Last month, Horizon Houseworks installed spray foam throughout the house. The difference before and after is incredible.
Now, it’s actually warm working inside, even in the 40 degree weather and without any heat working. Just our body heat and a few halogen bulbs warm up the space to a reasonable temperature.
Even with more air sealing required in numerous small spots that the spray foam wasn’t applied on (and the leaky bathroom skylight not yet replaced), our air leakage number dropped in half to 2,500 cfm50. That’s a savings of about $250 right there. We expect to halve this number once we’re done with all the air sealing.
We used closed cell (also called 2 pound or high density spray foam). This delivers higher r-value (insulation effectiveness) per inch than almost any other product.
Details, Details
- We foamed the perimeter of the ceiling on each floor, which minimizes airleaks to the outdoors, as well as serves as a firestop between the floors
- We installed 6″ of insulation in the attic roofline, which combined with the 1.5″ of polyiso on top of the roof, is a well insulated attic
- By leaving a 1″ air gap between the existing front brick walls and the 2×3 wall frame, there was space for 1″ of continuous foam, plus 2″ of cavity insulation. You don’t want to have more than 2″ or 3″ of closed cell cavity insulation on a brick wall, because it won’t allow enough moisture transfer from the brick through the insulation.
- We tried to fill the cavities as much as possible, while minimizing any overfill that had to be cut, which produces waste, takes time, and doesn’t seal in any voc’s as well as the original seal of the uncut spray foam.
Good morning,
I hope all is well. I recently became aware of your blog, and i find it very informative and educational. Thaks for sharing your renovation experience, and I look forward to going back into the archives and reading how your journey unfolds.