Cost of spray foam insulation
tonyzzztony
15 years ago
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sierraeast
15 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
DIY spray foam insulation?
Comments (2)its more difficult of a diy than you'd think. as you are paying a premium price for the diy kits..errors are expensive. better to put foam sheathing boards on exterior of walls. tape all seams, insulate walls conventionally & use air tight drywall approach to interior. this gives you a thermally superior air tight wall to interior and exterior. air sealing & duct sealing are your biggest savings. make sure ducts are mastic sealed and not just duct or foil taped. save your && for foam in the roofline if your heating system & ducts are inthe attic. if not..then foam the attic floor. be aware that average fill of foam is NOT what you want. average fill means if you average the low & high spots then you get the R-value they sold you. its not acceptable. if you are sold a R-38 value..then it HAS to meet the inches per R-value requirement. Kvalues & quanitive values are not recognized by code. companies can't make up their own values & expect them to be accepted. its just crazy. avoid recessed lights. or if you must.. use ICAT insulation contact air tight. very expensive to retrofit to air tight later, cheaper per case for ICAT. pay for a load clac for hvac. not rule of thumb sizing. oversized unit will short cycle, costing you more as it pulls more amps for start up. short cycling willnot remove RH in summer. bigger is NOT better. size it to fit your more efficient tighter house. best of luck....See MoreAdding More Insulation to the Ceiling worth it?
Comments (12)it would be best to delay the insulation install and invest time in air sealing any openings between the attic and living space. an easy way to determine where you need to air seal is to go into the attic and look for light from living space below. while in the attic you should also check around hvac supply boxes into the house. often when supply box is installed the screws from the supply register attached to the living space side of the supply will raise the supply box off the attic flooring. this leakage will cause supply grills to condensate because of hot and cold air meeting on a metal surface, and it also allows insulation particles to enter the living space. this should be mastic sealed, then check out the ducts where they take off from the plenum..this should be mastic sealed..plenum connections to mechanicals and coil or air handler to heating system should be mastic sealed., mastics..not duct tape look at bath vents..sheetrock cut is usually larger than housing for bath vent fan..I use mastic tape to seal these areaa. Make sure that back draft damper on bath fan is installed correctly. flap should close off damper when fan is not in use. use mastic tape to attach back draft damper..metal dryer venting to back draft damper and vented as per code. thermal bypasses like fireplace inserts are often left open from the attic you should not be able to look down and see fire box. the goal is to create an air barrier so that air doesn't move from attic to living space through the insulation. if air is moving thru the insulation it reduces the r-value. it also allows attic air and insulation particles to circulate through out the house. once the air barrier is complete then you add the thermal barrier. make sure that under any mechanicals is insulated, also under mechanical service areas and walkway to these mechanicals. if you used ICAT lights for recessed lights it is only the gap between the housing of the recessed light and the sheetrock that needs to be sealed. these cans are insulation contact air tight. if your cans are IC only..the holes in the housing into the attic will have holes in them unlike ICAT..then you need to address with air tight inserts and seal sheetrock cut. one IC only recessed light equals one sq ft of uninsulated attic. (LA DNR) that is HUGE. to retrofit the lights to air tight is expensive we have used ice chests in some homes. the ice chest has to have 4" clearance on all sides and top. it is cut to fit tightly to sheetrock and caulked in place...time consuming. the recessed lights and other thermal bypasses are often over looked. these have a huge impact on the performance of the insulation and the house. saving upfront costs longterm..your builder builds and moves on, leaving high utility bills and poor comfort and iaq for you to deal with. before insulating seal these areas..you will never have as easy of an access to these areas as now.. remember...air barrier first.. thermal barrier after air barrier. there is plenty of info for this at buildingscience.com and southface institute has an excellent air sealing pdf. in my personal experience with cellulose it creates a fine 'dust' of borates and newspaper..your air barrier should be as perfect as you can get it. and invest in 4" pleated media filters for your hvac system best of luck...See MoreGeothermal vs spray foam insulation
Comments (9)Where in NC? The differences between the coast and mountains are pretty significant. It is a big state. The tank of course gets filled with propane which is 3-4 times the cost of NG. The inability to give ballpark estimates is stupid. Do you have a builder? Our builder gave us ballparks based on prior builds. They were always shocking because of the lack of competition in the area. The 2 I remember were $10k to foam the attic rafters and $60k for geothermal - both of which were non-starters. Generally in NC (central and coastal), the HVAC costs are too low to justify either geothermal or foam. A well sealed house with above code insulation can cost $500 a year to HVAC without resorting to those more costly options. If you are in the mountains, then you change the picture a bit. First the basics - ducts in conditioned space and good air sealing. Then bump the attic insulation. Then bump the walls. The ducts require appropriate house plans - and don't trust the designer alone. Plenty don't leave appropriate room for the units. For a point of comparison, I have a ducts in the attic, 5000 sq ft. Conventional insulation but r-40 in the attic. Air sealed pretty well with ES standards. Seer 16 heat pumps and NG backup. I have $1000 in HVAC costs. Lose the NG backup and I'd probably go to $1200. That isn't a lot of money and 1/2 is a/c which is harder to cut. The most important thing now is the ductwork. Then the solar orientation and/or shading. Then check for rate cuts for Energy Star certification. Progress gives us 5% for life. Given the merger, they should have 80% of NC but I know there are a lot of locals....See MoreBlown in insulation vs spray foam
Comments (6)where is the ductwork? any recessed lights? are the recessed lights IC (insulation contact) or ICAT (insulation contact air tight)? unless there is ductwork in the attic foam insulating the roofline is a costly install. it might be better to invest in air sealing the attic floor/ceilings of living space and then insulating the attic floor. not enough info to give definitive answer. best of luck...See Morexracer
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