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Originally Posted by steven
Cranks, incidentally I live in one of the most humid areas of Japan. We get rain virtually every day (even if it's just a little). The room that I have my insulation in has very poor circulation... but even still I have had less mold problems since I hung my fiberglass (I say hung because I had frames built, covered my insulation panels with polyester batting and then with cloth and put them on the frames). I also installed an air conditioner which I run pretty much the whole time whenever I got there (it's a heater during the winter of course).
I've actually read though that insulation can't get moldy... however, dust particles can. So after years and years of particle buildup, mold can actually appear in glass fiber. I'm hoping my polyester batting and cloth covering will alleviate this possibility from becoming a reality!
I remember one time I had one of those particle board pieces of furniture in the room I'm talking about... after a week or so of summer it was literally covered in mold. We also built some bamboo skiis and those got completely covered in mold as well during the summer. I think that is one of the good points of styrofoam insulation... I don't think it can get moldy. That is if I am remembering correctly of course.
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I'm not an expert on this but it's not that the glass fiber itself get moldy but the fact it blocks the air circulation and it holds the moisture can be a problem from what I understand it. Running AC all the time probably helps a lot though. I haven't bought a house in Japan but even I know this much so it's probably one of the reasons surprisingly low percentage of Japanese houses are well insulated. My parents' house, which is now more than 20 years old, is completely insulated but it's built 100% with reinforced concrete which isn't very common in Japan or even in the states.