You’re building a new home, you say? So of course you have a check list: a general contractor, a sub-contractor, an architect, a banker, a lot picked out… but wait! You are overlooking something very crucial. Has your soon-to-be home passed the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code? I am sure some people would automatically assume a new home would pass but it is not guaranteed.
Passing the 2012 IECC Code
Most new homes have some kind of duct work or HVAC unit in the attic. What they are likely missing is proper insulation to maximize energy efficiency. If you have an unfinished attic, having it properly insulated could save you 10 to 50 percent on your heating bill. Efficiency is also improved in warmer months; a well-insulated attic will keep your home’s temperature stable, making it easier and less expensive to cool.
HVAC Sizing: What is This All About?
Heating, Ventilation, and Air Condition (HVAC) is an extremely complicated process. It is not sexy, but it is a very important part of building a new home. So let’s start with what it is and how it is done: HVAC sizing, or load calculations, determines the size or amount of BTU’s that a furnace needs to produce to work properly. It works the same way as air conditioning with tonnage.
The Best Bang for Your Buck: Value and Insulation
As the Polar Vortex blasted in this week, many of you may be thinking about adding or replacing insulation in your homes. This will benefit you by keeping your homes warmer and lowering utility costs. Don’t let this be you:
Spray Foam Myths
I have been a spray foam contractor since 2006 – almost 9 years now! I have had an exhibit at close to 100 home shows over the years. After spending time at my third home show in the past two weeks and preparing for the fourth coming this weekend, I thought I would share some of the most common myths about spray foam we often get asked.
April showers bring … leaky roofs! Unfortunately this will be the case for some commercial roofs this spring. If you know your commercial roof is in need of repair, this is the time to fix those leaks! At KC Spray Foam, in addition to our spray foam insulation applications, we also provide roof coatings Kansas City. This is a spray applied polyurea roof coating and a closed cell roofing spray foam. Both products work well on flat or sloped commercial roofs.
Polyurea is self-flashing and completely seals joints, seams and roof penetrations. With this technology, we can coat and protect your roof – saving you thousands in potential replacement cost. Most of the time the existing roof cover doesn’t even have to be torn off!
Home Show Season: How to Find a Spray Foam Contractor
Like every year, mid-winter brings a flurry of Home Shows across the Mid-West. Prospective buyers and people looking to beat cabin fever walk the isles restlessly. We here at KC Spray Foam are seasoned Home Show Exhibitors – in fact there have been times where we have participated in 8-10 home shows a year!
Contractor Licensing: It’s a Great Idea
Recently, we here at KC Spray Foam & Coatings asked our supplier Demilec USA to teach a Continuing Education Unit class. This took place at the Fall Johnson County Licensing Program at the Overland Park Center.
If you’re weighing the cost benefit of spray foam insulation for your home or business, it’s important to consider the quality of products being used, as well as the experience of your contractor and the capabilities of the equipment. We have talked about the investments we make in our employees and products; at KC Spray Foam we also take our equipment investment seriously to ensure proper home insulation KC. In fact, it’s safe to say there are not many spray foam contractors in the county that could parallel our rig.
You can think of ours as a mobile factory. It’s totally self-contained, with a generator and air compressor on board. Produced by Rogers, Minn.-based EnDiSys, a company that engineers every aspect of its spray rigs, the trailer and truck boxes are built to the company’s specifications. The generator/compressor systems are built in-house from start to finish. “This allows us to lower lead times, increase quality control and provide better technical support,” explained Mike Flander with EnDiSys technical services. “Each system we produce is designed with input from the customer. Right now, we have a fully portable cart system in-house that includes a compressor, built on a skid, that will fit through a 36” door – a very unique application that required significant engineering and experience to get a design that would fit the customers’ needs and allow them to significantly reduce costs on a job that might otherwise not been possible.”
We’ve learned a lot in the last decade about building new structures to new levels of efficiency. However, windows have not kept up to the level that many other building materials have when it comes to thermal resistance (aka R Factor). Most available windows on the market today are coming in with a U-Factor of around .3. So, we know that we can convert U-Factor to R Factor easily (done so here).
What really matters is that most windows on the market equate to around an R-3 in insulating value. Why is this important? Because the 2012 IECC Energy Code is requiring in Zone 4 that walls must have an R-20 or R-13+5 to meet code. So in this R-20 wall we are going to cut a big hole into this wall and install a window that is only going to perform to an R-3 level. Makes a lot of sense doesn’t it?
Many people wonder where it is possible to use spray foam, and the answer is simple. Spray foam can be used in a variety of different situations and places. These places include:
These are all processes that can be used around the home or business. KC Spray Foam offers both residential and commercial services. For all your spray foam insulation needs, whether it be residential or commercial, make sure to call KC Spray Foam. But why would a home or business need these processes? Well, insulation is obviously important to a home or business, and good insulation can save you lots of money in the long run.
Are you building a new home or planning a remodel? This is the time to think about how you are going to insulate your home. Spray foam in Kansas City is just the answer to your needs. The highly trained members of KC Spray Foam can answer all your questions on whether you need open cell spray foam or closed cell spray foam. When adding spray foam to your home, it is going to make a difference in how comfortable you will be living.
When adding spray foam insulation to your home, you are going to have some wonderful benefits. First, it will help stop air and moisture from creeping into your home. No more drafts around electrical sockets and window and door frames. Keeping the moisture out will help control any mold growth that could affect the quality of the air your family breathes. After the initial installation cost of the spray foam, you will be saving on energy costs because you will not be spending as much money heating and cooling your home. Spray foam of Kansas City will add strength to your structure. It is a permanent solution for insulation and never sags.
KC Spray Foam in Olathe, KS is a nationally known building insulation company. Spray foam insulation is the best way to save on energy costs. We offer both open and closed cell spray foam insulation for your building insulation in Kansas City. The benefits of spray foam insulation are:
Open Cell Insulation
Kansas and Missouri are known for their extreme temperatures. It's very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. This simply means that having a well-insulated house should be a high priority for most home owners. There are a variety of benefits to having a well-insulated home, and little to no disadvantages. Those benefits are increased even more if you choose to use a polyurethane spray foam to insulate your home. KC Spray Foam can help you there. We have an experienced team of professionals who will help you insulate your home. Call us today to learn more about our company.
When it comes to spray foam insulation and insulation in general there are a ton of benefits, both short and long term. Some of these benefits include:
Spray foam polyurethane can provide excellent insulation and weatherproofing for metal buildings. This type of spray foam forms an integral bond with metal building surfaces and conforms to irregular surface and provides an effective air seal. Spray foam can be applied to both the interior and exterior of metal buildings. This is the best method of insulating a metal building. The traditional fiberglas is not capable of providing a complete air seal or vapor barrier. During humid weather, metal buildings sweat. The moisture will damage the building and can create mold and mildew behind fiberglas insulation. For your metal building spray foam needs, contact KC Spray Foam.
The team at KC Spray Foam has the experience and products needed to insulate your metal buildings. Making sure the right method is used for insulating metal buildings is important. These buildings are susceptible to condensation created by outside temperatures. Sealection 500 and Heatlok Soy200 are ideal products to insulate metal buildings. These products are made by Demilec, the leading manufacturer of spray foam insulation.
Often times when people think of spray foam insulation, they are thinking about new home construction. However, much of the work we do at KC Spray Foam is for commercial applications. For these jobs, we primarily rely on Demilec’s Heatlok Soy 200 Plus closed cell spray foam to meet our customers’ insulation needs. The image above is from a job where we used the closed cell spray foam on the exterior of a commercial building. Siding or brick will be provided as the final finish to the building’s exterior.
Insulation is an important part of every home and building. New technology has been developed over the years to meet the growing demand for energy efficiency. KC Spray Foam has the best products used in the industry along with the experts to do it right. Choosing spray foam for your Kansas City home has many advantages. Our open cell and closed cell foams seal up areas where air gets through and gets into hard to reach irregular areas. These foams do more than what the traditional fiberglass insulation can do. Another advantage to installing spray foam is it will not be a source of food for mold to grow. This will keep the air quality of your home safer for you and your family. Spray foam can prevent pests from entering and nesting in the walls of your home. It won't be damaged by water and won't shrink over time. You will also notice a significant savings on your utility bills using spray foam insulation.
KC Spray Foam uses both open and closed cell spray foams. Open cell spray foam is a semi-rigid 1/2 pound per cubic foot spray foam and is low density. It is designed to be used indoors only. Because the cells are open, it relies on the trapping of the air inside of the foam which then insulates the air seal. The blowing agent in open cell spray foam is water. There are no toxic gases released into the air using this process. This type of spray foam works for new construction, remodels, agricultural buildings and commercial buildings. This type of spray foam is not to be used outdoors.
Digging Deeper: Comparing Spray Foam Estimates
After surviving multiple home shows in the past month or so, we have settled down to a mountain of projects requesting bids for this upcoming year. Many of our prospective customers were wandering the aisles of the home show after asking questions, taking notes, and obtaining prices.
After recently changing my cell phone provider it came to my attention how bad Customer Service is in most industries (including construction and with subcontractors). When I called my old cell phone company to find out what the buyout was on my cell phone, I was immediately transferred to a “retention specialist.” After several minutes of questions of why I wanted to cancel my service, I finally got a buyout number. I told the “specialist” that I understood he was doing his job, but he got quite pushy with me. The first thing that came to my mind was that if he was an employee of my mine he would be retrained or let go.
This got me thinking of how we handle our current and future customers. What are we doing right and what can we do to change to improve ourselves?
Repairing or replacing a commercial roof can be very expensive. If you’re facing repair or replacement, consider the benefits commercial roof coatings can provide for your application first. You’ll likely find you can save 50% or more and will end up with a better roof!
At KC Spray Foam, we offer two types of roof coatings – a spray applied polyurea roof coating and a closed cell roofing spray foam. Both products work well on flat or sloped commercial roofs. We use products from Volatile Free, Inc., the original manufacturer of Polyurea Hybrid Aluminum Elastomer Roof Coatings. Its VFI-730 Spray Foam and VFI-540 Spray Polyurea Hybrid Aluminum Elastomer Roof Coating form a superior, advanced monolithic roofing system that will encapsulate and protect your roof better than other roofing systems.
