Not Just Cookies: The Girl Scouts Add
Spray Foam to Their Repertoire

By: Claire Trageser
 

The Girl Scouts are famous for more than cookies. The non-profit organization’s 236,000 troops worldwide teach 2.4 million girls leadership, strong values, and a social conscience, according to their mission statement.

A recent project in Hockessin, Del., showed that the Girl Scouts take this teaching seriously, even in something as seemingly unrelated to their mission as building construction. In November, the Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay Council, Inc.’s brand new Science and Technology Lodge became the first building in Delaware to win platinum certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) from the U.S. Green Building Council.

This platinum award exceeded everyone’s expectations—even lead architect Justin Weisser from Philadelphia-based Re:Vision Architecture.

“Our target when we started out was silver, but we were able to get up to platinum,” Weisser said. “We tightened up our design and construction.”

For Weisser, one crucial element of that design that helped win important LEED points was spray polyurethane foam (SPF).
“There are a lot of different insulations out there, but something we’re very concerned with— even more than R-value—is air infiltration,” he said. “Spray foam does a great job of keeping air infiltration at a minimum.”

To insulate 13,915 square feet (1,292.7 m2) of the building’s walls, basement, and roof, Weisser and his general contractor turned to Tom Purcell, Senior Estimator at the Pottstown, Pa.-based spray foam company, Northend Barriers.

Purcell was happy to have the job—but not because of money.


“I definitely think it’s important that the Girl Scout facility used SPF,” he said. “When I was working up the bid, I took it to one of our principals, John Jones, and he said to bid the job at our costs because the Girl Scouts are a wonderful organization and their building should be built right. So we did.”

Delayed Start Leads to Wild Weather

With his job secured, Purcell was ready to get to work, but he was in for some disappointment. Although the job was originally scheduled for the early summer in 2008, he didn’t hit the site until early winter. And that delay, combined with the unpredictable mid-Atlantic climate, made things interesting.

During the nine-day job, Northend’s two-man crew was hit with one day of snow and another of torrential downpours.

“The downpour was on our last day of spraying, and our crew was finishing up the lowest area underneath the building,” Purcell said. “Unfortunately for our guys, the gutters hadn’t been installed, and the water cascaded from the roof at the front of the building directly onto the ground, which was sloped toward them.
 

“I think it was one of the few times they ever really appreciated Tyvek suits.”

But no amount of bad weather could keep Northend’s crew from getting the job done. To save time, they used a clever arrangement between the shaver and sprayer.

“The walls were specified for a full cavity fill, 5.5 inches (14 cm) versus 5 inches (12.7 cm) nominal, so there was a considerable amount of shaving,” Purcell said. “We saved some time by filling every other bay and wall cavity. This required the sprayer to go around the room twice, however, it also allowed the shavers to begin immediately. The space also makes it easier for the shaver to get his equipment horizontal and trim the excess flush the first time. We’ve tested it, and it gives us a net gain.”

The crew used a Graco E-30 plural component proportioner, 300 feet (91.4 m) of hose, and a Graco Fusion air purge gun to spray foam on the building’s exterior plywood and oriented strand board (OSB). Purcell went with BioBased #501, an open-cell, 0.5-pound (226.8 g) soybean polyol-based foam because of its high performance and renewable content.

“It met, or exceeded the specs and we thought the Girl Scouts and the builder would be interested because of the soybean and bio content,” Purcell said.


Swinging to Safety

The crew wore North and 3-M full-face respirators, hard hats, Tyvek suits, and latex gloves, most of which came from Pottstown, Pa.-based JBS Supply. However, one aspect of the spraying job required a few extra safety precautions.

Photo courtesy of Gregory Benson

“The design included celestory windows and varying roof heights, so it presented an opportunity for creatively accessing a couple of areas,” Purcell said.

To spray around the celestory windows, Purcell brought an extra crew member to the job. The crew members used a harness rig tied into the roof framing to protect themselves.

“Our crews are very resourceful and enjoy the occasional challenge,” Purcell said. “Since they have to include the safety issues in their plan, sometimes their solutions are pretty entertaining.”

After nine days, the Northend crew had finished the job, and left everyone involved in the project satisfied.
“We were happy with the results, and the general contractor was very pleased,” Purcell said.

Weisser agreed and said he won’t hesitate to look to spray foam in the future.

“Its ability to create a good wall system that’s an air barrier is far superior over other insulations,” he said.

“And its R-value is as good or better than most types of insulation out there.” 

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