It was considerably cooler and rainy today, so neither the stucco crew nor the roofers were in sight when I went to the house this afternoon. All the roof tile had been moved from the driveway to the recently-reseeded section of lawn. I guess Rob is going to have to try that again later...
The good news is that the spray foam insulation guys did show up today, as evidenced by the huge trailer in the driveway.
Lots of things had been moved around on the main level of the house in preparation for the foam installation, and Jim was busy covering stuff with tarps. He told me to go upstairs to check out the action. I wasn't the only spectator -- our architect, Marta, and her husband were also up there, as was Rob. They had finished the back bedroom and were working on the master bedroom.
It was a 4-man operation: one guy to spray the foam, and 3 guys to clean up after him. According to Rob, this is a
bio-based spray foam, so although it is still a petroleum product, a percentage of it is made from soybeans or some other agricultural by-product. Two different liquids are sprayed onto the walls simultaneously, creating a chemical reaction that causes the resulting substance to expand to 100 times its size and harden into a spongy foam. It's pretty cool to watch, although it doesn't smell all that great (hence the gas masks).
After they spray it on the walls, they just use a saw to trim off the excess foam so it is flush with the studs.
The main drawback is that this process creates a lot of debris!
Another one is that if it gets on your clothes when it's still wet, it does NOT come off. As I mentioned before, Josh and I learned this the hard way when we had spray foam installed in our attic a few years ago. Some of it came through the cracks in the ceiling of my closet and left little white flecks all over my clothes. I warned Rob about this, but he already had some on his shirt. At least it was a white shirt...
The good news is that the spray foam insulation guys did show up today, as evidenced by the huge trailer in the driveway.
Lots of things had been moved around on the main level of the house in preparation for the foam installation, and Jim was busy covering stuff with tarps. He told me to go upstairs to check out the action. I wasn't the only spectator -- our architect, Marta, and her husband were also up there, as was Rob. They had finished the back bedroom and were working on the master bedroom.
It was a 4-man operation: one guy to spray the foam, and 3 guys to clean up after him. According to Rob, this is a bio-based spray foam, so although it is still a petroleum product, a percentage of it is made from soybeans or some other agricultural by-product. Two different liquids are sprayed onto the walls simultaneously, creating a chemical reaction that causes the resulting substance to expand to 100 times its size and harden into a spongy foam. It's pretty cool to watch, although it doesn't smell all that great (hence the gas masks).
After they spray it on the walls, they just use a saw to trim off the excess foam so it is flush with the studs.
The main drawback is that this process creates a lot of debris! 
Another one is that if it gets on your clothes when it's still wet, it does NOT come off. As I mentioned before, Josh and I learned this the hard way when we had spray foam installed in our attic a few years ago. Some of it came through the cracks in the ceiling of my closet and left little white flecks all over my clothes. I warned Rob about this, but he already had some on his shirt. At least it was a white shirt...
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