Running Out of Insulation

A shortage warms up, and price-gouging begins

Like many other U.S. homeowners, Allan Coleman of Staten Island, N.Y., found that his heating bills climbed out of sight last winter. When President Carter in April proposed homeowner tax credits for installing insulation, Coleman figured he could at least afford to make his four-bedroom house more energy efficient. But when he went to the lumber store to buy 750 sq. ft. of fiber-glass insulation for his attic, he could not get one square inch. The store had been sold out for weeks, and no one had any idea when new shipments would arrive. Gripes Coleman: "It's ridiculous. I've been waiting for nearly three months, and now winter is almost here again."

He is far from alone in his trouble.

Since midsummer, a nationwide shortage of insulation, fiber glass and rock wool, has turned the fuel conservation plans of tens of thousands of other Americans into near-impossible dreams. Fiber glass today no longer comes only in the familiar batts (rolls) tacked up between wall and ceiling joists; it has also largely replaced rock wool as the preferred fluffy insulation material blown into wall spaces.

In Toledo, home of Owens-Corning, the industry leader, home-insulation buyers must wait four to six weeks for one of their city's most famous products. Demand is so great that the three biggest producers--Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp., Johns-Manville Corp. and Certain-Teed Corp.--are allocating deliveries to wholesalers, building-supply companies and other middlemen. In some cases buyers can get only as much as they bought last year.

Frank Kilduff, a buyer for a Chelsea, Mass., building-materials jobber, has been "on allocation," as he puts it, from Certain-Teed since May. Now he must place orders by mail instead of telephone; Certain-Teed then calls to ask where Ki] duffs allowed two weekly truckload should be sent. Complains William Rich owner of a Wellesley, Mass., insulation-installing firm: "I'm backed up four months Since July I have been getting 300 to 400 bags of fiber glass a month, and I need a minimum of 1,200."

There have been charges that unscrupulous insulation distributors are out to make a fast buck on the public's energy anxieties. Some wholesalers have hiked prices 20%, even though fiber glass manufacturers have not raised most quotes since last March. Arthur Milot, president of a Rhode Island lumber firm, says he was offered insulation in September by a salesman from National Gypsum, a distributor for Owens-Corning, for 20% above the prevailing price. He refused to buy, yet the incident convinced him that whatever profiteering is going on is occurring at "the middleman's level."

Memories of last winter's hefty heating bills are a big factor in the current demand. Many homeowners figure the insulation will eventually pay for itself in fuel savings and are not waiting for the tax incentive that is included in the Administration's energy program, now tied up by congressional wrangling. (A 25% personal income tax credit on the first $800 outlay spent for insulation would be granted.) Another stimulus to insulation demand is the yearlong boom in housing (TIME cover, Sept. 12), which depletes supplies rapidly. Says an O-C spokesman: "We have warehouses that normally contain a six-day supply. They are down to a one-day supply now. The stuff is going directly out the door from manufacturer to buyers."

Unfortunately, the shortages are unlikely to ease soon. True, manufacturers are increasing their capacity. But demand has exploded far beyond even the expansion programs' ability to satiate it: some 4.7 million homes have been reinsulated this year, or three times the number a year ago, yet experts insist that the great majority of homes lack sufficient insulation. Tax incentives, desirable as they may be in theory, will only feed a demand that

cannot immediately be supplied and

that is an indication of how egregiously Americans have been wasting energy.

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