Cold Home Owner Chooses SPF

By Stephanie Marie Chizik

Sadler Coating Systems was recognized at the Spray Foam 2008 Conference as the runner-up in the Residential Wall category. For more information on this project, check out the SPFA Web site at www.sprayfoam.org.

When Leon Heider decided to build a 6,000-square-foot home, he knew exactly what he wanted. As the engineer and owner of Jet Co. trailer manufacturers in Humboldt, Iowa, he was used to making decisions about his steel and aluminum trailers, flatbeds, and dropdecks. It wasn’t too far of a stretch for him, then, to make the decisions regarding his family home. 

What Heider wanted was a 21-foot-tall entryway, a formal living room, a domed ceiling over the master bathroom’s Jacuzzi, and a home theater. And he wanted the house to be insulated with closed-cell spray polyurethane foam (SPF).
 
Cold Call
 

For Heider, choosing the most effective insulation — and insulation crew — for the average 25 degrees Fahrenheit weather was crucial. Knowing that, Heider called Sadler Coating Systems (SCS) of Eagle Grove, Iowa, for his SPF needs. 

Headquartered a mere 25 miles from the Heider home, SCS seemed like the perfect fit for the job. They arrived at the job site in the beginning of 2007, a month after giving Heider a price quote in December 2006 and being accepted for the job. 

The plan was to work after the geothermal heating and cooling system was installed and operational. Unfortunately for the SPF crew, the HVAC system wasn’t ready when they were. This meant that during the six (nonconsecutive) days that the crew was on the 15 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit job site, they needed a quick heating solution. The temperature of the new wood substrate, materials, and crew needed to be heated ahead of the spray application. For this, they used a Val 6 infrared portable heater. 

The crew also relied upon their 24-foot-long, heated trailer. Because the SPF work was done in stages as the other trades completed tasks, the SCS crew kept everything in their trailer — maintained at 70 degrees Fahrenheit — while waiting. The crew would wait for the general contractor to notify them that he had a day’s worth of spraying for them to do. As soon as they got the call, the crew (and equipment) was ready to go. 

The two-man crew quickly assembled and headed to the house. They met at the beginning of each workday to discuss what jobs they would assume as well as what safety considerations were necessary to achieve these. From this point on, the SPF installers — Scott Sadler and Dennis Vandewater — donned Wilson full-face air respirators with tear-off shields, neoprene gloves, and Tyvek coveralls. On spray days, the SCS crew also made sure to notify other trade crews on site that they were not permitted to work in the SPF areas. 

“Health considerations were explained to the other trades, which they appreciated, and they cooperated,” Vandewater explained. With everyone on the same page, SCS was able to begin the insulation installation.
 
Extra Credit
The first job was to prep the house. They masked the windows, doors, and fixtures — including those in the showers and tubs — with several rolls of clear plastic poly and 3M painters’ tape. They taped the outlet faces on the wall boxes and covered the floors with tarps.

To insulate, SCS used BASF Polyurethane Foam Enterprise’s (PFE) SPRAYTITE 178  two-pound foam. They started spraying in the entry area and living room. Here, the team sprayed four inches onto the two-by-six-inch wall studs backed with oriented strand board (OSB). Between the floors and ceilings, they sprayed the box sills, or rim joists.

They used a Gusmer 20/35 Pro Proportioner, ATC hose, and GX-7 spray gun with #70 and #90 PCD tips. 

What started out as only exterior wall work quickly turned into a full-coverage job. Heider chose to use SPF because of its “air seal, high R-value, and moisture barrier.” However, it wasn’t until Heider saw the foam seal “every nook and cranny” that he decided to add the 21-foot wall, the domed ceiling above the master bedroom Jacuzzi, and the theater to the list of SCS’s responsibility. 

The SCS crew sprayed an average of three inches of foam between the bathroom and kitchen plumbing walls, plumbing pipes in the basement ceilings, and the walls in the home theater room. Heider wanted SPF on his interior walls to help with sound protection. The interior bath walls and water and drain pipes were sprayed with three inches of SPF. For the exterior walls, including those in the basement, SCS sprayed a full four inches. No other trades were permitted into the foamed areas while it was being sprayed. Instead, the other trades had to wait until all spraying was complete before they could enter those rooms. 

For the cathedral-style ceiling in the living room, SCS needed more reach. They set up standard 20-foot-tall stacking scaffolding from Badger with safety rails. For half of a day — while the crew worked on the scaffolding — they  sprayed six inches on the ceiling, while wearing full body Miller harnesses.
 
Zero Down
SCS and the home owner learned just how successful the job was. Following completion of his 6,000-square-foot home, Heider and his family experienced tough winter weather. However, their heating bill fared better. The highest monthly heating bill was a mere $102! With outside temperatures falling below zero during those days, Heider truly learned to appreciate his SPF insulation.

Three months after completing the installation of the SPF in his home, Heider contacted SCS for another spray foam job. Because of the success he had with the BASF PFE foam in his home, when Heider decided to add to his plant, he decided upon spray foam. “Mr. Heider was so impressed with the benefits of spray polyurethane foam that Sadler Coating Systems installed another 9,000 pounds of spray foam to the walls of a new metal building addition at his trailer manufacturing facility,” Vandewater said. For Heider — and the SCS crew — SPF was the right decision.

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