Strange Smell from Two Pound Spray Foam

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I dropped by a current job site yesterday to find the spray foam sub contractors ripping out all the spray foam under the home's kitchen. I asked what happened and was told the spray foam did not go in right and was smelling up the house.

In talking with the crew they mentioned a few things.

Spray Foam does not like the cold.

The spray foam stock ran out during application of product and sprayed this section with another unit.

I have worked with the same spray foam crew for almost ten years now. They have done dozens of jobs for me including my own home and never once has this smell been present. The crew that was hired by my client is not the crew I work with and they mentioned as well that this is only the second time ever they have had to do this.

One thing I understand about this two pound spray foam is that the liquids need to be warm. In the cold I have seen the guys chill outside over an hour while the chemicals warm up. My gut read on this scenerio is the crew was almost done the job and decide to rush this warm up period.

Any of you men seen or heard of this before?

The two pound foam is this colour and appearance



Photo: Source - Page

Before the spray foam contractors arrived I suggested to the home owners they wrap all the plumbing lines (not this job shown in picture) to prevent the foam from bonding with them. In hind sight this made the removal way easier for this two man crew....

Smell Gone - Or is it?

Stopped by yesterday at the job site and the smell was gone. The boys cut away most of nasty spray foam and sprayed the walls with some kind of cleaning agent. Not sure what it was but I did not notice the smell anymore.

UPDATE:

The smell came back - the spray just masked the odor for a day! My clients called the Spray Foam Council and told them the smell should be completely gone AFTER the walls have dried from what ever application was added...... Try Try again boys.

JW

Might have been formaldehyde.

Properly Removing Smell from spray foam

hj said:

Might have been formaldehyde.

Click to expand...

I'm thinking it was the temperature. Obviously I have lots to learn here in my own little world. Here in Vancouver I have never seen nor heard of a problem - until last week. Now I can see and smell for myself what went wrong. A fellow I helped trouble shoot a failed AquaDefence Project State Side has warned me to never enter a home for a 72 hour period after a spray foam job and mentioned about making sure all workers are licensed and trained to do the job.

I think this is something I will take way more seriously going forward.

I had another individual privately email as well the other day telling me some possible remedies - none of which sound fun or cheap to preform. I had told this person I was using my Hepa filter to try and help with the smell and was told that Hepa filters remove particle matter not vapour matter.

I will try and find out from this man after the American Holiday who my clients may hire to remove properly the smell.

Spry Foam Inspections - What to look for in an installer, What questions to ask.

Take a look at this article in Spray Foam Magazine January 2012 Issue.

The Article is titled Spray Foam Man on a Mission I'm not sure the Author but the story quotes Eric Price a lot of Spray Foam Inspections.

Now if I had inspections on my Spray Foam Job at my home the inspector might have caught that my 2" drain line from the kitchen was sprayed over. Later this pipe cracked when my home settled a little into the ground (we added a new floor, footings and extension). I make it a habit now to wrap all plumbing lines prior to spray foam teams showing up.

Looking forward to hearing back from this man Eric Price and finding out who here in Vancouver he uses for repairs and inspections. I'm sure my clients will be thrilled that there is a repair and one that is recommended by an expert in this particularly complicated area.