It's cheap, but it doesn't do the same thing at all. It adds mass, that's all. Asphalt is not a viscoelastic material - butyl is. Google "viscoelastic constrained layer damper" for background on how important that feature is.
Asphalt is prone to failure and its potential to fail increases every day. Heat tolerance decreases with time. Its durability varies between batches and due to circumstances completely beyond the user's control. Cleaning the surfaces won't stabilize it and using a heat gun to increase short term adhesive strength ACCELERATES the reduction in its heat tolerance.
Whether or not you can smell it, if the asphalt is flexible, it is outgassing toxic VOCs. There are no two ways about it.
There is no possible way this can be an accurate statement. It will be better than nothing if it doesn't melt or otherwise fall off. That is the best that can be said for it.
see above
As I said before, it will be better than nothing if it doesn't fail and you don't mind the toxicity. The reason people make assertions like this is because they don't have enough experience with a range of products. Ask yourself why you so seldom hear any one say they used to use butyl and tried asphalt and it works just as well? Much more likely to hear the opposite. People with a lot of experience don't say things like this.
An interesting phenomenon has developed over the past few years that I have been reviewing sound deadeners. Early on, many people contacted me to insist that asphalt was as good as butyl. Many of them have been honest enough to contact me later to say that despite meticulous installation, the asphalt mat eventually melted or fell off. Don't consider anybody reliable on this point unless they have had an asphalt product in their car for at least 3 summers. I'm not saying there is a 100% failure rate - just that there are far too many cases of perfect installation and product failure for me to even consider it. Not on a vertical surface and not on a horizontal surface. Peel & Seal was meant to make temporary repairs on the roof of a mobile home. Use it for that.
The aluminum foil backed Protecto-Wrap isn't bad at all, if it has the butyl adhesive. Protecto-Wrap isn't a product, it is a company. They make asphalt and butyl with aluminum foil or plastic facings. You want butyl and aluminum foil. Anything else is a waste of time. The foil is an important component that contributes substantially to the product's effectiveness.
WRONG - WRONG - WRONG. THis stuff claims to be butyl but is asphalt. It also has a silvery looking facing that is actually plastic. It is the worst of all possible product configurations AND is being sold through deception.
Also consider the thickness and mass/ft². Flashing tapes like Protecto Wrap are usually a lot thinner than products like RAAMmat that are sold by reputable companies for sound deadening. If it takes 2 layers of Protecto-Wrap to equal 1 layer of RAAMmat, the economy is much worse.
No question, RAAMmat
No. Please see above for reasons why this is not a good idea and why the two can never be equivalent.
You would have to use MANY to accomplish with mass loading alone what a butyl product accomplishes with mass loading and constrained layer viscoelastic damping.
When I first started looking at sound deadeners, it was strictly to find something for my own use. Like many of you, I was intrigued by the idea of something that could be purchased cheaply at Home Depot being as good as the very expensive products being sold as sound deadeners. Several years and literally dozens of products later, there is no doubt in my mind that asphalt is far too risky and ineffective to be worth the trouble.
Even the cheapness argument is doubtful. In my experience, using $50 of a decent butyl mat and spreading it out will work better than $50 of Peel & Seal or other asphalt with none of the downside risks.
. keep em coming guy's.
