Maryland Spray Foam and Roofing Contracting Company Rises To Success With Experience and Customer Satisfaction

BEL AIR, MD – December 14, 2011 – Located in northeastern Maryland, Bel Air Foam & Roofing, Inc. – Bel Air Foam for short – is a family-owned spray foam insulation and roofing company that has been in business for over 40 years. Bob McFadden, president of Bel Air Foam & Roofing, talks with SprayFoam.com about his company’s founding, as well as current projects and plans for the future.

Founded in August 1967 by Robert McFadden, Sr., and his wife Jean, Bel Air Foam was one of the pioneering spray foam application companies at the time.

Following the company’s founding, Bel Air Foam began its work with spray foam insulation by applying foam into the walls of basements to provide insulation and damp proofing.

Bel Air Foam then transitioned to applying spray foam into controlled atmosphere rooms (C.A. Rooms) used for apple and peach storage throughout the southern Pennsylvania Valley region. As the years progressed, Bel Air Foam became the top spray foam applicator for C.A. Rooms for most fruit growers and processors in the state of Pennsylvania.

In the late 1980s, Bel Air Foam would find its niche in applying spray foam insulation onto the exterior side of roofs, and would continue for another 20 years.

Bob McFadden got his start in the spray foam insulation business by working as a hose dragger in 1978.

“I worked with my father’s crew,” McFadden said. “I eventually became a sprayer, and began applying coating and foam onto the roofs.”

McFadden began working in the office in 1986 following his graduation from college. Since his appointment to company president, McFadden has delivered positive results to Bel Air Foam through his dedication and leadership.

Currently, Bel Air Foam has a crew size of six to ten, while McFadden and two other employees work from the company’s headquarters.

Dean Petty, current vice president of Bel Air, is considered to be McFadden’s right hand man. With over 20 years of experience, Petty is one Bel Air’s most experienced employers.

“I mainly handle job proposals and supervise our guys on projects,” Petty said.

Another important member of McFadden’s office staff includes his brother, Ben, who began spraying foam for Bel Air Foam in 1983, and has remained as a supervisor spray foam applicator.

“[Ben] has knowledge of all the equipment and has been here since the beginning,” McFadden said. “He has a tremendous amount of experience.”

Along with the administration, the crew is also very experienced with the work they do, McFadden says.

The company has been working with customers throughout the lower Pennsylvania, southern Maryland and western Delaware areas.

Since Bel Air’s founding, the farthest job the company has ever worked included a job in Bermuda.

“We worked periodically in Florida to spray foam tomato storage buildings,” McFadden said. “We did some initial work for the same farmer in Maryland. He enjoyed the work we did in Maryland, and eventually invited us to work for him in Florida.”

Being a company that has been around for nearly 50 years, McFadden and his staff has seen it all, but one of the most interesting jobs the company worked in involved the application of spray foam for a hotel building owned by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in Arlington, Va. 

“The hotel had water penetration coming through the exterior walls,” McFadden said.

The building contained two towers, and McFadden and his crew were tasked with applying spray foam insulation into the walls for all 21 floors.

“The floors were split up: one side for us to work, and the other for people to use,” McFadden said. “We were there for four to five days every two weeks to work on one half of the floors.”

One of the challenges McFadden and his crew faced while working on the FDIC building was time scheduling.

“We needed to be there when they needed us to be,” McFadden said. “Moving the equipment up and down the floors really slowed us down.”

After 13 months, Bel Air Foam successfully completed the job, and received praise from the building’s staff.

“[The hotel staff] were very happy with the work we did,” McFadden said. “The architect and general contractor were ecstatic.”

For the future, McFadden hopes to continue to bring his success to Bel Air Foam.

“We’re going to continue doing good quality work, keeping our employees busy and maintain a peace of mind with the work we do,” McFadden said.

About Bel Air Foam & Roofing, Inc:

Bel Air Foam & Roofing, Inc. is a spray foam insulation and roofing contracting company located in Bel Air, MD. The company has been in business since 1967. The current president is Bob McFadden. For more information, please click the link below to visit the company's website.