We had a botched closed-cell spray foam insulation job
AnnKatz
| Posted in Green Products and Materials on
We had a botched closed cell spray foam insulation job. 99% of the foam has been removed and we need a recommendation for a vapor retarder sealant product to spray over the surfaces that were contaminated.
We sanded the surfaces we could and wiped with a washing soda neutralization solution and are now letting it dry.
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Search and download construction details
Replies
Ann,
If you haven't read it yet, you might want to read Spray Foam Jobs With Lingering Odor Problems.
I don't think there is any "vapor retarder sealer product" that will do what you hope. I think your approach so far makes sense. In similar cases, the foam has usually been removed by manual means -- with flat bars and scrapers.
Whether or not these techniques satisfy the homeowners depends on a wide variety of factors, including the thoroughness of the workers doing the removal, the intensity of the smell, and the olfactory sensitivity of the homeowners.
Good luck.
Ann Katz, I am interested in speaking with you. I have already been through this and know many others who to have lived your experience. Here is my number (860-460-5434) when your ready.
I'm sorry you had to go through this awful experience. Best, Richard Beyer
Ann,
When you say it was a botched job, what exactly was the problem? Did the installer remove the foam and agree with the diagnosis of what went wrong?
The foam was sprayed off-ratio by an incompetent installer with us in the home. It was 1/8 of a inch in depth to five inches in every consistency, from wet and dripping, gooey to hard, and off-gassing enough to require us to move out. The installer said nothing was wrong. No insurance coverage. 99% of the foam has now been scraped and sanded off.
We're now looking for recommendations to seal the sprayed surfaces to prevent any continued off-gassing. Suggestions have included BIN, Kilz, Clean Seal and AFM SafeCoat.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you.
Ann
So, as I understand it, the structural wood components have absorbed the wet chemical components of the spray foam, and will release gases from those absorbed chemicals for a long time. There may be a way to encapsulate the wood with a sealant so that the gases cannot escape, but I do not know what sealant would work.
If I were in your predicament, I would do a lot of research and try to come to some type of conclusion. I would not assume that a sealing product would work just because someone says it will. Lots of products make claims that they don’t live up to. Sealing your wood to prevent off-gasing of absorbed liquids is a complex objective posing several questions related to chemistry and molecular behavior over a long period of time, and with varying conditions of temperature and humidity. And the risk of a remedy not working is further elevated by the fact that it will be buried in new construction finishing and inaccessible for further sealing techniques.
I would think that this problem has been common enough for a practical remedy to have developed, or a consensus that there is no practical remedy. What do others say about it?
We're currently using oil radiator type heaters in hopes of getting the wood to off-gas as much as possible before spray-painting a sealant.
The two products we have come up with after much research (vapor perm < 1) are:
Benjamin Moore Super Spec Latex Vapor Barrier Primer Sealer #260 and
Palmer Industries 86001 SEAL Vapor Barrier Primer Sealer
We're going to test samples of the paint to see if we react (now that we've been sensitized).
Thanks for any other suggestions.
Ann Katz