Utility Blanket, Certified R, and MBI Plus are all types of fiberglass insulation used in pre-engineered metal buildings. Utility Blanket is 2” thick fiberglass (R-7) that is to be faced with an appropriate and adequate vapor retardant facing and is installed between roof or wall panels and the building’s secondary structural members to act as condensation and/or noise control.
Certified R is similar to Utility Blanket in that is made to be faced but is available in greater thicknesses than Utility Blanket and is used to retard heat flow from or in to a building. It is manufactured in such a way that it will recover its manufactured R-value after lamination, if laminated properly. Certified R is an Owens Corning product that is manufactured specifically to be laminated to a vapor retardant facing and is capable of maintaining its advertised R-value after having been laminated properly. Certified R insulation must have ink-jet-printed on it the NAIMA 202-96 designation, which is the manufacturer’s third party certification that it is, in fact, the labeled R-value (see below). Manville’s similar product is “MicroLite L”. Certainteed’s similar product is “Certainteed Metal Building Insulation”. Knauf’s similar product is “Knauf Metal Building Insulation”.
MBI Plus is fiberglass insulation that is not meant to be faced with a vapor retarder and in fact may not recover to its original R-value if it is faced. MBI Plus is meant to be used as a second layer of fiberglass outside the faced layer of Certified R fiberglass where higher overall R-values are desired.