How Spray Foam Applications Work for You
Spray foam insulation has been used in home insulation for about 30 years. Despite superior performance over traditional insulation, it was often considered too expensive to put into a home. With increasing energy costs and breakthroughs in formulations and technologies, spray foam applications are now more affordable, energy cost-effective, and safer for occupants and the environment.
Spray Foam Applications Occur During New Construction and in Existing Structures
Spray foam insulation is typically and more easily applied during the construction phase of building, before the drywall is installed. It can also be applied to an existing home, attic or building. Metal buildings, such as barns or warehouses, are ideally served because spray foam adheres to the metal.
How Spray Foam Works
Two chemicals are mixed by a spray gun, and go on as a liquid, then quickly react and expand to approximately 100 times its spray on volume.
It is this expansion, which effectively fills all gaps, seams, holes and other places where air infiltration occurs, and which cannot be matched by fiberglass and cellulose.
Economy and Safety
It has been documented that using spray foam insulation will save 30 – 50% on heating and air conditioning bills over the same size building insulated with cellulose or fiberglass.
The 0.5 pound per cubic foot cellular plastic foam is water blown, so no CFC’s, or HCFC’s are emitted. Once the foam is installed no harmful gasses, or particles are emitted.
Foam is safer than fiberglass: According to many health officials, and researchers fiberglass is a more potent carcinogen than asbestos.¹
According to OSHA, an 8- hour exposure time to fiberglass fibers of 0.043 per cubic centimeter of air has been established for workers, since some exposed workers have had lung cancer.²
On June 24, 1994, The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Donna E. Shalala, signed the report and sent it to Congress, thus making it official policy of the U.S. Government that fiberglass is “reasonably anticipated to be a carcinogen.”³
The four major manufactures of fiberglass have lobbied very hard to keep their product off the carcinogen list published by the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP), but all fiberglass manufactured or sold in the U.S. must now have a warning label as a possible carcinogen.
