Spray Foam Insulation in a Gut Remodel

Jon Beer is using a combination of open-cell and closed-cell spray-foam insulation due to varying construction types in old and new parts of Fine Homebuilding House New York. In this video, Jon details his decision to use spray foam and how he used a preinsulation blower-door test to assess the house’s airtightness before insulation and to identify areas for air-sealing.
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[@95thousandroses]

Looks like a very professional spray-foam outfit

[@wkobayashim]

What is that smoke device at 2:18?

[@MPEwoodworks]

What is the fire resistance of the closed and open cell vs mineral or fiberglass ?

[@stuartbrock7586]

I am sure you do a good job and homes are more efficient than before, but these blower testes are meaningless. All the things that are sealed up before the test shows how the test .means nothing. Your cooking and bathroom fans may go through a heat recovery system, but the air is still echanged. It's like the radon vent everyone is trying to sell. Pointless.

[@superspeeder]

A tight house is more efficient than a leaky house. If you want to know how tight a house is you have to test it. The test itself only helps to quantify the leakage and identify where it’s coming from. Far from being pointless.

[@thebigdoghimself]

Adding spray foam to an older structure can be risky and have long term implications. Older homes were very leaky and in instances where wood got wet, that leakyness actually caused it to dry out faster. By preventing the homes ability to drive vapor inwards, you can trap that moisture in the vulnerable sheathing and framing members. This can be mitigated by properly water sealing the exterior with a high-quality house wrap, but in most remodels that never gets addressed and the old builder grade housewrap or even worse, cheap tar paper is left in place.

[@95thousandroses]

you're not wrong. In almost every instance, its just better to tear down the old structure and build new.