Maine Spray Foam Insulation

By Peter Courand Spray Foam Insulation Comments Off

Maine Spray Foam Insulation! Quantum Performance Building Products offers a variety of insulation products including spray foam insulation, Roxul, Fiberglass, Bib System, and Cellulose.

This Article is one of many regarding insulating in Maine. We share with you jobs we have done in the past. We look at what kind of building was done, where it was done, what the problem was, and how we were able to solve the problem. Insulation use in Maine is a hot topic. There is a ton of poor information out there being promoted by manufacturers and other interested groups. A lot of which, has been derived from computer simulations and not real world experience.

Quantum installs over 200 projects a year with insulation in Maine. We have been doing so since 2008 and we install all different types of insulation materials. Through removal of old insulation, contact with our customers, feedback, and even call backs we have a very clear picture of insulation materials work in which situations.

Feel free to call us with any questions at 342-3077. Also be sure look at past post regarding insulation in Maine. https://sprayfoaminsulationmaine.com/the-best-insulation-to-use-in-maine-solved/

The Job

This insulation job was very similar to jobs we have completed in the past. Our customer had a new butcher shop. Therefore, he had three freezers one of which was a blast freezer. That was the most critical in regards to insulation and heat lost. Instead of buying the freezers the customer decided to build them out of wood framing. This was due to the size and the over all cost. So we had to spec out an insulation system that was cost effective, would handle the thermal requirements, and also handle the moisture drive. In this situation we chose closed cell spray foam for the coolers and Icynene open cell spray foam for the rest of the building.

The Problem

The Blast Freezer had to be capable of reaching a frigid 40 degrees below zero on a constant basis! Obviously this is very cold will test all of the materials build into the system. One of the problems with such a cold room is moisture drive.

Air transports over 95 percent of all moisture through a walls system or roof. Also warm air always travels to cold air. That is a law of thermal dynamics. If its 70 degrees in the main part of the building but its -40 in the cooler, there will be a large amount of moisture trying to drive its way into the cooler. If the moisture hits a cold surface it will condensate and will not dry because the dive is constantly inward. A House in Maine acts differently because in the summer the drive is inward and in the winter it is outward.

The Solution Spray Foam Insulation!

We prescribed using a closed cell spray foam insulation from Icynene. We chose this product for a couple reasons. In Maine Spray Foam Insulation is normally the best choice.

All spray foams are air barriers. Therefore, the warm air will always be stopped from hitting any cold surface within the structure. This is true of both open and closed cell spray foams.
Closed Cell spray foam is also a vapor barrier. Granted 95 percent of moisture is being stopped because the insulation is an air barrier. However, because the drive is constantly going one direction and will really never have the chance to dry we believe its a good idea to stop as much of the moisture as possible. The vapor barrier component will stop the remaining 5 percent of moisture.

How much R-value?

We used R-20 in the walls and R-28 in the ceiling. A lot of people don’t know this but once R-20 is reached a spray foam 95 percent of the heat-flow is stopped. That is another law of thermal dynamics. This is all due to the air flow being stopped. Feel free to look at the attached picture.