Installing foam insulation in your home is a dangerous and detrimental mistake, and this is why our company does NOT use it. Foam contains toxic ingredients, it is a fire hazard, it degrades overtime, it is bad at retarding vapor, it shrinks excessively, it cracks, and it produces unhealthy gasses and dusts. The overall manufacturing and construction of foam insulation is hazardous to workers and homeowners, and our planet.
Let’s start with the components of the foam insulation. There are compounds in foam that, when mixed, turns into a toxic concoction. This mixture damages your environmental well-being, and can cause asthma, lung damage, and can severely affect your central nervous system.
Foam is also a huge fire hazard. When foam is exposed to fire and ignited, it burns rapidly, severely reducing the time that people have to escape the fire. It produces dense black smoke and fumes that are extremely toxic, making it more difficult to get out of the home safely in time. With foam being terrible at fighting fires, it is dangerous to do construction or renovations on your home because it becomes exposed.
Foam insulation degrades over time, causing the homeowners to have to replace it, spending more money. Some people say that it takes foam a “long” time to start degrading, but it only takes around 15 years, and is always continuing to degrade, reducing the insulation value.
Foam does not help with mold or structural damage caused by vapor. Vapor-open materials are required to let the water vapor out of the building. A building is supposed to dry outward, but foam delays its ability to do that, causing the inside to stay wetter for a longer period of time. This will produce mold growth, and damage to the structure of the building.
Foam is apt to shrink excessively and unpredictably. It does not support the air-tightness that insulation should produce. As the climate changes, and different weather conditions affect the home here in New England, foam shrinks and compromises the air barriers. When our buildings expand and contract with the different temperatures it causes the wood to shift and since foam is hard, it cannot move with the expansion and contraction of the wood, therefore causing it to pull away or crack leaving air gaps. This results in leaks, moisture issues, drafts, and energy loss.
Another hazardous aspect would be the off-gassing and chemical dust that is produced when it is installed. Spray foam produces vaporous compounds and dust that is uncured. When the compounds react together, it causes off-gassing. You must stay out of your house while it cures, and even after the work is done, the chemicals may remain in your house. This produces more unhealthy and dangerous living conditions. Keep in mind the point of the insulation is to tighten your home, so now you have tightened your home with less areas for the gases to leave.
When tightening your home, it should only be done with healthy products. Foam in not the right choice for insulating your home. It is a dangerous and hazardous product that requires extremely careful attention and precautions that most companies ignore. Dolphin Insulation has paid close attention to these factors, and chose a better solution for you, and your home.
