Doctor’s Orders: Spraying foam on
two big hospital jobs

By: Claire Trageser

Over the past year, Jason Zarp has probably spent about as much time in hospitals as most doctors would. The only difference is that Zarp’s hospitals aren’t built yet.


Zarp and his Bellevue, Neb.-based Liquid Foam insulation company were awarded not one, but two high-profile Nebraska hospital jobs last year. The first, which will be featured in the April issue of SprayFoam Magazine, was the $130 million Methodist Women’s Hospital. It was so important to Nebraska that it was even advertised in commercials!

Because of Zarp’s work on this well-known job, he was asked to bid on another hospital project in nearby Bellevue: the Bellevue Medical Center. Zarp said his company was the low bidder, and so was awarded the job.


Despite his experience working with hospitals, this project wouldn’t be easy.  A long line of road blocks were waiting to try to keep Zarp from finishing the job.


For starters, Zarp’s two-man crew had a tough time accessing parts of the 34,000 square feet (3,158.7 m2) of walls they were expected to spray. They were also expected to spray BASF’s SPRAYTITE 178 closed-cell spray foam before the wall studs went up.


“We had to do some cutting and grinding to make sure studs went in properly,” Zarp said. “That was always an issue, trying to make sure the foam was as smooth as can be. The stud guys would come and lay the bottom tracks in, and then put the top track in on top of the ceiling. So we had to make sure the foam didn’t come out past where the stud needed to be placed.”


Using Glascraft Probler P2 and Graco Fusion guns, the crew sprayed 3 inches (7.6 cm) of foam. They then used grinders and saws to cut the foam back if it came out too far. Following proper safety measures, they wore Tyvek suits, gloves, and full-face supplied air respirators because they were working indoors.


 Although the job ran over the same time period as the Methodist Hospital job—December 2008 to January 2009—it was far less consistent.


“We were only on site a total of two-and-a-half months,” Zarp said. “We’d come for a week, then be off for a month, come for four days, then be off for two months. As they had areas completed, we’d be out there doing it.”


Despite the challenges of the job, it provided Zarp with a perfect opportunity to demonstrate the power of spray foam. Although the original plans for the hospital called for spray foam insulation to be installed in the adjoining medical offices, Zarp said the designers decided to go with fiberglass insulation instead. However, soon after the fiberglass was installed, they realized this was a huge mistake.


“After all the fiberglass was up, they kept having big problems with condensation,” Zarp said. “There was ice on the precast, and it was not good.”


Because Zarp was already spraying the hospital side, the designers knew where to turn to solve their problems.
“They took all the fiberglass out of the walls and had us come back in and spray the whole medical office side with foam,” Zarp said. “It was a huge change order.”


Although it was extra work, Zarp was happy to have the chance to show how insulation should be done right.
“We’re getting them to write us a letter of recommendation,” he said. “As soon as we got the foam sprayed, it solved their condensation problems completely.”

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