Does Spray Foam Insulation Have An Odor

It s real to them.

Does spray foam insulation have an odor.

Turn your oms fan on. Homeowner james polk who recently hired sunlight contractors to install approximately 3000 square feet of spray polyurethane foam in his destrehan home describes his experience which is typical of a job done right. How long the smell lasts will vary from person to person and job to job. Tests will tell you nothing.

A small percentage of people can smell very low but safe concentrations of chemicals called amine catalysts which are used in all spray foams. The biggest common complaint however is a bad odor usually described as a fish like odor that lasts for months and is almost impossible to get rid of. Running a ventilation fan continuously undermines the purpose of the spray foam which is to save energy. The same smell when it was installed somewhat less but still significantly strong.

If you can smell the foam you ve identified the problem. On a hot humid summer afternoon if by chance you get a whiff of spray foam smell while walking down the upstairs hall it s easy to manage. So any odor detected by especially sensitive people is safe from a health standpoint. Everyone s sense of smell is different.

It might also create a noxious odor. I don t recommend testing the air. The good news is i had two spray foam jobs done both had an odor problem and the odors went away. This can happen in two ways.

Spray foam insulation is shipped as separate chemicals that must be mixed together prior to being sprayed. Even do it yourself two component spray foam kits occasionally produce smelly foam according to a report by larry burks and jill burks of cambridge n y. Spf has an odor during the application process and for some time after. The insulation company said that the insulation would be odorless.

A bad installation of spray polyurethane foam stinks. Not likely but some occupants do notice a new odor after spraying is complete. If the ratio for one or more of the chemicals is off due to contractor error or otherwise the foam might not insulate properly. Properly applied by a professional spray foam should emit relatively low fumes that will altogether dissipate in about a week.

In the case of the closed cell foam blue foam basf the dead fish odor went away after 3 years. Honestly i haven t smelled our spray foam insulation in a single one of the homes where we have made a follow up visit. When the oms fan is running it s designed to vacuum odors and lingering humidity from your attic expelling it into the atmosphere. Before the job when asked if spray foam smells you need to answer yes.

We had open cell spray foam insulation placed in our attic in december 2010. We have also found in our experience if a homeowner is hyper concerned about a lingering spray foam odor in their home they probably won t be disappointed. But i don t live there. They will smell it.

On warm sunny days i would say 70 degrees we can smell the insulation.