Open-cell is the lighter, softer, cheaper spray foam insulation. It expands much further than closed-cell, seals air just as effectively, and costs roughly half as much per board foot.
It gives about R-3.5 to R-3.8 per inch, at somewhere around $0.80 to $1.50 per board foot installed.
Call +1 226-315-1127 and we will tell you honestly whether it suits your job.
Open-cell is not a vapor barrier. Moisture passes through it.
In a livestock barn, a greenhouse, a cold room, a crawl space or against ground contact, that is disqualifying. Moisture reaching the structure behind the insulation is exactly the failure we are trying to prevent.
This is why nearly all of our agricultural and commercial work is closed-cell, and why we are cautious about open-cell being quoted cheaply for buildings where it does not belong.
If a quote you have offers open-cell for a barn roof or a crawl space, ask how vapor is being controlled.
It works well in interior partition walls, where there is no vapor drive and the goal is sound.
It also suits conditioned attic space in a house, where the assembly is designed for it and vapor control is handled elsewhere. Our residential spray foam page covers conditioned attics in more detail.
Sound damping between rooms, between floors, or around a mechanical room is another strength. Open-cell is considerably better at this than closed-cell because it is soft and open.
It also works well in deep cavities where the target is air sealing and moderate R-value at a sensible cost.
Closed-cell is rigid and dense, which transmits sound rather than absorbing it.
Open-cell is soft and full of connected voids, which absorbs airborne sound well.
For a farm office inside a workshop, a mechanical room next to occupied space, or rooms in a house where quiet matters, open-cell is the better product and the cheaper one at the same time.
Open-cell expands dramatically, so it reaches into gaps and irregular voids that closed-cell would need more material to fill.
That makes it efficient where the cavity is deep and awkward and where you are chasing air sealing rather than a high R-value in a thin space.
It is trimmed flush after it rises, so it finishes flat for drywall.
The covering requirement applies to open-cell exactly as it does to closed-cell.
Most of the time in Chatham-Kent the answer is closed-cell. Sometimes it is open-cell, and sometimes it is a mix on the same building.
Call +1 226-315-1127 and describe the space. We will tell you which, including when the cheaper one is right. See every building type we insulate on our home page.
Chatham Spray Foam Insulation works on farm, commercial and residential buildings throughout Chatham-Kent.
Farm buildings are the core of what we spray. We insulate barns, machine sheds, grain storage, packing and grading rooms, workshops and equipment bays across Chatham-Kent.
View Agricultural and Farm Building Insulation
Chatham-Kent holds more than 20 million square feet of greenhouse, the second largest concentration in Ontario. Growing facilities are a specialist insulation job and we treat them as one.
View Greenhouse and Growing Facility Insulation
This is the most common building we are asked about. Somebody wants to heat a shop through the winter without the cost being absurd, or wants the dripping from the roof to stop.
View Shop, Machine Shed and Pole Barn Insulation
Animal housing is the most demanding insulation environment on a farm. Stock generate constant heat and a great deal of moisture, and ventilation moves it onto every cold surface in the building.
View Livestock and Poultry Barn Insulation
Chatham-Kent's agri-food sector moves an enormous amount of produce through packing, grading and cold storage. Those buildings live or die on their envelope.
View Commercial and Cold Storage Insulation
Closed-cell is the insulation behind almost every agricultural and commercial job we do. It is dense, rigid, and a vapor barrier as well as an insulator.
View Closed-Cell Spray Foam
We do houses too, including attics, crawl spaces, basement walls, rim joists and new builds throughout Chatham-Kent.
View Residential Spray Foam Insulation
If your foam insulation smells, has shrunk away from the framing, or is crumbling, it was installed badly. It can be put right, but not by spraying over it.
View Failed Spray Foam Removal and ReplacementBook a site walk and we will measure, assess the structure and put a fixed number in writing.
Tell us the building type, rough size, how it is used and what the problem is. Prefer to talk it through? Call +1 226-315-1127.
