Shawn Rippon: Well, the Icynene insulation system starts off as two separate components from 55-gallon drums. There's an A and a B. The products are heated up and sent through a hose and then meet at the tip of a gun and that's really where the magic starts. Because the product is applied as a liquid and then expands 100 times its volume in just eight seconds thereby giving you not only insulation, but an effective air barrier as well.

MH: So it looks like you're spraying it on like paint so it goes everywhere in our wall cavity and then just expands 100 times you said just right then.

SR: Yes. We want to make sure that it expands into all the cracks, holes, any seams that may be in the building envelope to ensure that we get a nice, tight air barrier.

MH: So any penetrations we have in the wall like where we have a faucet outside coming in or maybe a dryer vent, that's all going to be sealed up.

SR: Yes, and that's important to ensure that you have the energy efficiency that we're looking for in this home.

MH: What kind of energy savings can we expect by not having any air infiltration whatsoever in the walls?

SR: Well typically we can reduce the energy consumption for heating and cooling between 30 and 50% and that's becoming a significant number as energy prices increase over time.

MH: That's a lot of money on our bills and I guess our HVAC equipment's going to last longer too then. It's not going to run as often as hard.

SR: By keeping the conditioned air inside the building envelope, we're actually allowing the HVAC system to be downsized because you're not having to make up for the air that is escaping to the outside.

MH: So we can save some money there also.

SR: Yes.

MH: Okay. Now once it's in, it's kind of sticking out and it's over our studs, so I'm sure the drywall guys are upset with you. Well, what do you do at this point?

SR: Well our installer, Donny Beicker, will be coming back shortly and what he'll do is he'll scarf back the foam so that it's flush with the cavity.

MH: Now when you say scarf back, he's going to put a blade on both sides and run it across?

SR: Yes.

MH: And what do you do with the excess?

SR: It's ground up and then we'll put it into the attic application. Some of our installers have agreements with shipping companies and they use it as packaging material.

MH: Okay, so there's no waste once we're done with the project.

SR: No.

MH: Okay. Now, it fills in everything a lot tighter than, let's say, some other types of insulation, but how does it stay on the wood? I mean, the home's going to expand and contract. What happens with the foam?

SR: Well, part of the secret with the Icynene insulation system is it remains soft, not only when it's installed, but it'll remain soft over time. And we know that this building is going to expand and contract and we want the insulation and the air seal to move with it and it is tenaciously adhesive in that I've pulled this away from the wall, but you can see that a small residue has remained behind and in actual fact there is no chemical that we know of that will remove that from the building substrate.

MH: It's stuck.

SR: It's there for good.

MH: Okay, good. How about as far as sound? I mean, that's a lot of foam there. That ought to help as well, shouldn't it?

SR: Definitely. What we've done in this particular cavity is that we have a water drainage pipe here and here you can see how it's foamed around the pipe totally encapsulating it and this is going to reduce the sound transmission into the living space and as you can see up here above we also have numerous insulation challenges in that we want to get around the wiring as well as that drainpipe.

MH: Okay. But someone flushes the toilet or runs a shower up there we're not going to hear it in the walls run down.

SR: No. And I don't think anybody does.

MH: Okay, that's good. I like that. Now we're talking about the walls, but we've also got some places overhead that we need to foam over in the garage. Let's go take a look.

SR: Great.

MH: Well Shawn, the reason we asked to insulate the garage is we're putting a woodworking shop in here, but what I'm really concerned about is the living space above us. How does Icynene function in the garage?

SR: Well what we're going to do is we're going to spray Icynene right on to the roof deck here. It's going to adhere and expand and fill the cavity. You don't have to worry about it coming off, falling down due to gravity. It's going to stay in there today, tomorrow and 20 years from now. And we want to do that because we want to mitigate any sound transmission from this area up into the living space. We also want to make sure that the air from in here doesn't migrate upstairs, that's from a comfort factor, but also if there's any fumes or chemicals that are being used down here we don't want that to migrate up into the living space as well.

MH: That's great. I love the idea of having it up there. How about air and moisture and mold and mildew and that type of thing? How does Icynene affect that?

SR: Well, as being an insulation and an air barrier, what we're doing is reducing air infiltration into the building envelope and we are interested in that because air transports moisture, hot and humid air from outside into the building envelope. When that hot, humid air hits the cooler interior air, it releases the moisture through condensation and with that moisture comes all sorts of problems such as mold.

MH: Okay, so no mold. We're going to cut down on our allergies and everything like that.

SR: We're doing everything we can.

MH: Shawn, thanks for all the help.

SR: Thank you.

MH: Hey, if you like to save money every month on your utility bill, you like your home to be more comfortable and quieter, you can get it with Icynene.