Story at a glance:
- Home renovations are in high demand since the start of the pandemic.
- DuPont offers a one-component spray foam to fill, seal, and insulate gaps in buildings.
- These products are compatible with LEED, with a formulation that reduces the product’s GWP.
In the last year we’ve all probably felt trapped in our houses at one point or another. One way many homeowners are coping with and taking advantage of their increased time at home is through home renovation and cleaning projects, finally making their spaces the sanctuaries they’ve always dreamed of.
“Prior to COVID-19 there was a trend of homeowners shifting away from larger home renovation and home improvement projects to smaller projects,” says Devika Varsani, DuPont retail marketing leader. “DIY projects were certainly on the rise during the pandemic, but after the first and second waves of COVID, larger projects started to make a comeback.” Now Varsani sees projects like painting, adding decks and patios, upgrading floors and windows, and even complete overhauls of kitchens and bathrooms in high demand.
Properly installed sealing and foam insulating products like Froth-Pak or Great Stuff Pro can help to reduce homeowners’ heating and cooling bills. Photo courtesy of DuPont
Noting such trends is par for the course for DuPont when it comes to providing innovations in building products and safety solutions. “We have scientists, engineers, visionaries, and all of our partners every day working to turn possibilities into real world solutions to help communities thrive. Together we’re transforming industries, improving everyday quality of life and creating essential innovations,” says Amy Radka, DuPont’s retail marketing director.
Products to Help at Homes
Among those innovations, DuPont offers Great Stuff™ and Great Stuff Pro™ one-component spray foam to fill, seal, and insulate gaps in a variety of interior and exterior applications—most commonly in air sealing and home retrofit applications. DuPont’s Froth-Pak Spray Foam, on the other hand, is helpful in larger scale renovations with larger gaps and full cavities where a chemical cure product has an advantage over one-component foam.
According to the US Department of Energy, homeowners can save an average of 30% on heating and cooling costs with complete insulation using products like Froth-Pak.
“Froth-Pak is an all-in-one, self-contained, easily portable kit for our professional contractors to quickly and efficiently fill larger gaps and penetrations to seal out moisture, dust, and allergens while improving energy efficiency, building resilience, and comfort for homeowners. It’s a simple solution to for contractors to accomplish that air sealing goal in a residential structure,” Radka says.
In the past five to 10 years DuPont has leaned into a sustainable mindset with its innovation and business processes. Froth-Pak Foam’s delivery of a high-performing building envelope and all the energy savings, improved air quality, and longevity of structure that go with it add up to help propel DuPont in a more sustainable direction.
The Benefits
The big advantages of complete air sealants in a home revolve around the improved building envelope: better indoor air quality, building resilience, energy savings, and green building compatibility. DuPont’s products are compatible with LEED and support green building practices by sealing and insulating with a formulation that reduces the product’s Global Warming Potential (GWP).
By controlling moisture intrusion, Froth-Pak prevents rot, decay, and mold. Properly installed sealing and foam insulating products like Froth-Pak or Great Stuff Pro can help save homeowners by reducing heating and cooling bills. Plus, airtight sealing reduces infiltration of dust and allergens to improve indoor air quality.
Photo courtesy of DuPont
On top of it all, Froth-Pak strives to be as environmentally conscious as possible. DuPont is inspired in part by changing customer expectations as well as the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. The DuPont team says they are committed to creating products that help mitigate climate change and deliver high-performing solutions to consumers.
Froth-Pak has a 99%-reduced GWP with its patent-pending blowing agent solution. Patent-pending dispensing nozzles, which come in the self-contained, portable application kit, reduce over-spray and optimize the blending and spray pattern during application to make using the product as easy as possible for contractors. The foam sets in under a minute to provide an impressive, building code–approved solution with an R-value of 12.2 at 2 inches thick.
The End Goal
According to the American Chemistry Council, using spray foam in place of other products could lower total US GHG emissions by 3.5% annually and reduce emissions related to home heating and cooling by 41%. DuPont’s research and development team has worked aggressively to reduce the GWP of Froth-Pak all while maintaining its ability to deliver a high-performing building envelope.
The Froth-Pak family. Photo courtesy of DuPont
“The result of this is an HFC (Hydrofluorocarbon)-free, low-GWP product line that meets the US and Canada regulatory requirements,” says Jeff Hansbro, DuPont’s global advocacy and strategic partnerships director. DuPont’s ultimate goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from DuPont Performance Building Solutions by 75% compared to 2019 levels.
“The innovation spans from materials that are available for substitution of the HFCs—evaluating those materials specific to our product lines on our manufacturing processes, making sure that it is safe to produce, and ensuring they have equal or better performance as the current product,” Hansbro says.
