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High Performance
Weatherization
& Coatings

Spray Foam Insulation, Cellulose, or Fiberglass

Many of our clients ask the same questions regarding the differences in the products we install, the differences in cost, and questions regarding product safety.

When it comes to insulating someone’s home with SPF (Spray Foam Insulation), we always adhere to our industries strict standards with respect to both safety - for ourselves AND for you, your family, and pets - and installation procedures.  We thoroughly advise our clients regarding these protocols at our initial job walk through.  Following these strict standards goes for both our commercial and our residential jobs.   Since the penalties for non-compliance are steep and our reputation built on our hard work with hundreds of satisfied clients is at stake, we are non-negotiable when it comes to following all safety and installation procedures.

All the information specific to any product we install in your project can be provided to our clients upon request.

Here are some of the basic answers to the most common questions we receive:

What is the difference between closed cell foam and open cell foam?
For one- the R value: closed cell foam has a much higher R-value per inch than open cell foam. Two- it can also effectively act as a vapor barrier at 1.5” in walls and at 2” in the roof. Meaning that moisture can not penetrate past that point unlike with open cell foam.
For one- Fiberglass is not much cheaper: it takes longer to install with more potential marginal installation errors with the end result of poor installation having been proven to be a lot less effective and, therefore, actually more expensive than any kind of SPF over time. Any kind of SPF and dense pack cellulose outperforms fiberglass insulation. Two- We've actually tested it in our own home and therefore we don’t install it or recommend it.
The answer to this questions gets a bit technical. In older homes, you may not have much choice other than going with spray foam because you may not have enough room to give you the minimum R-value in your framing using cellulose. In new construction, the choice may be strictly your preference based on how much you want to save: spray foam is a little more expensive, but much faster to install and offers better insulation properties saving you more in the long run. Cellulose is very dusty and more time consuming to install, but offers better sound proofing properties than SPF while being little less expensive. So, depending on the project, sometimes clients choose a combination of the two.

 

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