Minnesota Spray Foam and Coatings offers closed cell polyurethane spray foam insulation as one of the most advanced insulating materials available today in the construction industry. We use state of the art equipment & have completed certified training & continued education on spraying polyurethane spray foam.

Closed cell spray foam offers the highest R-value over all other insulation materials. Closed cell spray foam is sprayed at a high heat temperature, using specialized equipment & expands & hardens within minutes. Closed cell spray foam will not shrink or settle over time, so you can enjoy the energy saving costs for the life of your home. Closed cell spray foam can be applied in non-vented attics, walls, ceilings, attics, floors, foundations, crawl spaces, around piping, etc.

This type of insulation expands, filling cracks and voids and creates a seamless air barrier, improving the air quality in your home and reducing energy costs. Closed cell spray foam also strengthens the structure of your home and protects the internal air from mold, allergens, and air borne pollutants.

Benefits of Closed Cell Spray Foam

• Offers a high insulation R-value
• Adds structural integrity to your home.
• Decreases the amount of moisture that leaks through your home, reducing the chance for mold and mildew growth on walls and ceilings.
• When properly installed, closed cell spray foam provides a seamless air barrier, and minimizes sound transmission.
• Does not shrink or settle.

R-value measures insulation’s resistance to heat flow. It can also be referred to as “thermal resistance.” The R-value of different insulating materials must be based on test methods established by the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM). Don’t forget that R-values are determined by material type, thickness, and installed weight per square foot, not by thickness alone.

To the average person the higher the R-value number of your insulation, the warmer you should feel in the winter and cooler in the summer. The reality is something totally different as the R-value listed on insulation is not arrived at under real-world conditions making them extremely misleading to the consumer. For instance, fiberglass insulation is generally assigned an R-value of approximately 3.5. It will only achieve that R-value if tested in an absolute zero wind and a zero moisture environment. Zero wind and zero moisture are not real-world.

The average home with all its doors and windows closed has a combination of air leaks equal to the size of an open door, hence the reason why so many people feel that their homes are drafty. Even if you did a perfect job of installing Fiberglass or Cellulose insulation in your home and were to bring the air infiltration close to zero from one side of the wall to the other, you would still not stop air from moving vertically through fiber-based insulation itself, in ceilings and walls. Water vapor from the atmosphere, showers, cooking, breathing, etc. constantly moves back and forth through walls and ceilings as well dropping Fiberglass or Celluloses insulation’s R-value — as much as 50 percent or more as well.

By some estimates, 50-60% of your heat escapes through light fixtures, vents, and directly through your ceiling into the attic and out your ridge vent or soffits. This is why when considering insulation, addressing deficiencies in the attic can give you the biggest bang for your insulation dollar.

The only way to stop the moving of air and moisture within a building’s structure is with an air and vapor barrier. One inch of spray Polyurethane foam insulation properly installed throughout the building structure can prevent more heat loss than all the fiber insulation that can be crammed into the walls of the structure.

The “stack effect” is when warm air moves upwards in a house. This happens in summer and winter. Warm air rises – because it’s lighter than cold air. So when it rises, what happens? It escapes out of the upper levels of our homes through recessed lighting fixtures, fan fixtures, etc. But we can’t create a vacuum in our homes so when air escapes new air has to come in to replace the air that escaped. Where does the new air enter the house? …at the lower levels, through your floors above the crawl space, at your top plate, around windows, through under-insulated walls, vents, and other leaks in the home envelope.

Closed-Cell Foam

Closed-Cell spray Polyurethane foam is highly dense and when sprayed expands up to 30 times its original liquid volume producing an R-value per inch of 6.4+. In Closed-Cell spray foam, cells or bubbles in the foam are compacted together, are not broken and each is filled with an inert gas selected to make the insulation value of the foam as high as possible. An example of Closed-Cell foam insulation that we benefit from every day would be the insulation found in your refrigerator and freezer.

The advantages of Closed-Cell foam include its strength, higher R-value, and greater resistance to the leakage of air or water vapor making it ideal for windy, damp, and water-prone locations, such as coastal areas, below grade, crawl spaces, or for the whole house. For many of our clients, Closed-Cell foam is the product of choice. While more expensive than Open-Cell foam because of its density, at 1-inch thickness Closed-Cell foam develops an air barrier and at 2 inches a moisture barrier. Closed-Cell Spray Foam is the only FEMA-approved flood-resistant insulation material.

Open-Cell Foam

Open-Cell spray Polyurethane foam is soft – like a foam cushion in a pillow and is an excellent air and sound insulator. Unlike Closed-Cell foam, Open-Cell foam is less dense, with each Cell in the foam being broken, thus allowing air to fill all of the spaces in the material. Upon spraying Open-Cell foam expands up to 150 times its original liquid volume, thereby filling all nooks and crannies in the wall cavity. When spraying is complete, the excess foam is shaved off the studs, leaving a flat surface over which drywall or other material can be applied. With an R-value of 3.7+ per inch, Open-Cell foam gives you an air barrier @ 5 inches of thickness. Uses for Open-Cell include spraying directly to all walls of a house, and as soundproofing for media rooms. Open-Cell foam may also be directly sprayed to roof decks.

Spray foam insulation is professionally installed at the same point in the construction cycle as other types of insulation. This typically occurs after the rough plumbing, electrical wiring, and heating and air conditioning ducts have been installed, but before the interior walls are completed in new home construction. In some cases spray foam insulation can also be applied in older homes, to the inside of roofs and under floors after construction has been completed.

Yes, we can spray foam insulation on the underside of your roof deck, under crawl spaces, on basement walls, and into new additions or home renovation projects involving the removal of the existing drywall.

Yes, the installed cost of spray foam insulation is somewhat higher than Fiberglass and blown-in Cellulose. However, the higher initial cost is partially offset because of the sustainability of the insulation (it will not degrade over time like fiberglass and cellulose). In addition, you may be able to downsize your heating and air conditioning equipment. Additionally, you will save on your heating and cooling bills. Studies suggest that homes insulated with spray foam use up to 40 % less energy than homes insulated with conventional insulation. Your savings may be greater or less depending on your lifestyle, appliances, house site, number and size of windows, etc.