What's the Difference: Spray polyurethane-foam insulation
Open cell and closed cell varieties have varying insulating qualities and applications
The rising cost of energy makes it easy to understand the growing popularity of spray-foam insulation. Filling a home’s walls and ceilings with expandable spray polyurethane-foam (SPF) insulation is an easy way of obtaining a tight, well-insulated envelope. Two types of spray-foam insulation are available: closed-cell and open-cell products. Each type of spray foam has varying insulating qualities and applications.
Open-cell foam expands 100 times its volume, which is much greater than the expansion rate of closed-cell foam. This means that less material needs to be applied to fill wall and ceiling cavities, which reduces costs and conserves resources.
However, the R-value of open-cell foam might not be great enough to offer code-compliant R-values when used in 2×4 walls.
Extra insulation could be needed even though studies have proved that open-cell foam works better than code-compliant batt-filled walls.
Open-cell foam, which uses water as its blowing agent and retains a consistent…
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