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SPF Professionals Insulate Santa Monica’s Striving First Net-Zero, LEED Platinum Home
The home, owned by correspondent Lisa Ling, sets an example for greener building
By Jessica A. Baris
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VENDOR TEAM
Thermal Roof Systems
6750 Florin Perkins Rd, Suite 400
Sacramento, CA 95828
(916) 387-1300
www.trsfoam.com
Henry Company
909 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Ste 650
El Segundo, CA 90245
800-523-0268
www.henry.com
Graco
Spray equipment
88-11th Avenue NE
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55413
800-690-2894
www.graco.com
Tyvek
Protective clothing
DuPont
P.O. Box 80728
Wilmington, DE 19880-0728
(800) 448-9835
www.tyvek.com
3M
Respirators
3M Corporate Headquarters
3M Center
St. Paul, MN 55144-1000
1-888-364-3577
www.3m.com
Conrad Forest Products
68765 Wildwood Drive
North Bend, Oregon 97459
(800) 356-7146
www.conradfp.com
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Lisa Ling—the globetrotting correspondent for CNN, Nightline, the National Geographic Channel, and Oprah Winfrey—has conducted interviews and uncovered news stories from more than two dozen countries. But home for her is soon to be in Santa Monica. The walls of her new house are going up, and the builders are striving to make it the sun-drenched beach town’s first net-zero, LEED Platinum home.
Spray polyurethane foam (SPF) contractor Al Kennedy of Thermal Roof Systems partnered up with SPF manufacturer Henry Company to contribute energy-efficient spray foam to the job, called PUNCHouse Project 234. Henry Company donated the foam and coating, and Kennedy’s crew put the material to work.
Kennedy knew the project was going to be unlike others he’d done in the past. The home had to achieve both net-zero and LEED Platinum standards. To do this, they would install a hybrid system of closed- and open-cell foam. Kennedy’s three-man crew set out to get the job done over six days in June.
Overspray Protection to the Max
The Santa Monica home features high-end, imported windows and a sliding glass door that the Thermal Roof Systems crew couldn’t afford to damage.
“In my mind, the biggest worry was to take care of the unusual and expensive items they had in the house,” says Kennedy.
Not a bit of foam would touch the expensive features of the home with Kennedy’s overspray protection plan. The entire perimeter of the home was covered in plastic.
“Nothing could escape the interior of the home,” says Kennedy. “Everything was plastic and papered off. The high-end windows and sliding glass door were covered. This added another whole level of meticulousness to the job. It was a big challenge to cover everything.”
With everything masked, the foam would stick only where it was supposed to.
A Hybrid Foam System—Achieved!
To achieve the net-zero and LEED Platinum standards, the entire 4,286-square-foot home needed to be foamed. Kennedy’s crew came equipped with Graco’s H-20/35 Pro rig and a GX-7 spray gun with a fan tip. The crewmen wore full-hood Tyvek suits, 3M fresh-air respirators, and gloves. “Interior safety is my main priority,” says Kennedy. “Having masks and safety equipment is important. We want to do everything right.”
 The crew cleaned the area of any sawdust, then they applied foam to the entire building envelope, including all interior and exterior walls and underneath the roof. “We got the whole envelope sealed up so there would be no leakage,” says Kennedy. “We sprayed all the walls and rooflines that are exposed to the outside. The complete outer building envelope got sprayed. We did the stairwells and any nook and cranny that outside elements could get to.”
All sheathing and engineered lumber was BluWood by Conrad Forest Products—an engineered wood used as a barrier system against mold, moisture, termites, and fungi. The crew installed the first part of the hybrid system by applying two inches of Henry’s PERMAX 2.0 closed-cell foam in the six wall cavities. The rigid foam sealed all air leaks, which will contribute to the home’s lower energy costs.
The second part of the hybrid system required filling the rest of the cavities with 3.5 inches of PERMAX 0.5 open-cell foam. The open-cell foam doesn’t contain urea formaldehyde, CFCs, or HCFCs, and it also aids in air infiltration control.
“When doing a net-zero, LEED Platinum home, you have to do the whole cavity,” Kennedy says. “We had to make sure each cavity was full so when the sheet rock is put up, there’s no air behind the sheetrock.”
Once the open-cell foam filled the wall cavities, the foam was combed with a Foamzall saw so that it was flush with the wall framing.
“Closed-cell foam is difficult to comb because it’s very dense. Open-cell foam is easier to work with. It allows you to fill up the cavity and then close it off,” says Tim King, vice president of sales at Henry Company. The hybrid system, King adds, is what helped the home to achieve the LEED Platinum rating.
Earning Extra LEED Points
 The Thermal Roof Systems team also applied Henry’s PERMAX 120 white elastomeric coating to the existing torch-down roof. The coating gives the roof a sun-reflective and weather-resistant surface, which gains the home LEED points and helps it to meet Title 24 in the California Code of Regulations (CCR).
Applying closed-cell then open-cell foam for a hybrid system adds time to the project, said Kennedy. But he was more than glad to be involved.
“This is the first net-zero, LEED Platinum project we’ve been involved in,” says Kennedy. “It’s cutting edge to get in on something like this. They are trying to do the right thing for the environment. PUNCHouse and SMK Construction had to do a lot to get this in line. To take a spectacular home like this with a lot of intricacies to it and try to do net-zero and LEED is challenging.”
SPF Contributes to the “Green” Cause
With his part done, Kennedy looks forward to seeing the completed home, and says, “It’ll be good when it’s done and we can all high-five each other.”
King says the home “contributes positively back to the environment or it’s neutral and doesn’t pull power from the grid.” The home can be called a “net-zero” home because it uses zero net energy consumption per year and gives off zero carbon emissions.
“Green” building makes advances every year, and this Santa Monica home is yet another milestone achieved on the road to better building. And SPF is a major contributor to the “green” building cause.
Now, Lisa Ling and her husband Dr. Paul Song will soon reap the benefits of SPF in their new energy-efficient home.
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