I’m somewhat interested in spray foam insulation for my shop. No one locally does this. So far I’ve talked to two contractors (one Icynene, one BioBased) that are willing to travel here to do it, but each of them would have a solid day of travel each way and it puts the cost of the job at around $10K. There’s about 1500 SF of 2×6 wall area, and 1000 SF of 2×10 and 2×12 rafter area. Simple job, easy access, new construction, etc. I was not hoping to spend ten grand on insulating a small building.
So, what about DIY on something like this? A little bit of quick googling shows a couple of vendors of spray foam kits. They are FANTASTICALLY expensive, more than just having a sub come up here and do the job. Makes no sense to me, but I just took a quick look.
Anyone done this, know about this, know someone who has done this, had a friend of a friend who did it, etc.?
Replies
I looked into a DIY option last fall, too. It was less expensive to hire it out. And it was probably done better than I could have done.
Stace
Did you have the job done? What product? And if you know, approx. what was the cost per SF for the thicknesses you needed?
David,
I looked at DIY, and also found that it was cheaper to hire it out--and with good results.
I used a closed cell poly called Insulstar--good product, and good company back up too (they sent a rep out and had good follow-up)...This was in addition to the installer. www.insulstar.com
I had the walls and ceiling sprayed at 3" for $3.90 sf--not cheap, but worth it.
Thanks for the link, I'll take a look at that. The Icynene people were in that same ~$4 SF range.
Yes, it was Icynene. Two areas were done : the underside of the roof in attic (about 550/600 square feet at 5.5+ inches) and the gables (maybe 150 square feet at 3+ inches). If you want precise numbers, the attic floor surface area is 20*24, with a 6/12 pitch. The gables are 24ft long by 5.5 feet high. Me and the Pythagoreans theorem haven't spoken since high school geometry class so you're on your own.The whole job was $1550 or so. But I have a feeling it was underbid. My wife was home when the estimator came and she said he was up there about 30 seconds. And when they did the install, I was home and the guys were grumbling about how much extra it was taking over what the work order had stated. Stace
I just completed a DIY foam job with Tiger Foam brand. I agree with you that it is considerably more expensive than subing it out. I was insulating closed rafter cavities in a sloped ceiling that required a slow-rising foam formula. While many manufacturers make such a product, nobody locally was willing to do the job. I can understand why, as it was a labor-intensive job that required a Rube Goldberg apparatus of my own invention to get the foam to completely fill the cavities. Saying that, the foam itself was a breeze to work with. If you decide to do it yourself, my best advice is to be sure the tank temperatures are between 75 and 85 degrees, otherwise you get a lower yield of inferior-quality foam. You might want to check on e-bay. About once a month the Tiger Foam people auction off a lot of 5 or 7 kits that cover 600 bd. ft. per kit at a reasonable discount and with decent shipping fees. I did alot of research and found the shipping costs can be almost as much as the product. I did business with Loyola Enterprises in Virginia Beach, VA. (http://www.loyola.com) and they were great.
Conrad
One of the immediate things I noticed about Tiger Foam is that it looks like you end up with a bunch of leftover metal canisters. No way do I want that.
Your post made me curious, so I checked out ebay: here's about 3000 board feet for about $1/BF: http://cgi.ebay.com/Foam-Insulation-Kits-600-bd-ft-Surface-Spray-E-84_W0QQitemZ4463964616QQcategoryZ42338QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Like you said, it seems like you'd end up with gobs of steel containers afterwards. I noticed that the real foam spraying setups go for about $30k, not including any foam. Now I see why there aren't a lot of people doing this yet.
zak
"so it goes"
Groan. I think I need around 600 cubic feet (haven't decided on the R-values I want yet) so I'd be in the $8000 range just for the materials. I can get a very nicely done blown-in job on the entire building for less than that.
Yeah, I'd love to use spray foam for some stuff I'm doing, but it's not in the budget at all. I'm going to end up using a rigid foam and cel sandwich. More time, more thinking about vapor barriers, lots less dollars.zak
"so it goes"
I had Bio-base installed today in wood framed walls by an installer located about 1 1/2 hrs. away. This is a semi-closed cell product, blown to about a 4 1/2" thickness. I also had him blow the attic side of 2 large skylight wells. That's the way to insulate those! This is my first time using this insulation. It's not as high of r-value per inch as the fully closed cell products but the price was much less. I paid roughly $1.60 per sq.ft at average 4.5 " thickness in wall areas. It actually measured thicker than that.
They have two products, I think, one is R3.8 and one is R6.3. I'm pretty sure the quote I got was around $2.50/SF for 5.5" of the higher value.
My feeling at this point is to super-insulate. Warmness is not going to get cheaper down the road.
David too weird I just looked at your profile, we just returned from FH this Sunday did some tourist stuff, left some of my cash on your island. Seems like the west coast hasn't yet adopted the foam insulation like the east. I would think Seattle has some guys doing that but to get to your place is costly. I'm in the Tri-Cities we don't have much of that here. Short of buying the easy foam cans haven't had much luck on the DIY system that is cost effective. Good luck to you.
Jeff
Good thing you got out of here, it's raining it's azz off today, and supposed to all week. Whereabouts you from? If you're coming back, gimme a jingle and I'll buy you one down at the Ale House. Standing offer for all BT folks.
Nearest installers I have found were Port Angeles and somewhere near Longview. They both work out of panel trucks and need 3-4 guys on the job. That's 6-8 man-days of travel to get here, plus the lovely WSF ferry charge, which would be $150-200 on a large panel truck with 4 riders.
I'm in lovely Pasco, Washington we don't get over there nearly enough. Me and the DW did live in Seattle for 7-8 years until housing prices and traffic drove us east. We did stop at the Ale House and have a few. So next time I'm there I'll take you up on that, and return the favor.
Jeff
That's good, it'll make me feel a little better about these elitist right-coast guys and their fests that I can't make it out to. Since we don't strap our ceilings maybe that's better.
Jeez, I was making a mental note to look you up next time I'm over on the islands, but I often strap my ceilings. Am I not welcome out here? I'm a native left coaster, I swear!zak
"so it goes"
I almost strapped a ceiling recently, and I still might have to... so anyone's welcome!
David,
Look up Barry's Insulation in burlington, Nice guy willing to travel etc. he sprays Cora bond. If ou can't find him in the book, or on the web email me and I'll find his card for you
Rob
How much time do you have?? You can buy approximatly 1650 cans of Great Stuff for 10K, I'd buy the super expansive black can if I were you.... ;)
On a more serious note, since it is a shop, what about Ridgid foam board and gun foam the joints/gaps?
If I can't figger out a way to do expando-foam then it's going to be blown-in. Insulation has got to pack in around pipes and electrical boxes for me to be happy.