Spray Foam for New Construction Homes
Why insulate a new construction home with spray foam?
Because it is your chance to do it right, the first time, and only time. Spray foam has a lifetime warranty and will never settle, degrade, or lose it's efficiency. Spray foam will save the homeowner money on construction costs and over the long haul.
Is spray foam more expensive than traditional fiberglass batt insulation? Yes. But, by using spray foam, there are several ways you can cut back on other construction costs. Designing the home around the use of spray foam will allow you to:
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Reduce the size of the HVAC system required to condition the home. The overall tonnage can be cut in half in some cases
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Eliminate the need for roof ridge, gable, and soffit vents
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Reduce the size of framing members
(sometimes a thicker stud is used in order to pack in more batt insulation) not necessary with spray foam
These three things alone can add up to thousands of dollars and can often offset the difference in the installation cost of spray foam vs fiberglass.
Spray Foam Insulation for Existing Homes
Why retrofit an existing home with spray foam insulation?
If you are looking to insulate an existing home you must look first at where your money will be the best spent.The roof area of a house consumes as much as 50% of the energy needed to heat and cool a home. The crawl space of a home can consume up to 30% and the walls, windows and doors the remainder. By spraying closed cell spray foam against the roof deck you will stop all of the radiant energy from ever entering the structure. If there is no radiant energy there is no expanding air mass. If there is no expanding air mass you do not need vents. By eliminating the vents, you have now stopped your heat rise loss in the winter months. Now you will have an attic space that will be comfortable and save you money all year long. As an added bonus, the attic space becomes usable space!
The roof area of a house should be the first area sprayed as it is the largest energy consumer of the building envelope. The floor or crawl space should be next. We advise not trying to re-insulate walls unless the cavities are exposed as the payback on an 18% loss would be cost prohibitive and not practical.
