Learn More About Spray Foam
Spray Foam Solutions a new Life Style
Whether you are looking to save our planet and reduce your carbon footprint, or build super insulated building that offers extreme comfort and healthier indoor air quality, our solutions pay for themselves in a very short period and maintain performance over the life of your home.
Unvented Attic the only answer
The Myth about R-Value (don’t be fooled)
There is a widespread belief that all insulation materials of equal R-value will perform equally. Unfortunately, the R-value test does not even remotely duplicate real world conditions. The ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) R-value rating test only considers heat transfer of a given material in a laboratory and not many other real-life insulating factors, such as, air and moisture movement thru the envelope, varying temperature swings, installation practices (gaps, settling, poor attic perimeter), and sustainability of different insulation materials.
Total Comfort Control, Not Just R-Value
The building envelope is a system of construction components which protect against the uncontrolled movement of: heat, air, and moisture.
The true performance of your building envelope can not be measured with the R-value of the insulation alone, but must also consider air movement, moisture control, health, safety, durability, comfort, and energy efficiency.
This is true whether your building is commercial, residential, or multifamily: SPF addresses all these needs in both new construction and improvements to existing structures.
SPF reduces energy use in the following ways
- Has high R-value per inch (open-cell 3.5 per inch and closed-cell 6.0 per inch)
- Eliminates air infiltration
- Helps control moisture and condensation
- Reduces convective currents in walls and attics
- Eliminates wind washing
- Effective at low and high temperatures
- Provides the correct environment so that the ventilation system performs more efficiently
Six Mechanisms of Heat Loss Through a Wall or Ceiling That Are Bad for Your Home and Your Health
- Conduction
- Radiation
- Convection Currents
- Infiltration (Wind Pressure)
- Intrusion (Wind Wash)
- Moisture Accumulation (Humidity, Dew, and Frost
What is the difference between open cell SPF and closed cell SPF?
1/2 lb Spray Polyurethane Foam (SPF) Low density, open cell SPF refers to a generic spray polyurethane SPF that weighs between 0.4 to 0.6 lbs per cubic ft when fully cured. It is spray applied to a substrate as a liquid and expands about 100-150 times its original volume to form a semi-rigid/flexible, non-structural SPF insulation. The SPF has an R-value around 3.5 per inch and typically uses water as the blowing agent.
Medium Density, Closed Cell Spray Polyurethane Foam (SPF) Medium density, closed cell SPF used in interior applications typically refers to generic spray polyurethane foam that weighs between 1.5 to 2 lbs per cubic ft when fully cured. It is also spray applied as a liquid to a substrate and expands about 35 to 50 times its original volume to form a rigid, structural SPF insulation with a compressive strength between 15 to 25 PSI. The SPF has an R-value of around 6.0 per inch (aged R-value) and uses high R-value blowing agents.
Similarities: Both products are excellent air barriers in buildings, provide great insulation, can assist in the control of condensation within buildings and have great environmental benefits.
The Job of Thermal Envelops (insulation):
The Basics
The true performance of your building envelope cannot be measured with the R-value of the insulation alone, but must also consider air movement, moisture control, health, safety, durability, comfort, and energy efficiency.
What Is the Building Envelope?
All of your insulation products working together will form the insulating system, or as builders sometimes call it — the “building envelope” The building envelope is that area of construction that’s between the inside and outside of the house. Typically it’s the exterior walls, roof, basement and basement floor.
A tight and efficient building envelope will keep the heated and cooled air inside by plugging up any gaps or cracks in the building envelope.
There are fundamentally five functions that you want from insulation:
1. Thermal properties.
This is the ability of the insulation to moderate the flow of heat from outside to inside or vice versa in the cooling season.
2. Air Tight.
This is the most important concept of creating an energy efficient structure. Imagine wearing an R-50 jacket, except it leaked air through the pockets and zippers, would it be comfortable, no. The air leakage that builders are concerned with occurs through 2.5 miles of gaps, cracks and holes around the envelop of a building. To properly insulate you need an air-barrier system. These air-barriers need to be “continuous”, meaning if you seal one section and not others it doesn’t work as well. Imagine if the R-50 jacket only leaked in the pockets, it still would not be that comfortable. Typically in a home, 40 percent of the heat loss or heat gain comes from air infiltration through tiny cracks throughout our building envelope and our vented attics and crawl spaces.
3. Moisture management
Moisture management in the walls and roof assemblies. A home can get moisture in the wall from several sources. One of the most obvious and common problems is, of course, condensation. Remember middle school. Anytime you have moisture in the air, and all of our air has moisture in it, and a cold surface, you can condense water vapor (water in the air) to a solid and make water. This is one of Colorado’s biggest issues because we have such large temperature swings. During the day we have warm temps, a night we have cold temps. Meaning during the day we have warm air which holds lots of water vapor and is leaking into or through our building envelop. When you have a cold surface like exterior walls and roof decks you can and will make water. Now that we have made some water, whats the big deal. Many problems begin to take place when we make water, reduced performance (wet insulation does not work), building decay, and the worst is mold growth which compromises our health.
4. Fire Control
Today’s building codes are exceptional when it comes to fire control. Insulation systems provide an extremely important role in suppression and control. Spray foam solutions carry a fire rating of class 1 (highest rating in building materials) that provides fire resistance. Wall, roof, and floor cavities become issues because fire can travel rapidly through the building. Spray foam solutions eliminate the “air” or fuel source for fire within these cavities because spray foam is an “air barrier” unlike traditional insulation materials. Most importantly attic assemblies sealed from the outside to prevent hot ambers from being drafted into these spaces from external fire sources.
5. Sound Control
Spray Foam solution deliver quiet homes effective sound control both within a building and from noise originating outside the structure. Often this is caused by cracks and gaps in the insulation that will allow (or even magnify) external unwanted sounds to enter the living space.
