Eight things I tell people about spray foam
Written in my own words rather than a brochure's. These are the conversations I end up having on nearly every assessment — what actually matters, what gets oversold, and where the money is best spent on a building around here.
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Air sealing before R-value
The number everybody asks about is the wrong one
R-value is the number people phone about. Air leakage is usually the reason they are phoning.
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Closed cell or open cell
Closed cell or open cell — how I actually decide
Not a better-or-worse question. Four things about the assembly decide it, and none of them is preference.
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When foam is the wrong call
The jobs I talk people out of
Our name is spray foam. Our advice is not. Here are the situations where I recommend something else.
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The rim joist
The rim joist is the best value in the house
A narrow band of framing nobody looks at, running the whole way round the house, and usually doing almost nothing.
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Seal the attic first
Blowing more insulation over a leaking ceiling is money on the floor
The top-up is the easy part. What happens before it decides whether the top-up was worth buying.
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Ice dams are a heat problem
Ice dams are a heat problem before they are a roofing problem
The ice at the eaves is evidence. What is causing it is warm air getting into the attic.
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Foam and moisture
The questions I ask before anything gets sprayed
Foam changes how a building handles water, not just how it handles heat. That deserves more thought than it usually gets.
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What drives the price
Why nobody can price your job over the phone
Ten things move the number, and square footage is only one of them. What to look for when you compare quotes.
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Why these are here
A gallery of finished walls tells you very little — one sprayed cavity looks much like another. What decides whether a job was worth doing is the thinking that went in before anyone picked up a gun, so that is what I have written down.
They are also the quickest way to understand what we would actually recommend on a building. If you are deciding between materials, start with closed cell or open cell and then read the spray foam service page for how it gets applied. If the complaint is a cold room or a heating bill, why air sealing beats R-value is the one to read first, and attic insulation is usually where the work starts.
If you are gathering quotes, what actually drives the price will tell you what to compare — and it applies whether or not one of the quotes is ours. There is more about how we work on the about page, and the towns we cover are in the Service Areas menu — Midland and Alliston among them.
If something you are dealing with is not covered above, ring me and ask. Call 705-571-3008 or request an estimate. The visit and the written quote are both free, including when the answer turns out to be a smaller job than you expected.
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Tell us about your project and we will give you a straight answer about what it needs — including when a cheaper option would serve you better.