate your home at a fraction of the cost.
I’m looking at sheepswool for our loft which is under a thatch. I am conscious of disturbing the status quo of the dry and airy loft and so would like to use breathable natural materials to insulate. I know it’s going to cost to do so. I like your approach but unfortunately we don’t have the flexibility to wash and prepare the wool on such a scale. Glad you have achieved a good result. I hope it returns you a warmer home.

 

[Lacan07]

Agreed

Especially as companies like thermo fleece seem charge so much for it although I guess they have to clean it up and process it too. I still think it's expensive. I wonder what the cost of replacing synthetic insulation with natura sheepswool would be if the government chose to make use of all the discarded fleeces.

 

[aockenden]

Well done aokenden! It is impressive you could make use of this underused valuable material and insulate your home at a fraction of the cost.
I’m looking at sheepswool for our loft which is under a thatch. I am conscious of disturbing the status quo of the dry and airy loft and so would like to use breathable natural materials to insulate. I know it’s going to cost to do so. I like your approach but unfortunately we don’t have the flexibility to wash and prepare the wool on such a scale. Glad you have achieved a good result. I hope it returns you a warmer home.

Thanks, yes it’s been a fun experiment so far. Honestly I’m like 50/50 that you even need to bother washing it. I don’t think I’ve even seen a single bug (tick, moth, larvae, etc.) on any of the fleece I’ve processed so far. And as for the greasy coating on the wool, it’s there but it’s not dripping in grease and why should I care if it’s got some grease up in my loft? Not doing me any harm.

Washing is reducing the sheepy smell a touch, but again if it’s up in a ventilated loft why do I care if the loft smells a bit sheepy? Not sure if you’d even detect anything in the rooms below. I think there’s a good chance you’d get away with just using it completely raw and just cutting away any chunks of manure or super dirty sections and then chucking it up into your loft. I might try that on my next outbuilding build.

 

[aockenden]

Especially as companies like thermo fleece seem charge so much for it although I guess they have to clean it up and process it too. I still think it's expensive. I wonder what the cost of replacing synthetic insulation with natura sheepswool would be if the government chose to make use of all the discarded fleeces.

Yes well the prepared / processed sheepswool we bought from a company for another part of our property had been shipped to Austria for some high tech heat-treatment procedure that’s supposed to stop bugs, and then it gets shipped back to the UK. Plus they clean it and make it up into big rolls.

So this whole experiment for me is to fact-check these company’s claims that all this high tech processing is even needed. I get the strrong impression this is just a BS greedy capitalist scheme to jack up prices and profits on a strictly superior option, and to drive more people back into the hyper-industrial options like rockwool and fiber glass.

 

[Lacan07]

Yes well the prepared / processed sheepswool we bought from a company for another part of our property had been shipped to Austria for some high tech heat-treatment procedure that’s supposed to stop bugs, and then it gets shipped back to the UK. Plus they clean it and make it up into big rolls.

So this whole experiment for me is to fact-check these company’s claims that all this high tech processing is even needed. I get the strrong impression this is just a BS greedy capitalist scheme to jack up prices and profits on a strictly superior option, and to drive more people back into the hyper-industrial options like rockwool and fiber glass.

I've managed to pick some up on FB marketplace in the last few years at knock down prices but the opportunity to do this is rare here in the south east of England where it's difficult to get any type of eco material for a good price. I have enough to insulate my small loft but I might have to bite the bullet and order from a retailer for the Oast house loft. Of course they deliver it on a £70 worth of old pallet.

 

[aockenden]

I've managed to pick some up on FB marketplace in the last few years at knock down prices but the opportunity to do this is rare here in the south east of England where it's difficult to get any type of eco material for a good price. I have enough to insulate my small loft but I might have to bite the bullet and order from a retailer for the Oast house loft. Of course they deliver it on a £70 worth of old pallet.

You bought raw fleece or processed insulation wool?

 

[Lacan07]

You bought raw fleece or processed insulation wool?

The standard processed stuff

 

[aockenden]

The standard processed stuff

Ah right