News

Johns Manville to Keep Headquarters in The Mile High City

Johns Manville (JM), a leading manufacturer of premium-quality building and specialty products and a Berkshire Hathaway company, announced today its world headquarters will stay in downtown Denver through at least 2035. The company renewed a lease with Brookfield Properties for over 121,000 square feet of space on five floors in the high-rise building at 717 17th St.

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Graco Reports Challenging Start to the Year

On Wednesday (April 24), equipment manufacturer Graco Inc. released its first-quarter financial results for 2024, reporting a 15% decrease in operating earnings for the quarter.

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TopBuild and Specialty Products & Insulation Agree to Terminate Acquisition Agreement

TopBuild Corp. (NYSE:BLD), a leading installer and specialty distributor of insulation and building material products to the construction industry in the United States and Canada, today announced the mutual termination of its agreement to acquire Specialty Products and Insulation (“SPI”), originally announced on July 27, 2023.

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Innovation in Insulation

Spray foam insulation is a crucial component in modern construction, offering superior insulating properties compared to traditional insulating materials. However, the environmental impact of the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) as blowing agents raised significant concerns and created a focus on transitioning from HFC-based blowing agents to those with low global warming potential (GWP).

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Balancing Act

In the world of building insulation, the concept of economic thickness plays a crucial role in determining the most cost-effective and energy-efficient solutions. Economic thickness refers to the optimal thickness at which the cost of adding more insulation is balanced with the resulting energy savings. This delicate balance between upfront costs and long-term benefits is pivotal in making informed decisions regarding insulation strategies.

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Winners Revealed for 18th Annual SPFA National Industry Excellence Awards

The Spray Polyurethane Foam Alliance (SPFA), the educational and technical resource to the spray polyurethane foam (SPF) industry, today announced the winners of the 18th Annual SPFA National Industry Excellence Awards. Winners of the program, which is again sponsored by Arkema and Evonik, are contractors recognized for having some of the spray foam industry’s recent, outstanding projects.

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Spray Foam Magazine Announces 2023's Contractor of the Year!

The time has come! Holster those tools, have a cup of coffee, and embrace a well-deserved break. The eagerly awaited moment has arrived—the unveiling of the 2023 Contractor of the Year. In this Show Issue of Spray Foam Magazine, our spotlight turns to the resilience and resurgence of SPF industry contractors. These individuals have navigated challenging times and emerged not only stronger but more resolute than ever.

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Innovator Extraordinaire

Franchising a company may help the owner focus on the bigger picture and grow a valuable business. The Spray Foam Magazine team was eager to speak to a man who has recently taken the plunge into franchising and asking him why it is the right move for him and his company.

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Technically Speaking

Gaco SprayFoam | SES spray foam contractors know that a sale means nothing if the equipment doesn’t work, the installation goes poorly, or someone is hurt on the job. The actual installation of spray foam starts long before the installer pulls the trigger on the gun, and mastering this preparation is as much an art as spraying the foam.

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Blessed

Picture a small southern town with a picturesque backdrop and that could easily be Benton, Tennessee. Known for its friendly locals, sense of community, and breathtaking rural scenery, it’s easy to see why someone would set up shop there, and that’s exactly what one contractor did. This family man puts a lot of hard work and countless hours into his business and has even been awarded Associate Contractor of the Year by his local building association.

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A Coating of Grandeur

Suspended 4,000 feet above the Grand Canyon’s floor is the West Skywalk; a horseshoe-shaped observation bridge with a clear glass floor where visitors can marvel at the wonders of the canyon and the surrounding desert landscape. As one of the world’s largest cantilever glass bridges, the Skywalk itself is a feat of modern architecture upstaged only by the astonishing view it overlooks. But the scorching desert environment is harsh enough to corrode even the toughest structures over time.

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Your Show Guide for SprayFoam 2024 Convention & Expo

Welcome to Las Vegas! By all accounts, this year’s SprayFoam Convention & Expo will be the biggest to date. For those of you staying at the convention’s official hotel – Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino – you’ll be in the center of the action for the pre and full convention line-up. You’ll also have the Vegas strip at your fingertips.

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Fortified Foundations

Each year, from June 1st to November 30th, residents living along the east coast of the United States, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Islands closely monitor hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean. This six-month window, known officially as Hurricane Season, represents the annual period when conditions are most likely to form a potentially catastrophic storm event.

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A Chemical Reaction

Since 1987 Elastochem, a family-owned Canadian company started making, distributing, and selling quality products like spray foam, waterproofing membranes, coatings, adhesives, cast polyurethane, and tailor-made chemical solutions, to their Canadian customers. Elastochem has an outstanding reputation for innovation and customer care, but what do we really know about this Canadian company, and how can we as an American market learn from their success?

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A Man of Merit

Born and raised in London, England, Gary Harvey moved to the U.S. in the 70s. Following school, and having a passion for aviation, he worked as a Director of Manufacturing for a subsidiary of Boeing. It’s here where he met his wife-to-be Shena. He then made a career move that would change his life forever!

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The Rise of ThermoBlock

In recent years, North America and Europe have witnessed exponential growth of insulated concrete forms or ICFs as a preferred green technology throughout the construction industry. In 2021, North America had the largest market share for insulated concrete forms (ICFs)in the world, at around 36%. This is due to the growing demand for energy-efficient buildings in the US and Canada.

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Simply Marv-Ellis

The holiday decorations were placed back in their boxes and everyone had returned to work. It’s also at that moment when the Spray Foam Magazine team (SFMT) got excited to make their final decision for their Contractor of the Year (COTY) contest. With applications all printed out, the team sat around a large boardroom table and the discussions began.

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Do the 2021 IECC Building Codes Benefit Spray Foam?
  • Apr 01, 2023
  • Aaron Davenport, Director of Building Science for Holcim Building Envelope, Spray Foam Division

The 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) is arguably the largest change in building codes to date. I’m dating myself, but when I started my career in construction, the energy codes required R11 in walls and R19 in attics. With the updated 2021 IECC, minimum energy requirements have increased to R49 for ceiling insulation in climate zones 2 and 3, and R60 for ceiling insulation in climate zones 4 and higher.

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Winds of Change

Just as the weather changes from season to season in North America, so the economy cycles through better and worse times. It always has and always will. A major economic indicator is residential and commercial construction and within that sector, insulation plays an important role, but we can’t always look only to housing starts or new permits to gage our industry.

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