This page is organised by symptom rather than by product, because that is how people actually arrive at insulation work - something in the house is wrong, and the question is what it means. Residential spray foam insulation in Sherwood Park is best chosen from the symptom, since each one points at a different assembly.
"One room is always cold"
If it is above the garage, the floor is the cause: it sits over unconditioned space and is exposed on several faces. Sealing and insulating that floor from below is the fix, and adding heat to the room is not. If the cold room is over a cantilever or a bay, same physics.
"The floors are cold in winter"
Look at the rim joist - the band where the floor structure meets the foundation, running the whole perimeter. It is a continuous unsealed gap in most houses, and cold air pushed in there is what your feet are feeling. Small area, low cost, quick result.
"The furnace runs constantly"
Usually air movement rather than insulation. Warm air escaping through ceiling penetrations pulls cold air in lower down, and the furnace chases the loop all winter. The fix starts at the ceiling plane - pot lights, top plates, bath fans, plumbing stacks - not with more depth in the attic.
"There is ice at the eaves"
Escaping attic heat melting snow that refreezes at the cold edge. It is an air-sealing symptom, and it is telling you the ceiling plane leaks. Insulation on top of an unsealed ceiling will not stop it.
"The basement smells damp"
Below grade, moisture and material choice matter more than R-value. Closed-cell resists water rather than absorbing it, which is why it belongs against foundation walls and open-cell does not, at any price. See will spray foam cause mould for the honest version of that question.
"I can hear everything through the walls"
That is not a thermal problem and it wants the other product. Open-cell at roughly half a pound per cubic foot is soft and open-structured, and it absorbs airborne sound better than dense foam does. Interior partitions, media rooms and home offices are where it belongs.
What every one of these has in common
The cheap fixes are the sealing ones and the expensive fix is depth. Any quote that starts with depth before asking about symptoms has skipped the diagnosis.
When the answer is not foam
Some of these symptoms have cheaper fixes and an honest contractor will say so. A single draughty window is a weatherstripping job. An attic hatch that leaks is a gasket. A cold room with a closed or crushed supply duct is a mechanical problem and no amount of insulation will fix it. Foam earns its cost where an assembly needs sealing and insulating at once in a place that is awkward to reach or cannot tolerate moisture. Where that is not the situation, it is the expensive answer to a cheap question.
Residential Spray Foam Insulation Sherwood Park: Common Questions
My floors are cold - what does that mean? Usually the rim joist, the band where the floor meets the foundation. It is a continuous unsealed gap in most houses and cold air pushed in there is what you are feeling. That is true of most Sherwood Park houses regardless of their age.
The furnace runs constantly - is that insulation? More often air movement. Warm air escaping through ceiling penetrations pulls cold air in lower down, and the furnace chases that loop all winter.
There is ice at the eaves - is that serious? It is telling you the ceiling plane leaks. Escaping heat melts snow that refreezes at the cold edge, and insulation on top of an unsealed ceiling will not stop it.
Work through it with the spray foam calculator, see what drives a quote, or get a free Sherwood Park quote.