Darryll writes from Lacombe, Alberta, Canada: "We are insulating the ceiling of our unfinished basement for sound purposes and are using batts of fibreglass for this. My question is, if this is fixed in place but not yet covered by ceiling tiles will the insulation "shed" fibres until it is covered up? We want to wait a while after installing the batts and I do not want any cleaning or irritation problems."

Answer: With foot traffic impacting on the floor above, I would expect some dust to fall from the insulation, joists, pipe, ducts, etc. Normal cleaning should remove that dust. I would not expect enough fibers - size or quantity - to cause skin irritation.