From a draw inspection today, my first chance to get a good look at Icynene.
All walls and underside of roof sprayed with this stuff. The home felt like a recording studio… very quiet, very tight. It’s R-value is 3.7 per inch, not way greater than some other good inulations, but I was impressed. I couldn’t tell the average thickness at the lid, but in places it appeared to be close to 24" thick. Walls and roof of a home, approx. 3000 ft. sq cost approx. $6,000
I have never heard any bad reports on it . Roy
I hope that they have everything run in conduit 
Nope. Stapled Romex. Why?
Roy and Kenton
I like the stuff but who knows what they will say about this product 5 or so years down the road. I hope nothing negative.
It’s great for the garage with a bedroom above.
Oxidizing or long-term chemical reaction causing deterioration… I don’t know what the testing procedure is for this kind of product.
When I was working for the state, We had this type of insulation used in one of our barns. We had a short in one of the junction boxes that was under all of this. We ended up having dig out the box, and then pull new wiring over the insulation to a new box. It would have looked a lot nicer and been a lot easier to fix if we would have had it in conduit.
Mark, if this were your house and you had to pay for the extra conduit and the time it took for the electricians to run it, then pull the wire, would you still do it?
the only thing that I have read that may prove to be negative is excessive heat build up and damgae to the roof sheathing by not having air circulation/cooling on the bottom side of the sheething, its possible in “hot” areas that this heat could severely damage the sheathing. While doing renovations in Las Vegas I discovered that the sheething under tar/gravel roofs was often delaminated due to excessive heat that seemed to have destroyed the glue holding the plywood together, I could practically remove the sheathing one ply at a time.
I had 4" of Icynene sprayed inside the hull and deck of my sailboat, nice and quiet and warm and toasty for Winter Sailing on Puget Sound and for early voyages up the Inside Passage.
My open foundation floor has been sprayed with foam. It was installed about 10 years ago. I wouldn’t do it any other way if I had to do it again. I think at the time it was R7 per inch.
I believe that in some jurisdiction they are require a vapour barrier, and that a fire resistant overspray is not required in some jurisdictions. Has anyone heard of this?
Builders here in hot, sunny FL started using it with a fully enclosed attic (no ventilation) a few years ago. I have done several of them, and at least so far have seen no issues with wear on the shingles, soft spots in the sheating, or anything else.
Time will tell.
Icynene is an open celled foam as opposed to poly urethane which is a closed cell foam. An open celled foam will allow moisture to pass so I can see a vapor barrier requirement when am open celled foam such as Icynene is used.
Ken,
I was just stating my opinion about my experience. It does has it good and bad sides. I for one probably would not use it for a number of reasons. But each to their own.
I’d be worried about how will it react to spilled gas or deisel fuel or bilge water or the various other things that wind up in the bilge and stay there for a while. Do you know anyone else who’s used it in a boat?
I’m just interested in what you really think about it Mark. I live in a city where the hard part about inspecting homes with green systems is that nobody wants to say anything bad about a green system, so to learn to inspect them and to advise your clients about them, you need to find accurate information and it doesn’t usually come from the manufacturer. Here, everyone spends their time gushing about how great anything green is.
I’m all for green homes, bur job is to find out how green systems fail and look for signs of those failures. One of the reasons the green movement lost a lot of credibility in the 70’s is that everyone and their mother came out with something to sell, a lot of which didn’t work. I see it happening again at the green events at which I exhibit.
The people who care more about the use of sustainable materials in building, the development of sound building methods which will allow us to depend less on foreign oil and that will allow us to leave future generations with a healthy planet than about making a quick buck… those people are in our corner. They want to debunk the bull$hit.
Anyway, sometimes people take it as a challenge when you phrase posts the way I phrased mine, but mine wasn’t meant that way. If you have concerns about Icynene, I’d like to hear them. I believe that you gain your client’s respect when they see that you judge systems objectively.
The best discussions on foam insulations are at http://forums.jlconline.com/forums
There are dozens of good threads on there. Yes, Icynene needs a vapor barrier in northern climates and spraying roof sheathing without venting will void roof warranties and has been known to be a problem with moisture damage due to open cell foam permitting moisture passage.
If the price would have been affordable when I remodeled I wish I had done foam or Airkrete in my home. http://www.airkrete.com/index.html
R3.9 per inch is intriguing for a cementitious foam. How did the cost compare with spray foams?
From someone who has wired QUITE a few SIPS homes…we have to cut all the boxes into the OSB and internal foam…then using a drill and extention wire the entire house…very few electricians will do it but I have the honor of being one of the FOOLS that have done them in the past.
Before they changed to the fire rated foam ( orange ) they used to use the styrofoam inside…we could MELT our channels with a PUSH ball and blow torch…but not since they have gone more “GREEN”…now they are a pain.
I would never run conduit in a house…i am not in Chicago…lol…and if I did have to run conduit through a house these days…I would RETIRE first…done my share of conduit in my early days…No More…
Paul I go back to when there was no plastic pipe it was all steel and I have turned a lot of threads by hand on 3 inch and bigger pipe . bent it with the 40 piece greenlee bender . Glad those days are gone forever.
Transite by the mile all tapers put on by hand in the hot sun.
Now the word Transite gets some people upset.
Roy