The Latest Trends in Spray Foam Roofing

By Cayden Wemple.  

Spray Polyurethane Foam Alliance director, Rick Duncan, breaks down the latest trends in spray foam on a recent episode of Roofing Road Trips.  

In the grand scheme of roofing history, spray polyurethane is a relatively new niche that has gained lots of popularity since the 1970s. With its popularity, came the birth of the Spray Polyurethane Foam Alliance (SPFA) which according to the director of the organization, Rick Duncan, is, “A non-profit trade association that was founded by spray foam roofing contractors in the late 1980s, 1987 to be exact.” Rick sat down with Heidi J. Ellsworth to discuss the trends of the spray foam roofing world on a recent episode of Roofing Road Trips.  

Since the turn of the century, spray foam insulation has increased significantly. Rick explains, “We have witnessed a pretty significant growth in the insulation market over the past 15 to 20 years with the emphasis on more efficient buildings and homeowners looking to save money on their heating and cooling cost. We've seen a dramatic rise in the use of spray foam insulation. Some of that has been driven by the fact that now buildings need to be more airtight and spray foam is the only insulation that also provides an air barrier in a single installation.” 

In the past five years or so, the industry has shifted with an emergence of a third market of spray foam insulation. “In the past five years or so, we've seen the emergence of a third new market for spray foam products, and that is in geotechnical applications,” Rick continued. “We have a number of our contractors, in addition to doing either spray foam roofing or insulation, are also doing geotechnical applications where they inject spray foam underneath of a slab of concrete and bring it back to a level state. So that's a growing part of our industry as well.”