Homeowners

Spray Foam for Your Home Insulation
Spray foam insulation works as a high quality insulation product that could enhance your home. Whether it is new construction, a renovation or a retrofit job, spray foam can be a great investment in your home. Spray foam can be good for your pocketbook by helping to lower energy bills through reducing air leaks and improving your home’s energy efficiency. In some cases, choosing spray foam may qualify you for tax credits or rebates. Spray foam could also improve your indoor environment by making your home more comfortable, especially during hot and cold seasons. With a high R-value and air barrier properties, spray foam is a powerful insulation material and it has a unique ability to fill the gaps and holes that could be difficult to seal. The exceptional air barrier that spray foam creates can help keep dust and pollen out of your home—a possible welcome benefit for households with allergy sufferers.

Learn more about spray polyurethane foam and its benefits, including energy efficiency, ways to save, building strength and improved indoor environment.

Applications of Spray Foam
You may already be familiar with spray foam insulation, but your walls aren’t the only place to add SPF. Spray foam can be used in many parts of your home, including:

• + Walls



Spray Foam Insulation for Walls
Spray foam insulation is an excellent choice for wall insulation in your home, whether you are building a new home or renovating. Using spray polyurethane foam (SPF) can increase your home's energy efficiency and can save up to 20% of heating and cooling costs. Among other advantages, SPF has the ability to seal small cracks and provide in-house noise reduction.
Spray polyurethane foam wall insulation is typically installed by trained professional contractors,during construction but it may also be installed during renovation. Because SPF is spray-applied, it can easily cover large surface areas quickly and thoroughly. The Department of Energy has concluded that polyurethane spray foam can have a significantly higher R-value per inch than other insulations. This means that smaller volumes of SPF can have equivalent insulation properties, thereby saving space.
After application, spray foam insulation expands and becomes a lightweight, effective air barrier that can reduce heating and cooling costs. Closed-cell foam can act as a moisture barrier because it prevents moisture-laden vapor from entering and escaping the home. Open-cell foam can minimize airborne sound transmission.
Spray-applied, polyurethane foam insulation can easily fill small cracks and gaps, providing a physical barrier against insects and other pests. For more information on the benefits of spray foam insulation, see Why Spray Foam Insulation.



• + Attics



Spray Foam Insulation for Attics
Spray foam insulation is an excellent choice for insulating home attics. Spray foam insulation can be used both for attic rafters and floors and can be combined with other forms of insulation. The material has many advantages, including savings of up to 20% of heating and cooling costs, the ability to seal small gaps, and noise reduction. For a list of many of the benefits of spray foam insulation, see Why Spray Foam Insulation.
Spray foam insulation can provide a high R-value and makes an efficient use of available space to provide its insulating qualities. Since it expands after application, SPF thoroughly fills in small gaps and quickly covers large areas.
Your attic is a great place to utilize spray foam's benefits. Spray foam attic insulation makes an effective air barrier, preventing drafts and creating a more comfortable indoor environment. It can also minimize moisture and humidity caused by air infiltration, which can otherwise generate condensation that can result in mold and mildew growth. Left unchecked, mold and mildew can cause wood and other building materials to rot. Air-sealing the gaps and cracks between the attic and living space can help manage moisture and humidity issues.
As in other areas of the home, there are two ways SPF can be installed as attic insulation. First, professional contractors using two-component foam systems are able to insulate large areas quickly and thoroughly. Second, spray "foam in a can" insulation is often used to seal small cracks. This type of spray foam sealant, available at home-improvement stores, can be installed by do-it-yourself homeowners.



• + Roofs*



Spray Foam Insulation for Roofs
Spray foam insulation is an excellent choice for many home insulating needs, whether you are building, renovating, or maintaining your home. The advantages to using spray polyurethane foam (SPF) on your building's roof include moisture protection, improved energy efficiency, and better wind resistance. The effective lifespan of a spray foam roofing system can exceed 30 years.
Spray foam roofing insulation is used primarily on commercial buildings. However, in some regions of the United States, homes with low-slope or flat roofs can use SPF to improve the home’s air seal and lower heating and cooling energy usage.
Spray polyurethane foam is often applied over an existing roof, conforming to it before bonding to the surface. Polyurethane foam forms a seamless and self-flashing layer, which can prevent leaks. It also improves structural integrity: following Hurricane Katrina, it was found that spray foam roof insulation helped keep roofs intact and protected buildings from hail and wind-blown debris. If topped by a reflective coating, a spray foam roof can provide cool-roof performance. Cool roofs are designed to maintain a lower temperature than traditional roofs. See our Energy Efficiency page to learn more about cool roofs -- and how Texas A&M University solved their leaky roof problem and increased their buildings' energy efficiency, through spray foam insulation. In addition, the Building Strength page describes how an SPF cool roof can improve a building's integrity and wind resistance.



• + Crawlspaces (wall or floors)*



Crawl Space Insulation with Spray Foam
Spray foam insulation can be a good choice to insulate crawl spaces. As below-grade crawl spaces are prone to moisture intrusion and subsequent wood rot, some kinds of sprayed insulation can provide a solid, lightweight and moisture-resistant barrier. In above-grade (or solid-poured foundation) crawl spaces, SPF insulation is a very effective choice that can help maintain interior temperature control and energy efficiency.
Due to its high R-value and ability to create various barriers, spray foam insulation is an excellent crawl space insulation choice. To learn more, see Why SPF.



• + Basements



Spray Foam Insulation for Basements
Spray foam can be used to insulate basement walls and ceilings effectively. As with above-ground walls, spray foam basement wall and ceiling insulation can be installed by a professional contractor in a home's walls both very efficiently and thoroughly. Because SPF is spray-applied, it can cover large surface areas quickly. In addition, homeowners can use small cans of store-bought, insulating foam sealant to plug small cracks that would otherwise be left unfilled.
Insulating basement walls and ceilings with spray foam can create an effective air barrier. It assists in preventing moisture-laden vapor from entering and escaping the home, which reduces heating and cooling costs. SPF can also minimize airborne sound transmission and provide a barrier against insects and other pests. These benefits are especially helpful in basements that are unfinished or used primarily for storage.
Finally, the Department of Energy has concluded that SPF can have a significantly higher R-value per inch than other insulations. This means that smaller volumes of SPF can have equivalent insulation properties, thereby saving space. Through this benefit, SPF insulation can free precious household space for other uses.



• + Gaps and holes



Filling Gaps and Holes with Spray Foam Insulation
Spray polyurethane foam (SPF) is not just for big insulation jobs. While high- and low-pressure SPF systems are used by professional contractors to apply SPF over many square feet, a third type of foam product is available. Insulating foam sealant, also called "one-component foam" or “foam in a can,” is available to both professionals and consumers. To learn more about the several types of spray foam, visit the What Is Spray Foam page.
Builders or homeowners can fill in gaps, cracks, and holes in a home with SPF at any point during building or a renovation. Especially useful for these small applications is "foam in a can" insulating sealant. It is an exceptionally effective and simple way to seal small gaps, such as spaces around electrical outlets, ductwork, or cracks in materials. Surprisingly, small gaps such as these are often responsible for a large part of the lost temperature control efficiency, so filling them is an important part of weatherproofing and energy conservation. Sealing these small holes in an otherwise well-insulated home can provide a whole-house barrier against air transfer, moisture infiltration, and pests.
Spray foam insulation is an excellent choice for your home insulating needs, whether you are building, renovating, or retrofitting. SPF has many advantages like increased home energy efficiency which can save homeowners up to 20% of heating and cooling costs, the ability to seal small cracks, and noise reduction.



• + Cantilevered floors



Insulating Cantilevered Floors with Spray Foam
Insulating cantilevered floors is important in order to maintain the energy efficiency and thermal integrity of the rest of the house. Since cantilevered floors project above and beyond the home's foundation, greater surface area is exposed to wind and moisture vapor.
Spray foam insulation can be used quite effectively to stop the airflow caused by a cantilevered floor's negative pressure. Since it expands to fill small gaps and cracks before hardening, SPF insulation can be used to create a very effective air and moisture barrier. The use of spray foam insulation in cantilever floors can reduce or stop drafts and increase heating and cooling efficiency.
Spray foam insulation is an excellent choice for insulating many areas of your home, including cantilevered floors, potentially providing savings of up to 20% of heating and cooling costs. For more information on the benefits of spray foam insulation, see Why SPF.

*While spray foam roofing is used primarily in commercial applications, some regions of the country with low slope or flat roofing can use spray foam roofs to increase the home’s air seal and decrease the home’s energy usage.

Homeowners on the Gulf Coast and other areas affected by hurricanes and other severe weather can use spray foam, which could improve the strength and durability of their homes. Spray foam helps improve a building’s resistance to wind uplift, so during periods of high wind, a home or building with a spray foam roof is likely to experience less damage than a building without SPF.

When having SPF insulation installed in your home, work with a professional contractor who can educate you on the installation process.

Tax Credits, Rebates, and Incentives for Homeowners

Purchasing a new home with spray foam or retrofitting your existing home may qualify you for tax credits, rebates, and other incentives. To find available local and state incentives, visit the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency (DSIRE) at http://www.dsireusa.org/.