My Spray Foam Insulation Project
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Apart 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.  | 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. |  |
 | 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. |  |
 | 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? |  |
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| 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. | |
 | 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. | |
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| 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! |
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| 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. | ||
 | We 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... |  |
 | ... 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. |  |
 | Lunchtime! The fumes don't seem to affect the appetite. |
| Meanwhile, the insulation waste continues to accumulate... |  |
 | ... and accumulate. Will someone please invent a way of recycling this!!! |
| Here, the walls of the main building have been insulated and trimmed. |  |
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. | |
 | First, 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. |  |
| 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. | |
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| 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. | |
 | Here 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. |  |
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| 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 USED1. Fiberglass BattsFor 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. | |
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| 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. BACK TO TOP
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...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. CandiceUnites States Thank you for taking the time to write down your experiences. It is truly a valuable service. RajivUnited 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 |
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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. |