Green Bear Spray Foam

Check out our new video!

Also be sure to visit our Main Website at http://www.greenbearinnovations.com

Tweet This Post

If you are interested in getting Spray Foam Insulation in your home or other building you must read this. Which Spray Foam product should you put in your home or commercial building structure. You must decide whether you will use .05 lb./cu. ft., open cell foam, or 2.0 lb./cu. ft. closed cell foam. This makes a big difference in product perfomance, application processes and consumer cost.
There are two big factors to understand and consider when comparing open cell and closed cell spray foam. The first is the physical makeup of the foam. It is either open-cell foam, where the small cells of the foam are not completely closed. They are open and air fills all of the tiny air pockets in the material. This makes the foam structurally weaker and much less water resistant than closed-cell foam.

Closed-cell foam is also made up of small foam cells BUT its tiny foam cells are closed and packed together. They are filled with a gas, not air, which makes the foam rise, expand and become a much greater, more dense and completely waterproof insulator.

Weighing one cured cubic foot of foam material gives us a measurement of its density. Open cell foams usually weigh in at 0.4 to 0.5 lb./cu. ft. Closed cell foam, used for insulating applications, have a density of 1.7 lb./cu. ft. to 2.0 lb./cu. ft. Roofing applications typically use an even greater density foam to support greater loads. The higher the density the foam the stronger it will be. Many polyurethane foams can turned into decorative moldings and painted/stained to look like wood. There are “super dense” foams with densities of 30 lb./cu. ft. to 40 lb./cu. ft.

There are numerous advantages for using closed-cell foam as opposed to open-cell foam including its structural integrity, higher R-value, and its ability to completely seal air leaks and prevent water infiltration. The disadvantage of the closed-cell foam is the expense, because it requires more material as it contains no air. The decision of which foam to use will also be based on some application specific requirements such as load capabilities, vapor/water infiltration resistance, space limitations, etc. Open-cell Spray Foam typically has an R-value average of 3.5 per inch water is used as the blowing agent. Closed-cell Spray Foam Insulation typically has an R-value of around 7.0 per inch and uses high R-value blowing agents.

Both types of spray foam insulation are common in many commercial and residential applications and are usually interchangable. The information above hopefully has given you a better understanding about the differences between the two types of spray foam insulation. There are some applications in which you simply cannot use open cell foam. Be sure to contact a professional spray foam insulation company before deciding which application will be the most effective.

To learn more about our Soy-based Spray Foam Insulation products  visit our main website.

Tweet This Post

There are very few instances in which Spray Foam Insulation is just not possible.

First, let’s clarify the biggest question we get from homeowners looking to add spray foam or another type of insulation. Can it be added in a finished wall without tearing down the drywall, paneling or other finished wall covering. YES, it can. Our “Pour in place” foam is injected into small openings in the face of the finished walls or through  openings made from the exterior of your home. We use a stud finder or thermal camera to locate the framing inside the walls, including the blocking which runs horizontally. Once we locate the studs we mark the pilot locations. We then drill a 1.5″ hole so we can insert the tube attached to the spray gun.

The pour-in-place spray foam stays liquified much longer and expands much slower than other types of spray foam (open and closed-cell) to ensure that it completely fills the wall cavity properly. This application method is safe in historical restoration projects and will not force pressure onto aged building materials so as to damage them. Once the wall cavity is filled a plug is inserted into the entry hole and patched. With a little bit of sanding, primer and paint the wall will look as good as new in no time. When paneling is involved many homeowners prefer to inject the foam from the outside so as not to have visible marks throughout the house. It takes little effort to patch holes in siding and match the paint.

I want to tear up a section of floor in my living room and have spray foam installed but there is not much room to do it from the crawlspace. This is actually an issue that we ran into recently. I gave a customer a proposal for adding 4″ of closed-cell foam under her living room and her bathroom. She was tearing up the bathroom floor and that was the only time she could have it insulated. It had absolutely NO insulation under there. What happened was we failed to notice that in the farthest area in the crawlspace under the living room there was barely enough room to even crawl through. The area that was visible upon the assessment was about three feet high but the area that was not visible was only big enough to shimmy through on our backs. In order to spray foam insulation properly and effectively the spray gun needs to remain about 18″ to 24″ away from the area being sprayed. In this case the gun was less than a foot away. We attempted to complete the job with spray foam but concluded that there were definitely some unreachable areas that she needed insulated so we decided that another type of insulation must be used. So as a company we decided that in order to effectively spray foam insulate we need at least 36″ of clearance.

So now I want to discuss how we handled the bathroom. Only the middle of the floor was being ripped up and replaced. Opening the floor was the only way to gain access in this part of the crawlspace which was only 24″ deep. Once we removed the middle of the floor we were able to add 4″ of soy-based closed-cell spray foam to the underside of the remaining parts of the floor. We then tacked a substrate in between the floor joists in the deepest part of the joists. Once the substrate was in place we then easily sprayed 4″ of foam onto the substrate and joining it to the foam that was on the underside of the remaining floor areas on each side creating an air tight seal. This portion of the floor is being replaced by another company and then new tile is going down so after a quick cleanup our job was done.

The used of a backing is also very common when adding spray foam in basement finishing projects. Because most finished basement walls are built an inch or more away from the foundation wall, we typically staple in a rigid backing material such as thermo-ply and then spray the desired amount on top of it.

I hope this post can help answer some of the common questions that homeowners and remodelers have when considering adding spray foam insulation. For more information about our products or to learn more about typical spray foam applications visit http://www.greenbearinnovations.com.

Tweet This Post

There are many reason that fiberglass does not make a good insulator. Here is a short list:

* Fiberglass insulation loses 40% of its insulative properties when outside temperatures drop to 20 degrees. Not good news for New Englanders.
* A 1.5% increase in moisture content inside a wall or ceiling cavity reduces the R-value of fiberglass insulation by up to 50%.
* For fiberglass insulation to be effective it must touch stud cavities on all six sides, with no air gaps.
* Fiberglass insulation must be fully expanded. Stuffing insulation into gaps eliminates its insulative properties.
* In shell wall cavities, areas surrounding utility outlets are impossible to properly insulate using fiberglass.

Soy-based spray foam insulation is the way to go. Learn more about our spray foam products on our website http://www.greenbearinnovations.com.

Tweet This Post

Get your $1500 NOW!

Be sure to watch our video about how we can deducts up to $1500 off the front end of your insulation project.

Tweet This Post

How does saving up to 50% on your annual heating bills sound?
Do the math, adding spray foam will save you how much?
Now, give us a call and have a FREE consultation done by one of our experienced project managers. Make sure to state that you specifically need to know how much the actual insulation materials cost.
Then, take the total cost of the project and subtract the cost of the materials up to $1500. This $1500 or less is the tax credit that the government is going to give back to you when you file your takes for 2009.
Now that you have a subtotal of the cost of your spray foam project, take that number and divide it by half your annual heating and cooling costs.
That is how many years it takes for the addition of spray foam to pay for itself.
Wait, we are not quite done. Now take that number that was 50% of your heating and cooling costs and multiply it by the number of years that you plan to live in your newly insulated home.
WOW, that’s a big number huh? Write it down on a piece of paper next to our company name, Green Bear Innovations and phone number 1-877-941-4733 and keep it in a safe place.
No, really, what are you waiting for, pick up the phone and give us a call or check out our website http://www.greenbearinnovations.com.
Saving $1500 and more a year on heating and cooling costs, excellent!
Saving the world a little each day by reducing your carbon footprint, priceless!
And did I mention that our Soy-based spray foam has industry leading renewable resource content AND can be installed ANYWHERE in your home or office including in finished walls.

Tweet This Post