Oh… my… gosh! This part never ends!
For those of you thinking about tackling spray foam yourself, you may want to think it through a bit. While it is not a difficult task, it does consume a ton of time to do it properly… or even half-properly, like we’re doing.
For starters, this stuff is messy and hot. The spray goes everywhere so you need to decide between wearing a Tyvek bunny suit or spending an hour in the shower scraping the spatter from your skin and hair before you throw away the clothing you’ll ruin (I chose the latter option this evening).
The heat itself isn’t bad. While this stuff is expanding and curing, it gives off a good deal of heat. If you’re working in a confined space you will feel like a pot roast waiting to be carved. Add the bunny suit and respirator to this mix and it’s rather unpleasant for long periods of time. It takes us about 45 minutes to properly apply the contents of one 650 kit.
Note: We went with the 650 kits as they are the largest size fire-rated closed-cell kits available to consumers.
Speaking of time, we ended up dealing with the insulation in sessions. Each kit retails for around $750 and, since we haven’t really budgeted for any of this, we end up buying a couple of kits each week or so. Then the weather is a factor. For best results you want to install spray foam while it’s in the mid-70’s. Also, it should remain at that temperature for the 24 hours immediately preceding its use. Factor in more time to ventilate the area and our “sessions” end up being spread apart with about a week or so in between.
To date we have installed five sets of tanks (the bathroom is complete and behind me in that pic). Accounting for us slightly overfilling each cavity and I estimate we will need another 1.5 … which equates to buying two. Once the last coat is applied, it will be time to shave down the walls and install the interior walls.