Vermont Foam Insulation

Spray Foam insulation can insulate your home like no other material on the market by sealing your home from air and moisture intrusion, save on costly utility bills, strengthen your home, and lastly help protect your family’s health from dangerous mold, airborne pollutants, and allergens.

Benefits of Spray Foam Insulation (SPF):

• Stops air and moisture leakage
• Reduces drafts, making your home more comfortable
• Saves on energy cost and monthly utility bills
• Closed-cell spray foam adds strength to the building structure
• It is permanent and will not sag
• Keeps dust and pollen out
• Reduces capacity requirements, maintenance and wear of HVAC equipment
• Open-cell spray foam can significantly exterior and interior reduce noice

Prevents Air, Moisture and Gas Infiltration

There have been studies that show out of a buildings total energy loss, 40% is due to air infiltration. The traditional fiberglass that is used to insulate homes is not sealed in the wall cavity but rather placed or stapled. Without a seal, air infiltration can pass through these gaps, making it much less efficient then SPF. SPF adheres to as well as molds into the walls and floors to create a tight seal and insulating barrier that stops air infiltration. SPF also has the highest R-value per inch than any other product on the market, making houses comfortable yet less expensive to heat in the winter and cool in the summer.

SPF can also reduce mold and mildew growth by acting as a barrier, which can cause severe health problems to homeowners and also structural damage to the building

Lower Lifetime Cost
Cost is a big consideration in any home building or remodeling task. One might be hesitant to choose foam insulation due to the fact that it has a bigger ticket price. But the true cost to install foam insulation is what one must consider when deciding between the two types. Foam insulation, it might surprise you, has a lower overall cost in many installations. Consider the fact that in a remodel situation, one would have to spend additional money for the time and labor of removing drywall and floors to get to the old insulation. Foam insulation, as was already mentioned, doesn't need a complete removal to gain access, making the time and labor less. Additionally, foam insulation is much more energy efficient, which will make your energy bill much less for years to come.

The advantages of foam insulation over traditional insulation make it a wise choice for remodeling a home or new construction. It is a much more efficient way of insulating your home, it is a much faster way of installing, and offers a total cost that is much less than traditional insulation. If you considering installing insulation in a new or existing home, foam insulation is an optimum solution.

Open-cell and Closed-cell Polyurethane Foams

One of the most important aspects when decided to put SPF in your home is whether you will want to put open cell foam, which is .05/lb./cu. ft., or closed cell foam, which is 2.0/lb./cu. ft. Both are difference in cost, application methods, and performance.

When deciding between the two foams there are two major factors that must be considered. As for the nature of the foam, with open cell there are tiny cells in the foam that are not completely closed so that air can fill all of these open spaces inside the material. As a result this foam is weaker or softer compared to the closed cell foam. On the other hand, closed cell foam has tiny cells that are completely closed and packed. They fill up with a gas that helps the foam rise and expand, thus becoming a greater insulator. The closed foam cells can be formulated to obtain many characteristics like size and density.

Closed-cell foam has more strength, a higher R-value, and a greater resistance to leakage of air or water vapor than open-cell foam. The downside of closed foam is it is much denser than open cell so it requires more material and is more expensive. Although it has a better R-value, the cost per R-value is still higher than open-cell foam. The choice between foams can also be based on other certain characteristics such as strength, vapor control, available space.

Open and Closed are both used in most building applications and when picking which one to choose it is important to analyze the factors that were discussed above. It is important to look at the different factors because some foams are inappropriate for different situations.  For instance you would not normally use open-cell in any situations where it could absorb water like below grade or flotation applications. This would take away from its thermal performance because water is bad insulator compared to air. On the other side, close-cell foam is good where framing sizes need the greatest R-value per inch possible. Roofing applications is a great example for closed-foam. It is important to do your own research but before starting any project it is important to discuss what type of foam should be used with your spray foam installation professional.