Not all spray foam insulation products are made equal. With a range of spray foam insulation products available on the market for residential and commercial construction, architects looking to specify a high performance solution that will last for the long-term can get deep into understanding the attributes of each product before making a final decision based on performance, cost and functionality.
One area for consideration is whether the spray foam product absorbs water. Some spray foam insulation types can wick or absorb water more easily than others. Such is the case with light density spray foam insulation. Icynene light density spray foam, for example, won’t absorb or wick water like others on the market can. A time-lapse video shows how Icynene light density spray foam maintains performance in a simple water absorption test. Over the course of fourteen days, you can see that Icynene spray foam insulation outperforms two competitive light density products. The two competitive products begin to sink into and absorb the water, while our product remains afloat.
While this time-lapse video shows only light density spray foam insulation, closed cell spray foam insulation is also a high performance product since it is able to reject bulk water making it ideal for areas prone to flooding. In fact, FEMA recognizes closed cell spray foam insulation as a flood resistant material.