Spray Foam Provides Residential Insulation in the White Mountains

By: Claire Trageser

Photos courtesy of Presby Construction, Inc.

In New England, a select group of hikers and outdoor enthusiasts fight to gain entrance to something called “The Four Thousand Footer Club.”

Club membership requires climbing all 48 mountains in Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire that stand over 4,000 feet (1.2 km) high. The list includes Mt. Washington, which, at 6,288 feet (1.9 km), is the highest mountain in the Northeastern United States. The mountain also hosts the fastest winds ever measured on Earth’s surface (231 miles per hour [372 km/h] in 1934).

Newlyweds Beth Puliti and Justin Kline know these 4,000-footers well—they’ve climbed many of them, including Mt. Washington, multiple times. And as the couple planned their future together, they felt the call of this mountain range, also called the White Mountains, and decided to build their home in its midst.
“We frequently visit the area, so settling down there was a natural fit,” Puliti said. “We spend most of our time outdoors biking, hiking, ice climbing, and skiing, and the White Mountains offer the perfect backdrop for everything we enjoy.”



But the couple did not want to build just any home. As they planted their roots in the midst of the White Mountain’s picture-perfect environment, they wanted to leave the tiniest footprint possible.

“We knew that if we chose to build responsibly, we could help protect ecosystems, improve air and water quality, conserve natural resources, and enhance our quality of life,” Kline said.

These days, energy efficiency almost always goes hand-in-hand with a sealed building envelope and high R-values, so when Puliti and Kline chose the type of insulation their home would use, the decision was easy. Together with ReVision Architecture in Philadelphia and Presby Construction, Inc., in Sugar Hill, N.H., Puliti and Kline chose spray polyurethane foam (SPF) for their new home’s foundation, wooden walls, and roof.

“We were originally looking to build our home with SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels), but the price was a bit out of our budget,” Kline said. “Spray foam insulation is allowing us to have a super insulated, air-tight home, just as the SIPS would, but at a more affordable price.”

To apply the foam, Bill Jealous, the project manager for Presby Construction, went to a trusted source: Jamie Myers and his company, J Myers Builders, Inc., who has been spraying foam for more than eight years. That extensive experience made Myers’s choice of spray foam easy. He also went with a company he trusts: Spray Foam Polymers foam.

“We’ve sprayed with it for a number of years,” Myers said. “We chose it, and Presby goes with our recommendation. We have a strong relationship built with this particular company.”

Myers’s two-man crew was scheduled to spray the home’s foundation in early November. Although winters in New Hampshire can often create tough working conditions, this time, luck was on the crew’s side.

“We had a really warm stretch, so we were able to get right in during the warmer days,” Myers said. “It can be hard to access sites in the winter with our equipment because there’s a lot of snowfall, and the roads around here get to be pretty bad.”

Not only did the warmer weather help the crew access the site; it also helped ease the SPF application process.

“We were just fortunate,” Myers said. “We do spray in the winter, but we have to apply heat to the substrate first. We didn’t need to do that for this job.”

In six hours, the crew applied 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5.1 cm) of 2-pound closed-cell Spray Foam Polymers foam to the foundation’s new concrete surface. They used a Gusmer proportioner and two mobile rigs— a trailer and a box truck—to spray the foam. They wore Bullard supplied-air respirators, Tyvek suits, and full-face hoods.

Myers said Presby’s preparation also helped ease their workload.
“They were all ready for us to spray when we got there,” he said. “The contractor put lines for how high to spray, and they had the ties knocked off and the footings cleaned off. Then our guys just spray the areas that are marked to be sprayed.”

Once the plumbing and electrical work is complete, Myers’s crew will return for another week of spraying the house’s walls and roof. They will mask off all windows and doors and then spray 3 inches (7.6 cm) of closed-cell foam on the plywood wall sections and 4 to 6 inches (10.2 to 15.2 cm) on the plywood roof deck and the top side of the drywall for the flat ceiling areas. They will also spray an additional 2 inches (5.1 cm) of closed-cell foam on the foundation’s interior in 2-by-4-inch (5.1-by-10.2 cm) stud pockets.

Puliti said she expects the house will be finished by March, and although it will be a few months before the next round of cold winter months come, she looks forward to the energy efficiency their spray foam insulation will bring.

“We hope constructing our home this way will reduce our energy consumption and lower our bills,” she said.

And the combination of this energy efficiency with their home’s rustic setting makes Puliti and Kline see nothing but White Mountains in their future.

“We have no plans to live anywhere else,” Puliti said. “We hope to enjoy our new home for many years to come!”

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