When properly installed by a licensed spray foam insulation contractor, spray foam is an excellent insulator. It seals and fills gaps in your wood-framed building envelope, which prevents air leakage, and it creates an effective barrier to the outside elements. That’s why it’s so popular in new construction homes, as well as re-insulating old ones and improving the efficiency of a home or commercial space.

In addition, it provides better soundproofing than other insulators. It also has a high R-value (the measure of heat resistance), which means it offers a higher level of thermal protection in less space than other types of insulation.

Say Goodbye to Drafts: How Spray Foam Insulation Improves Home Air Sealing

SPF (short for spray polyurethane) insulation is applied to walls, ceilings and attics with a special rig that combines two liquid chemicals. The resulting SPF insulation expands and hardens as it is applied. When sprayed, it covers every crack and crevice of the area you want to insulate.

As you can imagine, using this product requires a lot of training and licensing. The rigs the installers use are very large and contain advanced safety equipment. It’s important that they wear protective gear to avoid breathing in the toxic chemicals while they work, and that you be out of the house for a day or so while it’s curing.

The good news is that the chemistry used to make SPF insulation contains no HCFCs, HCFC-22, and HCFC-404A (which are greenhouse gases) and uses the newer HFO blowing agents, which have a low global warming potential of 1.