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My Spray Foam Insulation Project
Step-by-Step


This spray foam insulation project is part of my green home retrofit that I have been documenting in these pages.

The insulation part of this project keeps growing. It started with information about home insulation in general; as the project progressed, new pages were added: the first of these was this page about our own spray foam insulation scenario.

Later, I wrote about our foil insulation project, our diy water heater insulation blanket, and finally the building of a rigid foam box to serve as attic door insulation.

There's more to come, so bookmark this page or subscribe to the site so you won't miss any of it!

URETHANE SPRAY FOAM INSULATION
STEP-BY-STEP

Sunroom-office spray foam insulation finishedApart from one area that required rigid foam, and some minor walls where batt insulation is sufficient -- the greatest part of the insulation in my house is some kind of urethane spray foam; that's why I felt it deserved its own page.

It's also the kind of insulation that people are most curious about, because it's relatively new. Until recently, it seemed financially out of reach -- but as the cost of energy rises, it is being considered more as an investment than a luxury.

The more general part of the home insulation process can be found at my Insulation page. If you haven't visited it, I encourage you to do so. There's a lot of information there that you will find useful if you're embarking on a home insulation project yourself.


1. Preliminary Work

Before making the final appointment with the spray foam insulation contractor, we spent several weeks getting ready, especially in the following areas:

  • Removal of dust, residues, nails, etc.
  • Caulking and gap filling
  • Support work
For dusting, we found the best way was with our good old wet/dry vacuum. It was very efficient on the cobwebs:

Cobwebs

This is a mere sampling of what was behind all the walls and ceilings.

How did the dust get there? It's a mystery.

Good old wet/dry vac at work. Vacuuming cobwebs away
No dust bunny escapes

No dust bunny escapes this vacuum and its operator, even it if means perching himself precariously over the void.

Luckily, there were no accidents.

This is the crawl space under the kitchen-dinette. It had been used as a dumping-place by the previous owner.

We emptied it last summer, but now we had to make it spic and span in preparation for the insulation.

Crawl space ready

Now the crawl space is ready.

The floor looks dirty because it's... well, dirt.

This is the dust that came out of the gutted walls and ceilings.

How on earth did it get in there?

Some of the dust that was hiding behind the walls
Gap in cathedral ceiling
The kitchen-dinette cathedral ceiling had a gap which needed to be filled before applying the spray foam insulation. The "barrier" thus created would keep the foam up in the ceiling, where it belonged. A short piece of lumber did the trick.
Little rectangles of OSB

Some of the areas that we caulked, and that required tube after tube and hour after hour, were the small spaces created by turning the two addition roofs into so-called cathedral ceilings.

 

We filled these spaces with small rectangles of OSB (oriented-strand board), but since the structure had shifted over the years, small gaps were unavoidable. You can see the daylight around this one.

Rigid foam insulation Rigid foam gets cut on table saw
This is the rigid foam insulation which will be used in the floor of the sunroom-office, which sits directly over a plain concrete pad.

Rigid foam in the ideal choice for such situations, as it's the only waterproof insulating material, and there have been problems with moisture there in the past.

To get a nice cut to fit the space without shreds, a table saw turned out to be the best tool.
Little ledges for rigid foam insulation

In order to keep the rigid foam from resting directly on the concrete pad, small ledges were built for the panels to sit on (where white arrows point). Three inches of spray foam insulation will be added on top of those panels.

Note, at the upper left of the top photo, the six-inch space that we are leaving open along the outside perimeter so that it may be filled completely with spray foam later.

Electric outlets
Windows covered against fallout
Lastly, don't forget to protect anything valuable or vulnerable against spray foam insulation fallout! Like electrical outlets (left), windows (right), furniture, etc.


2. The Big Day!
The spray foam truckThis is not an alien, it's the insulation contractor
It's a foggy Fall day and the insulation truck is here at last! It's really a small factory on wheels... a factory run by an alien, it seems!

3. The Spraying Begins

The foam being used here is the low-density (1/2-lb) type manufactured by Home Foam. It's polyurethane-based and water-propelled.

Spraying begins in kitchen - note caulkingWe started with the kitchen-dinette.

The arrow points to caulking referred to above -- essential to keep foam from escaping through gaps.
This is what the walls look like after spraying and before trimming. This type of foam expands so much and so fast that it's impossible to contain it...What the foam looks like before it's trimmed
An ordinary saw is used to trim off the excess foam... that's why it gets trimmed with a hand saw, the kind used for sawing wood...
... resulting in a tremendous amount of waste, as shown here in the kitchen-dinette.Waste foam from the kitchen-dinette
Lunchtime! The fumes don't seem to affect the appetiteLunchtime! The fumes don't seem to affect the appetite.
Meanwhile, the insulation waste continues to accumulate...The foam insulation waste continues to accumulate
Mountain of waste in main room... and accumulate.  

Will someone please invent a way of recycling this!!!
Here, the walls of the main building have been insulated and trimmed.Main building walls and ceiling, all insulated

4. The Spraying Continues, But In A Different Color


The low-density (1/2 lb) foam areas -- all the main floor walls and some of the ceilings -- having been sprayed, the contractor then switched his equipment to the high-density (2-lb) product, the BASF Walltite blue foam.

Spraying sunroom-office floor with blue foamFirst, he filled a six-inch open space around the perimeter of the sunroom-office floor, and now he's applying a few inches of blue foam on top of the rigid foam that we had installed earlier.
Now, the contractor is spraying the crawl space sill plates and walls with blue foam.Spraying the crawl space walls with blue foam
The fog is from the spraying: that's why the installer is wearing a respirator that is attached to a separate air supply equipment located outdoors.
Crawl space walls with blue foamBasement sill plate have blue foam insulationDryer duct encased in blue foam insulation
Left: the crawl space walls with blue foam insulation; middle: basement sill plates have been sprayed to overflowing; right: note how dryer duct is encased in foam, eliminating any possible draft.
Sunroom-office, all insulatedHere we see the sunroom-office with all spray foam insulation in place. (Distortion is caused by extra-wide-angle lens.)

High-density foam -- like this blue one -- is ideal for cathedral ceilings -- as it requires no ventilation.

It also acts as its own vapor barrier but we're going to put one up anyway.
Last, but not least, the kitchen-dinette ceiling also received four inches of blue spray foam insulation between the rafters.Kitchen-dinette fully insulated with two foam types


Bags and bags of waste foamFeather-light waste foam makes a good football
The dark side of my foam insulation project...... and the light side.
That's the end of the spray foam insulation project.

OTHER INSULATION TYPES WE USED

1. Fiberglass Batts

For interior walls, we went for a more economical product. The new stairwell wall, for instance, was done with 24-inch wide fiberglass batts. I would have preferred rock wool (it's greener), but it's not available locally.

The first photo shows the room side and the second, the stairwell side, which has been reinforced with wood slats to prevent the insulation from falling through, and offer support for the wallboard later.

The warm [room] side will get covered with vapor barrier and drywall, but the stairwell side, which is the cold side, will only get drywall.
Stairwell wall, on the inner sideStairwell side, showing slats to hold insulation in
This time, we couldn't use the old insulation that we had carefully taken out of the walls during the deconstruction phase, with the idea of reusing it, because that was only 16 inches wide and this new wall's studs are 24 inches apart.

However, we will be able to use it in the basement laundry room walls and if there's any left, in the attic.

2. Rigid Foam Insulation

Please see the earlier section, where we describe the way we used this material to build up the sunroom-office floor.

3. Foil Insulation

We did the kitchen-dinette walls with foil insulation. This unusual product doubles as a vapor barrier but it's a bit tricky to install.

4. Other Types

We will keep adding to this section as we continue with the insulation project.

WHAT ABOUT DIY SPRAY FOAM INSULATION?

Although most home insulation falls under the "do-it-yourself" category, I didn't consider spray foam to be one of them.

Spray foam is NOT a product for amateurs. Spray foam contractors working for responsible companies have received serious training from the product manufacturer.

If you decide to use one of those spray foam kits, be sure to follow the directions and take every possible precaution to avoid inhaling the fumes.

As you have seen above, special protection equipment is required, and that's because even if the product itself not toxic, the fumes are damaging to the lungs.

The small cans of spray foam insulation for filling gaps are okay, and we used a tremendous number of them. They come in two types: low-expansion for around doors and windows, and high-expansion for filling other types of gaps. Check the can label to be sure; using the wrong type around doors and windows can be fatal.


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COMMENTS

...I clicked to your site and found a great wealth of information. I'm about the least tool oriented person there is around, but I'm passionate about many of the topics you write about. And I find the writing to be very well done and informative even for a non-handy person like me. Well done.
Dean
Prague, Czech Republic


I would just like to thank you for maintaining this resource. It's essential that information about environmental issues are easily and broadly accessible.
Steve
United States


Thank you so much for sharing your exquisitely well-told stories! I have spent the last 2 hours reading the whole saga, and I appreciate all of the detail that went into your decision making. I hope you are enjoying your green home with cozy surroundings and energy efficiency.
Candice
Unites States

Thank you for taking the time to write down your experiences. It is truly a valuable service.
Rajiv
United States

Thanks for all the info on this site, it is very thorough.
Marie
United States

Very well documented and I appreciate the work and the effort you have put into this.
Brian
Canada

Hey! Just wanted to compliment you on your site! I'm a new, first time homeowner, with a dirt crawlspace and have searched for hours on how to set it up.

Living here in Montreal, and the conditions aren't easy on a house and this site sure helped to answer some questions.


Thank you for displaying your work and experience!
Bannon
Canada

Have to say I absolutely love your site. Really complete, well thought out, and has me clicking from page to page...
Marcus
Spain


BACKGROUND

A few years ago, I bought this fixer-upper for $10,000.

It had been vacant for six years, had no water supply, needed a new roof, and was likely to conceal an unsuspected number of nasty flaws.

Don't believe me? See these "Before" pictures.

My intention was to turn into as "green" as home as I could, within my physical, financial, and geographical limits – and to share this adventure with you, step-by-step and dollar-by-dollar.

I'm not quite finished, but I do have a few "After" pictures to show.

If you want to follow me on this exciting adventure, you can subscribe to this site by RSS feed -- see the box below the navigation bar on the left.