DIY Spray Foam Insulation

[irishtom]

Has anyone installed closed cell foam insulation themselves?

I've used it on houses that I've restored, but I hired contractors to install it. Since then, the price has gone out range for what I want to spent on a garage renovation. I know all the benefits and specs and am not looking for a discussion about open cell vs closed cell vs batt. I'm looking to pick someone's brain about their experiences, suppliers, lesson's learned, etc.

 

[Mario]

Yes I used a kit from TigerFoam.

Coverage was a bit less than expected. Application went well. I was quite nervous to spray the first few minutes, using a kit costing around 900$ (delivered).

I used a professionnal installer the year before and the DIY kit doesn't do as much "dust" or overspray.

However, having used both, I don't think the DIY kit is cheaper than a PRO installer. Except maybe for a very small room.

 

[Busted_Knuckles]

I just had my place sprayed, 2400 sqft conventional 2 story house. I did the math, and I couldn't do it myself for the cost of materials for what I paid to have it done professionally. Id try shopping some other subs. These guys are really slow. Ive seen a couple spray "businesses" for sale locally in the last couple years, they are so slow.

I got 6 bids, and the guy who got it, drove about 2 hours to get here. Hes been in business spraying for 10 years, knocked it out in about 6hrs, only two guys, and they where gone. They did the prep, cut back and clean up.

 

[M-technik-3]

Funny, we have two vendors in our area, Was considering doing a start up LLC in this line of business. Has to be some money in as most of Canada uses this exclusively.

 

[ixlr8]

We have 4 or 5 vendors in our area, I found prices varied widely for the same coverage/insulation R value. I have also priced DIY and pro... if you have more than a small room to do.. pro was always cheaper. Most of the vendors here have a minimum setup fee, so the larger the job, the better off you are vs DIY.

 

[Busted_Knuckles]

We have 4 or 5 vendors in our area, I found prices varied widely for the same coverage/insulation R value. I have also priced DIY and pro... if you have more than a small room to do.. pro was always cheaper. Most of the vendors here have a minimum setup fee, so the larger the job, the better off you are vs DIY.

Yes, my guy was $900 minimum.

 

[digdug18]

I'm planning on using the tiger foam slow rise to fill some exterior walls in my house, both to stop noise and add R value. I need to do a fast rise as well, but will be pricing it out to see if its cheaper for me or to have someone else do it.

Andrew

 

[wolfe street rod & custom]

Funny, we have two vendors in our area, Was considering doing a start up LLC in this line of business. Has to be some money in as most of Canada uses this exclusively.

I wouldn't say Canada uses this exclusively. I'm in Calgary, Alberta. Where the temperature here can often go down to below -30C (-22F) in the winter months. The builders in these parts still use fiberglass insulation, venting and a vapor barrier 90% of the time. The costs of fiberglass insulation and installation of it with a vapor barrier is still cheaper than the cost of closed cell spray. Granted it's an inferior way to insulate, it comes down to cost. Closed cell is usually reserved for the hard to vent areas such as a floor and roof on an over-hang/bump-out or as in my case, the garage. It has a hip roof with parallel cord trusses. This made it near impossible to vent. Because there is no air penetration with the use of closed cell spray, a vapor barrier or venting is not required. My 750 sq. ft. garage, ceiling only, cost me about $2000.

Peter

 

[irishtom]

Thanks all for your comments so far.

I will probably be rebuilding my garage piecemeal, at my own pace, one bay at a time. (There's' a photo on my intro thread.) That's one reason why I'm considering doing this myself. That and the cost of hiring subcontractors here in So. CT is high, in good times and bad. I will get bids when I get close, but I've always tried to do as much of my own construction work that I can.

Mario, since you're the only one who's responded so far that's installed foam, what tips can you give about the installation? Prep, spraying, cleanup? What were the weather conditions? Did you have to rent equipment that you didn't expect to? What thickness did you spray, minimum or full stud depth?

 

[kaffine]

I just did a small bathroom with a kit from Foam it Green. I did full depth. I wish the foam would have come out under a bit more pressure. I had a lot of odd shaped stud cavities to fill and thought I had ordered some straight tips instead of just fan tips but when I went to spray I couldn't find them. That would have helped with the narrow and odd shaped spots. I did not do to great a job of keeping the spray even and jumped around a little too much. I should have spent more time watching the video online of them spraying to watch their technique. The biggest issue I had is trying to cut the foam even with the studs when I put too much on and I seemed to have done that a lot. I was surprised at how fast it went. I was expecting a few hours and was done spraying in under 1. It was only 16'x8' of wall though. It wasn't too bad for my first time. I should have gone a little slower and paid more attention to making sure I was getting nice even coats. They warn not to stop spraying for to long at a time or you will have to change the tip out so I was trying to keep spraying as much as I could. However the amount of time that you can stop spraying is really more than it seems and I should have stopped more. If you plan on doing full depth I would start with just one cavity before moving to the next. After the first if you want to spray one coat then go to the next and come back to the first for a second coat you can. If I had a larger area I would probably hire pros to do it but if I had another small area to do I would do it myself.

Clean up wasn't too bad. I did get a lot of drips on the concrete floor. But it was able to be scrapped up fairly easily. My concrete is not going to be exposed so I wasn't concerned about staining. I wore a full tyvex bunny suit to keep myself clean came with the kit. The overspray on the stud faces came off pretty easy. I still haven't found a easy way to cut the foam back to be even with the studs so I would likely under fill by a little if I do it again to avoid that problem.

Also make sure you have the right respirator. I thought the ones I had on hand would work then double checked and found out that I needed to get a different type. Also you might want to have some Vaseline on hand. The Vaseline was used to seal the valves and gun when shutting down for the day. The kit I had said it could be shut down for up to a week but to make sure to coat the valves on the tank and gun with plenty of Vaseline and leave the lines connected to the tanks. If shutting down for more than a week they recommend spraying some each week to keep the chemical in the lines from crystallizing.

 

[irishtom]

Thanks kaffine. These are the kind of comments I'm looking for. So you bought a fast rise kit from them? How was their shipping, customer service, etc? Would you use them again?

When I did the house, the contractor's did not trim all the areas that I'd asked them to. So I had to do some trimming myself. I used a long handsaw and cut (shaved) the foam flush in the cavity using two studs as a guide. The studs were 16" o.c.

 

[kaffine]

Yes it was a fast rise 602 board feet kit. I never really dealt with their CS so I don't know how it is. Shipping was pretty fast as they have a warehouse near me. I had no issues with them and would order from them again. They recommend using the kit within 13 months and once you have started to use it they recommend you finish the tanks within a month.


The weather outside was in the 40s I think when I did it. I had to turn the heater up and make sure the tanks had been stored around 75 degrees F for a day to make sure the chemial was warm enough. I also ran a heater in the room I was spraying the walls so they were warm and I didn't have any problems of the foam not sticking.

 

[Mario]

Mario, since you're the only one who's responded so far that's installed foam, what tips can you give about the installation? Prep, spraying, cleanup? What were the weather conditions? Did you have to rent equipment that you didn't expect to? What thickness did you spray, minimum or full stud depth?

Like the others said, you have to "heat the tank a little" to help with the pressure.

Be sure to have floor overing, coverall, mask , goggle and glove for protection. Appart from that you really don't need anything special.

It really help to have someone to follow you to spot any area you could have missed. With the goggles all dirty and fogged up, it's not always easy to see the little errors you made.

With the kit I used, you have around 7 days to use the product once you open it. Not a big deal but be prepared anyway.

 

[armstrr]

So did you spray it? I will start a thread on my build soon, but I am pricing insulation costs now and here is something interesting I found: polyisoboard insulation is cheap here. 22.87$/4x8 sheet for 2" r12. Calculate the cost per board foot or cost/unit r value... The price here is linear for 2,3 and 4" sheets. The best would be to use full sheets on the exterior and tuck tape, but it cuts well on a tablesaw so you could undersize it slightly, place it in the stud cavity, then use the one part polyurethane foam gun products to insulate and air seal the edges.

My cladding is not on, so I may do the exterior route, then dense pack my 2x6 walls with cellulose.... For r33. My goal is to heat 900 sf with a candle

For greatest value, dense pack cellulose is hard to beat. Google "regal wall" fora method.

Sorry to hijack. :/