Ecologic Guides
Spray foam guides & straight answers
The promise
These guides answer the spray foam questions Canadians actually ask, and every number in them traces to a primary document: a CCMC listing, a CAN/ULC standard, the National Building Code, or the manufacturer's technical data sheet. Marketing values do not appear here. Where the code leaves room for interpretation, we name who decides. Where a common claim overstates the evidence, we say what the test actually measured. The guides are national in scope, written for Canadian climates and Canadian test methods, with Manitoba specifics where they sharpen the answer. They are maintained by Ecologic Spray Foam, a CUFCA-certified contractor in Winnipeg, and revised as listings, standards and rebate programs change.
Sources: CCMC 14133-L · CAN/ULC-S705.1/.2, S770, S774 · NBC 2020 · CUSE TDS 2024/2021
01 The guides
Six questions, answered from the documents
Code & fire
Do you have to cover spray foam with drywall?
Spray foam is combustible, and the building code requires a thermal barrier over it in most living spaces. What counts as a barrier, where a lighter ignition barrier is enough, and who actually decides.
Health & safety
Is spray foam insulation safe?
Cured foam passes Canada's VOC emission test within about a day; the real risk sits in the install window and in off-ratio workmanship. The evidence, the documented failure cases, and who audits installers.
Performance
Spray foam R-values and LTTR
R-5.3 at 1 inch, R-11.1 at 2, R-17.5 at 3, R-24.1 at 4, tested to CAN/ULC-S770-15. Why long-term values differ from brochure numbers, and which test method your quote and your rebate application must cite.
Environment
HFO vs HFC blowing agents
The current closed-cell foam we install is blown with an HFO at a global warming potential of 1; the HFC generation it replaced sits near 1,030. What changed, when, and how to check what a contractor sprays.
Hiring
How to hire a spray foam contractor
Ten questions that show whether an installer is certified, audited and quoting real numbers. Written to be usable against any contractor, including us.
Reference
Spray foam glossary
LTTR, permeance, board foot, SQAP, thermal barrier: the terms that appear on listings, data sheets and quotes, defined in one page. Each definition names the standard it comes from.
02 Method
How we source these guides
The spray foam industry has a documentation problem: most of what homeowners read online is written for US climates, cites US codes, and quotes initial R-values that no Canadian rebate program accepts. These guides work from the documents that govern actual Canadian installations.
A claim appears in a guide only if it appears in one of the sources listed here, and the guide tells you which one. When a number is a manufacturer's statement rather than a third-party test result, the guide says so in the sentence that uses it.
Primary sources
- CCMC listings from the National Research Council's Canadian Construction Materials Centre, including 14133-L for the closed-cell foam we install
- CAN/ULC standards: S705.1 (material), S705.2 (installation), S770 (long-term thermal resistance), S774 (VOC emissions), S102 (surface burning)
- National Building Code of Canada 2020, as adopted in each province
- Manufacturer technical data sheets (CUSE Grizzly Gold 2024, Grizzly 005 2021)
- Building Science Corporation for assembly physics
- Natural Resources Canada, Efficiency Manitoba and Health Canada program documents
Planning a project?
Get a written quote with these numbers on it: measured areas, specified thickness, the code target and the listing.