Curt Janzenco-founder of the Beyond Group of companies. Active CEO and galvanizer of people

Is spray foam insulation better than batt and poly? #insulation #sprayfoam

25 Jun 2024 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:58

In this brief segment, the speaker compares spray foam insulation to traditional fiberglass insulation with a vapor barrier. Three primary advantages of spray foam are highlighted: (1) it creates a much tighter building envelope, reducing uncontrolled air exchange and lowering the workload on HVAC systems; (2) it offers a significantly higher R‑value—up to R‑20 in 2×4 wall cavities—compared to typical fiberglass values; and (3) it shifts the thermal envelope outward by applying a few inches of foam on the exterior of the wall, eliminating heat transfer through the drywall. The speaker also notes that fiberglass insulation remains a more budget‑friendly option to install, providing a balanced view of performance versus cost.

Chapters

Is spray foam better than traditional fiberglass with a vapor barrier? There's a few key advantages with spray foam over fiberglass. One is your house is a lot more airtight, so this means that there are a lot less unaccounted-for air exchanges, and your furnace, air conditioner, and heat pump are working a lot less to maintain that ideal temperature inside. Another advantage is that spray foam has a much higher R-value than fiberglass, and so this means in an older home that's built out of 2x4s, we can get up to an R-20 in that wall versus just an There's a huge advantage there. And the third big advantage is your building envelope now changes. Instead of that balance of hot and cold being right behind your drywall, we've now changed your envelope so that the spray foam is stuck to the outside of your house, and there's 3 inches of foam there so that there's no thermal transfer through that insulation to your drywall. On the fiberglass side of things, it is, it is more budget-friendly to install fiberglass than it is spray foam insulation.