Ten sections, in the order people usually ask them:
- Cost, quoting and the calculator
- Closed cell or open cell
- Alberta code, vapour barriers and covering the foam
- Foam and drywall - where one trade ends and the next starts
- Safety, off gassing and being in the building
- Around the house
- Farm, shop and metal buildings
- Commercial and industrial
- Who does the work, certification and warranty
- Rebates and financing
- Getting started and coverage
Spray Foam Insulation FAQ Alberta: The Questions People Actually Ask
Cost, quoting and the calculator
What does spray foam insulation cost in Alberta? Foam is priced by the board foot - one square foot covered to one inch of thickness - so the total is driven by area, the thickness your target R-value takes, which foam the assembly needs, and how hard the space is to get at. A 1,000 square foot attic sprayed to six inches is 6,000 board feet, not 1,000 of anything. Estimate your own quantity with the spray foam calculator, then read what drives the cost.
Why will nobody give me a price over the phone? Because the same foam lands at a very different total on a walk-out basement, a vaulted ceiling and a Quonset. Substrate, access, preparation and the removal of whatever is there now are not visible from a phone call. A firm number given without a site visit is a number that gets revised later, usually upward and usually after you have committed.
What is a board foot? One square foot at one inch thick. It is the unit installers price in, which makes it the unit you need to think in to read a quote and to compare two of them honestly.
Is closed cell or open cell cheaper? Open cell is less per board foot because it is lighter and does less - lower R-value per inch and no vapour control. The cheaper product is not automatically the cheaper job, because reaching the same R-value takes far more inches of open cell.
What makes one job cost more than another of the same size? Access and preparation. Open walls on a new build are quick. Tight crawl spaces, cut-in retrofits, masking around finished space and stripping out old insulation all add labour that has nothing to do with the foam itself.
Is the calculator estimate a quote? No, and the two are deliberately never blurred. The calculator gives an estimated quantity for planning. The quote is the figure an installer stands behind after seeing the building.
Does a quote cost anything? No. You describe the space and what is bothering you, the job gets scoped and our installers in your city are scheduled, and you get a quote on your real space with foam type and thickness spelled out.
How fast do I hear back? A person reads every submission. There is no autoresponder queue, so a reply takes as long as it takes someone to read and answer it, usually the same business day.
What should I have ready? Approximate square footage, ceiling or wall height, whether the walls are open or closed, any moisture history, and photos if you have them. Moisture history matters more than people expect - it often decides whether closed cell is the call.
Is a deposit normal? On most jobs, yes. What is not normal is a large deposit with no written scope, no schedule and no warranty documentation. See warranty and financing.
Closed cell or open cell
What is the difference between closed cell and open cell spray foam? Closed cell is the denser of the two. It insulates at roughly R-6 to R-7 per inch, resists water, adds rigidity and becomes a vapour barrier at about two inches. Open cell is light and soft, insulates at roughly R-3.5 to R-3.8 per inch, stays vapour permeable and absorbs water, which makes it an interior product. Full detail on closed cell and open cell.
Which one do I need? Closed cell wherever the assembly meets weather, ground or steel - basements, crawl spaces, rim joists, metal buildings, exterior walls and roofs. Open cell suits interior walls and sound separation, where its softness is an advantage and moisture is not in play. Most buildings end up with both, in different places.
How thick does closed cell have to be before it is a vapour barrier? About two inches nationally, and roughly 38 mm under the Alberta provisions. Below that it still insulates and air seals but is not yet doing vapour control, so the assembly needs a vapour retarder designed in. It is the single most misunderstood number in spray foam.
Is open cell safe to use in Alberta at all? Yes, in the right place. It belongs on the warm, dry side of an assembly - interior partitions, sound walls, some attic flats - and it does not belong against ground, steel or weather in this climate.
Is closed cell better for sound? No. Density is not the same thing as sound absorption. Open cell is the better of the two inside a wall or floor for airborne noise, which is why the soundproofing page does not simply recommend the more expensive foam.
What is flash and batt? A thin lift of closed cell against the sheathing for the air seal and vapour control, with batt insulation filling the rest of the cavity for R-value. It is a common way to hit a wall target without paying for a full cavity of foam. See wall insulation.
Does the foam colour tell me anything? Only who made it. Manufacturers dye their products distinct colours so an inspector or owner can confirm the product matches what was specified. Colour does not indicate the application, the R-value or the quality, and anyone selling you a colour is selling you nothing.
Alberta code, vapour barriers and covering the foam
Does spray foam have to be covered? In occupied space, yes. Foam plastics are finished with a code required thermal barrier, most commonly half inch drywall, or an approved coating where that is accepted. It is part of the job rather than an extra, and any quote should already account for it.
What about an attic or crawl space nobody lives in? Spaces with service only access are generally handled with an ignition barrier rather than a full thermal barrier. Which applies depends on the occupancy and the access, and it gets confirmed for your building rather than assumed.
Do I still need a poly vapour barrier? Where closed cell is sprayed to a continuous depth past the vapour retarder threshold, it is doing that job itself and a separate poly layer is often unnecessary and sometimes harmful, because two vapour barriers can trap moisture between them. Thinner lifts, open cell and hybrid assemblies are a different answer. This is an assembly decision, not a preference.
Does foam count as the building's air barrier? Applied to a continuous depth and sealed at all edges and penetrations, spray foam serves as part of the air barrier system. That is most of the value in an Alberta winter - batt slows heat and does nothing about air movement, which is why a wall can be completely full of insulation and still leak.
Will an inspector ask for paperwork? Expect to be asked what assembly was used and to what thickness. The daily work record - substrate conditions, material lot, ambient conditions, thickness - is the evidence that the job was done to specification, and it is a normal thing to ask for at quote stage. See certifications.
Foam and drywall - where one trade ends and the next starts
Who puts the drywall on after the foam - is that part of the insulation job? No. Foam and board are two different trades, and the quote you get for spray foam covers the foam. In Calgary and area the trade that picks up the next stage is Emplastrum Drywall, who handle boarding, taping and finishing. That is a referral rather than a guarantee - you contract them directly, there is no markup through us, and there is no obligation to use them. See partners for how the sequence runs.
Is the drywall optional if I do not care how the room looks? In occupied space, no. The board over the foam is doing a code job before it is doing a cosmetic one - it is the thermal barrier described in the code section above. A finished-looking room and a code-compliant one happen to be the same thing here, which is why the interior finish is not a phase you can defer indefinitely.
Can drywall be fastened straight to spray foam? No. Board fastens to framing or to strapping, never to the foam itself. Foam fills and seals between and around the framing members, and the fasteners still need something solid. Where foam has been sprayed over the face of the framing rather than between it, strapping goes on first - worth knowing at quote stage, because it changes the drywaller's scope and not the insulator's.
How long after the foam can the board go on? After the foam has cured and been trimmed flush, and after any inspection your build requires. Two things go wrong when that order is rushed: foam left proud of the framing has to be shaved before board will sit flat, and board hung before the foam has finished curing traps the solvent smell in the room. Both are avoidable by sequencing rather than by fixing.
Does the foam replace the poly vapour barrier behind the drywall? Where closed cell is sprayed to a continuous depth past the vapour retarder threshold, it is doing that job itself and a separate poly sheet is often unnecessary - and sometimes harmful, because two vapour barriers can trap moisture between them. Open cell, thinner lifts and hybrid assemblies are a different answer. This gets decided as an assembly, before either trade is booked.
Will the foam move later and crack my drywall? Cured foam in a properly built assembly is dimensionally stable, so it is not a normal cause of cracking. What does cause trouble is foam that was applied off ratio or in lifts thicker than the product allows, which is an application fault and shows up long before the board does. Ordinary drywall cracking is usually seasonal movement in the framing, and that is a drywall repair rather than an insulation problem.
What about the garage ceiling or a room over the garage? Those carry a separation requirement between the garage and the living space that is set by the code, not chosen for insulation reasons - so the sheet used there is specified for that job. Confirm what applies with the authority having jurisdiction before anyone boards it. See garage and bonus room.
Safety, off gassing and being in the building
Is spray foam safe? Cured foam installed to standard is inert and code approved in Canada. During application and cure it off gasses, which is why the area is unoccupied and ventilated while that happens. The safety question is really an installation question.
How long before we can go back in? Sprayed areas stay unoccupied during application and through the re-entry period, which is commonly around 24 hours and can be longer for closed cell or a large job. The installer sets the exact window for the product being sprayed, and it should be in writing before the crew arrives.
Do I have to move out? Usually not. Most residential jobs are a day or two in a defined area rather than a whole house evacuation. Larger commercial work is normally sequenced so the building keeps operating.
Is spray foam banned in Canada? No. It is code approved when it meets the CAN/ULC standards and is installed and covered as the code requires. The claim usually traces back to failures caused by bad installation rather than the product.
I have heard foam causes rot. Is that true? Failures trace to poor installation, the wrong foam for the assembly, or spraying in the wrong conditions - not to the product itself. Off ratio foam, poor adhesion and shrinkage away from framing are the three common ones, and all three are application faults. That is exactly why the installer matters more here than with insulation you unwrap from a bag.
Why would foam smell after the job? A persistent smell is the classic sign of off ratio foam, meaning the two components were not mixed and applied correctly. It is a workmanship issue, it is not something to live with, and it is what the warranty is for.
Around the house
Where should I start if I can only do one thing? For most older Alberta houses, the attic air seal and the rim joist. Small money, large effect, and together they address the top and the bottom of the stack effect that drives everything else.
How much foam does an Alberta attic need? Attics here typically target around R-38, which is roughly six inches of closed cell or eleven inches of open cell. Whether that goes on the flat or on the roof deck depends on whether the attic stays vented and what is up there. See attic spray foam.
Should the attic stay vented, or should I foam the roof deck? Both are legitimate assemblies and they are not interchangeable. Foaming the deck makes the attic part of the conditioned space and the venting is closed off deliberately; insulating the flat keeps the attic cold and vented. Mixing the two halfway is where problems start.
Will spray foam stop ice dams? It stops the cause of most of them, which is warm air leaking into the attic and melting snow that refreezes at the eave. Sealing and insulating properly keeps the roof deck cold. Ice from other causes - a valley, a poorly draining roof, a plumbing stack - is a different problem.
Will it stop my basement smelling damp? Usually, because the smell is normally condensation on a cold foundation wall behind a framed and batted assembly. Closed cell against the concrete removes the cold surface the moisture was condensing on. If there is bulk water getting in, that gets fixed first. See basement insulation.
Can foam be injected into a finished wall? Spray foam is applied to an open cavity, so a finished wall is either opened up or filled with something else. Injection systems for closed walls exist and can work, but they are a different product and process with different coverage certainty - worth knowing before the two get quoted against each other as if they were the same job. See wall insulation.
Will it lower my heating bill? It reduces the heating load. How that shows up depends on the building, your habits and energy prices. What is consistent is the comfort change - even temperatures and no drafts - which is what most people actually notice first.
Will foam soundproof a room? It will reduce airborne noise through a wall or floor, particularly with open cell in the cavity. It will not do much for impact noise like footsteps overhead, which is a structural path rather than an air path. Soundproofing covers what is realistic.
Farm, shop and metal buildings
Will foam stop the condensation dripping off my steel roof? That is the single most common reason a steel building gets foamed in Alberta. The drip is warm interior air hitting cold steel. Closed cell sprayed directly to the underside of the panel removes the cold surface and the sweating stops. See metal buildings.
Can you spray over the blanket insulation that is already in there? No. Foam needs to bond to the panel itself, so the old fibreglass blanket comes out first. Spraying over a sagging vinyl faced blanket buys you nothing and hides whatever is happening behind it.
How thick for a heated Alberta shop or pole barn? It depends on the target and the use, but a heated working shop is generally a closed cell job at a depth that both insulates and controls vapour rather than a thin skin. A building heated only when someone is in it is specified differently from one held at temperature.
Can it be sprayed with equipment or animals in the building? Equipment can usually be moved to one end or sheeted, and the work sequenced. Livestock come out of the area being sprayed and return after the re-entry period. Both are normal on Alberta farms and get planned into the schedule rather than discovered on the day. See agricultural.
Is it worth insulating a building I do not heat? Sometimes. An unheated machine shed does not hold heat, but it does stop condensation dripping on equipment, and it makes the building heatable later without redoing the envelope. If the honest answer for your building is no, you will be told that.
Will foam affect my post frame building warranty? Ask the building supplier before the work, because some warranties have conditions about what gets attached to or applied to the structure. It is a five minute question that is expensive to ask afterwards. See pole barns.
Commercial and industrial
Can the building stay in operation during the work? Usually. Commercial work is sequenced by zone with containment, so a warehouse or plant keeps running while one bay is worked. That sequencing is part of the scope and it belongs in the quote, not in a conversation on the first morning.
What is the payback on a retrofit? It depends on the building, what is there now and what it costs to heat. The parts that are consistent are the air seal, the removal of condensation problems, and the fact that a sealed envelope makes mechanical equipment work less. See commercial retrofit.
How long does a spray foam roof last? An SPF roof is a maintained system rather than a fit and forget one, and its service life depends on the coating and the recoat cycle rather than on the foam - so the recoat schedule is the number to ask about, in writing, with the manufacturer's system warranty. It can often go over an existing roof rather than through a tear off. See spray foam roofing.
Can foam be used on a cold storage or freezer building? Yes, and the specification is genuinely different from a dry warehouse - different thickness, different vapour strategy, and far less tolerance for a detailing error, because a vapour drive into a freezer wall does not stop. See cold storage.
Do crews work to oil and gas site safety requirements? Site orientation, safety documentation and the operator's own requirements are part of the scope on oilfield and tank work. Those requirements are set by the operator, and the crew assigned to the job is the one that meets them.
Who does the work, certification and warranty
Who actually does the work? Our own installers. Spray Foam Insulation Alberta scopes the job, prices it, assigns a crew in your city and manages it through to sign off. The people holding the hose are the ones carrying the certification, the insurance and the WCB coverage, which is where those credentials are enforceable. See why choose us.
What actually determines whether the job lasts? Preparation, substrate temperature and lift thickness. Foam is manufactured on site, in your building, on the day, so the result depends on how it was applied rather than on what was ordered. That is the part we control by doing the work ourselves, and it is why we see the building before we price it.
What is CAN/ULC-S705? Two standards. S705.1 is the material standard - what a medium density closed cell foam has to be to be sold as such in Canada. S705.2 is the application standard - substrate condition, temperature limits, lift thickness, cure and documentation. The second one is the one that protects you, because a certified product applied outside the application standard does not deliver certified performance.
How do I check a certification myself? Ask for the certificate and the certifying body, then confirm it with them directly. A legitimate installer hands it over without hesitation. Do the same with the WCB clearance letter, which is easy to obtain and matters to you specifically as the property owner.
Does certification guarantee a good job? It removes a category of risk rather than guaranteeing an outcome. Preparation, detailing and care still separate a good job from an adequate one. Certification is the floor, not the ceiling.
What warranty comes with the job? The enforceable warranty is the written one, with a term and exclusions, covering the installer's workmanship alongside the manufacturer's material warranty. Foam in a properly built assembly does not degrade, which is where lifetime language comes from, but read the document rather than the marketing. See warranty and financing.
What if the foam pulls away or does not stick? That is a workmanship issue and it is what the installer's warranty is for. It is also why substrate preparation is worth asking about at quote stage, because it is the usual cause.
Does going through a network cost more than going direct? No. The scoping, the vetting and the management sit on our side, and the crew prices the work it would price anyway. What you avoid is assembling the job yourself and carrying the risk when one part of it goes wrong.
Rebates and financing
Is there an Alberta insulation rebate I can claim? There is no single provincial program. What exists is a mix of municipal programs, utility offers and federal mechanisms that change often, so the honest answer is to check what is live in your municipality at the time you do the work. See Alberta insulation rebates.
What happened to the Canada Greener Homes Grant? It is closed to new applications and should not be counted on. Anyone still advertising it as available is quoting an old page.
What is CEIP? The Clean Energy Improvement Program - low interest financing for efficiency upgrades including insulation, repaid through the property tax bill. It is municipality dependent, so whether it is available to you depends on where the building is.
Should I wait for a rebate before insulating? Weigh the value of the program against a winter of paying to heat the outdoors. Rebates come and go, and the heating season does not.
Getting started and coverage
Do you cover my town? The network covers the province - Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray and the communities between them. Each city has its own page because the climate, the building stock and the going rate genuinely differ across Alberta. Check the service areas.
What happens after I submit the form? A person reads it, the job gets scoped from what you have described, and our installer in your area comes to see the building and price the work. You are told what foam is proposed and at what thickness, not just a total.
How do I find out where my building is losing heat? A thermal imaging inspection turns the question into data, and it frequently reorders the priority list - the thing people were about to spend money on is often not the thing costing them the most.
What if spray foam is the wrong answer for my building? You will be told. Sometimes the fix is blown in at a fraction of the price. Sometimes the problem is ventilation, drainage or a mechanical system that was never balanced, and insulating will not touch it. We would rather give that answer and keep the relationship than sell a job that does not fix the problem.
Still have a question
Ask it. Describe the building and what is bothering you on the quote form and a person will answer, or reach us through contact. Questions that keep coming up get added to this page.