Is Spray Foam Insulation Worth The Cost?

In the classic movie You’ve Got Mail, there is an exchange between two characters in a bookshop. The salesman shows a customer an expensive book and explains the features of the copy that impact the price.

“That’s why it costs so much?” the customer asks.

“No, that’s why it’s worth so much,” the salesman replies.

Price does not change if you consider it a reflection of value. But your perception of the price may change. Instead of the price being a sunk cost, it may look like an investment.

Spray foam certainly qualifies as an expensive product. At South Central Services, we have created hundreds of personalized quotes for spray foam insulation. We want our customers to be educated on spray foam and to understand what return on investment they can expect.

By the end of this article, you will know:

• The cost of spray foam
• The intangible benefits of spray foam insulation
• The tangible ROI of spray foam insulation
• Whether spray foam insulation is worth it for your project

How Expensive Is Spray Foam Insulation?

If we’re talking about the actual price, the cost of spray foam insulation varies. Our rates for spray foam insulation are:

• Closed cell: $1.15 to $1.75 per board foot
• Open cell: $0.25 to $0.75 per board foot

A board foot is one square foot with one inch depth. Depending on the type of foam, spray foam insulation installed in exterior walls could cost as much as $6 per square foot. (This calculation is derived from our highest rates of our most expensive foam installed at the greatest depth.) By comparison, the cheapest fiberglass insulation can cost as little as $1 per square foot.

Paying so much for insulation is a serious investment in a premium product. As a premium product, spray foam insulation does offer first-rate performance and benefits. But are these benefits worth the investment?

What Benefits Can Spray Foam Insulation Offer?

Some things are tangible but difficult to gauge numerically. You can hear better but don’t know by how many decibels. You breathe better but can’t describe it.

Most insulations are measured only by insulating value because they do not provide additional perks. However, spray foam insulation offers additional value that people experience and struggle to quantify. These benefits include:

1. Increased comfort
2. Improved air quality
3. Determent of pests
4. Less HVAC wear
5. Reduced risk of mold and mildew
6. Permanence

Let’s examine each benefit in more detail.

1. Spray Foam Makes Your Home More Comfortable.

Homeowners who consider spray foam insulation often live in a home environment that is not comfortable. Temperature fluctuations, humidity, stale air, and cold spots are all examples of circumstances that we sometimes learn to live with.

Spray foam insulation is a solution to insulate a home better and create a more comfortable environment. Spray foam gives even insulation coverage that will not shift, settle, shrink, or deteriorate. Spray foam insulated homes are air-sealed, which prevents humid air from leaking inside. All these properties create the feature of increased comfort.

You can’t necessarily point to a graph and say how many degrees more comfortable you are after spray foam insulation. But you can feel it when you are happier to be in your home and feel more at home.

2. Spray Foam Improves Your Indoor Air Quality.

Air quality is measurable. Air quality monitors can quantify whether the air in a home has carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These monitors could illustrate changes before and after spray foam insulation.

However, for many homeowners, improved air quality is an experience rather than a test. Spray foam insulation prevents outdoor air pollution from leaking into homes. Odors, allergens, and dust cannot infiltrate the cracks and crevices in the home because spray foam created an airtight seal.

3. Spray Foam Can Help To Deter Pest Infestations.

Spray foam insulation will deter pests like snakes and bats by sealing off their infiltration points. For homeowners who experience an invasion of insects around the changing seasons, spray foam insulation can also help to seal off their entry points into the home.

No insulation product is pest-proof. While spray foam insulation cannot prevent all pests from entering a home, the foam material is not an ideal nesting material for rodents.

4. Spray Foam Helps To Preserve Your HVAC System.

The HVAC system of a home is responsible for air ventilation and circulation. Temperature control and air quality both fall under HVAC. A system that battles air leakage, humidity, and temperature fluctuations will experience more wear.

Homes insulated with spray foam can stop the air leakage variables which force HVAC systems to work harder. The longer the HVAC system lasts, the lower the overall cost of ownership.

5. Spray Foam Reduces The Risk Of Mold And Mildew.

Air that leaks into a home through cracks and crevices can bring humidity. Humidity can cause both discomfort in the home as well as mold and mildew problems. When humid air leaks, moisture can be introduced to hard-to-reach places in the exterior structure, creating mold and mildew.

Spray foam insulation stops the air from leaking into a home, which prevents the humidity from deteriorating the structure.

6. Spray Foam Is A Permanent Solution.

Unlike other insulations that settle or sag over time, spray foam insulation is spray-applied and permanent. Once installed, spray foam will stay put and would be difficult to disturb.

Additionally, spray foam insulation keeps a consistent insulation performance over the lifetime of a building. Unless exposed to ultraviolet rays, spray foam will not break down.

The insulating performance spray foam offers the first week after installing should be the same reliable performance many years later.

Bonus: Open Cell Spray Foam Offers Better Sound Control.

Better sound control is listed as a bonus benefit because it depends on the type and application of the foam.

Open cell spray foam insulation has an open cell structure, which allows it to absorb sound waves and significantly dampen sound transfer. While fiberglass insulation can also help soundproofing efforts by trapping sounds in its air pockets, open cell spray foam cell structure is even more effective for sound control.

Either closed cell or open cell spray foam installed on exterior walls can reduce noise pollution from neighbors. Someone insulating a crawl space is less concerned with better sound control because the crawl space is not their living space.

Bonus: Closed Cell Spray Foam Improves Structural Integrity.

Improved structural integrity is listed as a bonus benefit because it depends on the type of spray foam installed. Closed cell foam is a dense and rigid insulation product, which gives it the strength to help support the structure.

Closed cell spray foam can increase racking strength in a wall. Racking strength measures how well a wall resists wind loads. Insulation options like open cell foam, fiberglass, and cellulose do not have any structural benefits.

Will I See A Return On My Investment With Spray Foam?

While increased comfort, improved air quality, and supported structural integrity are excellent benefits, something more than those may be needed to justify the cost.

Spray foam insulation does have measurable financial benefits. Let's examine the ROI potential of spray foam in more detail.

Spray Foam Will Lower Energy Costs.

Any insulation should help with energy efficiency to some degree. Insulation will stop heat transfer and help prevent the energy you pay for from escaping.

However, the effectiveness of the insulation will vary by the quality of the insulation product. Spray foam insulation is a higher-quality insulation product, which allows it to have a more significant impact on energy savings.

The measurable ROI from spray foam will show up as soon as your next billing cycle. For homes that move from limited or conventional insulation, energy savings are anywhere from 30% to 70%.

Many of the attics we insulate in Greencastle, Chambersburg, and Mercersburg have existing insulation that needs to be removed. After we install spray foam, their energy costs are cut by as much as 50%.

Depending on how much money you invested in having spray foam installed, your lowered energy costs could pay for your investment over 3 to 5 years. While you wait for your investment to pay off, your home will be more comfortable to live in.

Bonus: Spray Foam Qualifies For Federal Tax Incentives.

The federal government has an insulation tax credit program. This national program is for all insulation types. It allows homeowners to regain some of the money invested in their insulation.

The program will credit 30% of an insulation project, up to $1,200. If your project costs less than $4,000, you will receive less than $1,200 in tax credit. Spray foam insulation may be worth investing in to maximize the tax credit incentive. With this program, you could receive more money back by insulating with a premium product instead of a cheaper one.

Other programs and tax incentives for spray foam insulation will vary by state. Check out our rebates page for more information on rebates available in PA, MD, WV, and VA.

How Do Other Insulation Products Compare To Spray Foam?

You may still need to decide if the return on investment for spray foam is enough to justify the investment cost. To help you determine which benefits matter most, we have created a chart comparing the benefits of spray foam, fiberglass, and cellulose.

The Bottom Line About The ROI Of Spray Foam Insulation

Choosing insulation is an expensive decision. If you are looking for the benefits spray foam offers, the value may be worth it. If the insulation you need for your project does not need to offer that level of performance, the investment cost may not be worth it.

Now that you know whether or not spray foam is worth the investment, your next step is to:

• Compare the cost of open cell and closed cell spray foam insulation
• Discover how long your spray foam insulation investment should last
• Learn how to evaluate spray foam contractors to find a qualified installer