Have you been trying to understand the fire ratings with foam insulation? Let's
talk about that.
Welcome to Foam University. Today we're going to talk about some better
understandings for how fire ratings work for foam insulation. Well there's a few
things we have to establish first. First thing keep in mind, all spray foams are
not made the same. Also keep in mind that they're gonna, they're going to be vast
differences between open cell and closed cell spray foams. So keep all these
things in mind. As a general rule of thumb I always recommend that any
homeowner try to find a product that's Class A and Class 1. That's all that we
use here at RetroFoam. That's the only thing I would recommend to people again
you want to find a product that's Class A or Class 1 fire rated. Now some of
the myths that we hear about spray foam insulation and fire are that well, if you
put a match or any type of heat source - foam insulation is just going to ignite
in flames and it's gonna burn down the house. Well the truth to some of that is
there are some spray foams out there that would be considered flammable, that
have a low fire rating in the sense that they are not resistant to as much heat
and they can combust and/or ignite at a relatively low temperature. Those do
exist out there. Again that's why I always recommend really shop your
contractor and make sure both you guys are on the same page about what product
you're putting in your house. However if you're using a premium product
you shouldn't have these type of issues. We generally recommend open cell for
most of our projects and open cell if, if you're put a flame source to it, it
cannot sustain flame. At least the ones that we use. Again make sure you're
vetting your contractor and the product you're using. So we hear this theory a
lot.You know if you put a flame source this is going to ignite in flames. Well
we actually put this to the test. We took the owner of our company, sprayed a box
and open cell spray foam and tried to light it on fire. Check this out.
Foam insulation is far safer for your home and your loved ones than fiberglass.
I'd bet my life on it.
if you've ever thought about lighting your boss on fire make sure you throw us
a like for that video. So let's talk about a few more things in regards to
flame spread and foam insulation. There's two key things that make up your fire
rating, the flame spread index and the smoke development. Those two things
they're going to have a number you want to be below a certain threshold and that
will give you your fire rating. Now, what does that mean to you and I, or what's that mean
to the average homeowner? Not much. It really doesn't. When it comes to fire
rating a lot of it's gonna come down to a rating they're given, like I said you
want to look for A and 1. But some things to keep in mind are people have
all these things out there about spray foam is this or that, but like I said all
spray foam is going to be made differently. Keep in mind there are safes
out in this world that are completely made of plastic, that are fireproof. So at
the end of the day, it will come down to what product you're using. So keep that
in mind. Some last notes I want to leave you with about this subject is, wood will
combust at between 500 and 600 degrees. The spray foam that we use here will
combust at 800 degrees, much higher than wood. Now but keep in mind in these
testings, most of the time when the when the foam catches or when the foam combust
it's because the surrounding wood has already ignited and now you have
this open flame source right on this spray foam. So again when it comes to
relative safety, should you be concerned about spray foam in your house? As long
as you're using a premium product installed by, you know a vetted
contractor who knows what they're doing, I would say absolutely not. It is the new
standard for safety and efficiency. There are some products out there that do not
have quite the safest of ratings around, but that's going to come with anything.
If you have questions about this please make sure you check out the link in our
description below. It's an article that we've written that goes in-depth much
more about the definitions of fire ratings and insulation. So definitely
check that out if you have questions. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel
and make sure you ring the bell so you see all of our
notifications.