Within five seconds it will foam up and spread, filling the cracks and crevices in your wall, creating an "airtight blanket like a thermal envelope," according to Joe Steffes, owner of Iowa Foam Insulators, a new Nevada-based company that uses soy-based spray foam to insulate homes and buildings.
Steffes, an ISU graduate with a degree in agricultural business, started the company in late May. With rising gas price trends, he's counting on Iowans to get smart and save big on heating bills by insulating their properties.
"The way I look at it, gas and oil prices have gone way up, and they're not coming down. I've been getting high propane bills at home, and I figured if I needed to do something about it, a lot of other people must have the same problem," he said.
His solution was insulation. "The $10 per month investment saves you $50 per month on the heating bill," Steffes said.
When it comes to insulation, though, there are many well-established insulators competing with Steffes' soy-based spray foams, a technology first developed in 2003.
Iowa Foam Insulators uses 100 percent renewable, bio-based foam composed from 70 percent soybean polyols, while traditional insulation options include fiberglass (made from silica sand), cellulose (recycled newspaper), and the petroleum-based Icynene spray foam.
Although the soy-based spray foam costs more up front than its alternatives, Steffes said he chose the product because it supports Midwest soybean farmers.
"I was looking for stuff to insulate my shop, and I loved the idea of a soy-based foam insulator," he said. "We have a lot of pride in what we grow here in the Midwest, so it was the perfect product."
Soy-based spray foam was developed in part by firms in collaboration with the United Soybean Board, using funds collected from soybean farmers as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 1990 Farm Bill.
According to Sherri Huffman, a representative at InsulGreen Inc. - a Decatur, Neb.-based producer of one of the spray foams Steffes uses - soy-based foam also has unseen environmental, health and economic benefits.
"It's a water-blown insulation product, which makes it a safer product than other spray foams which use harmful blowing agents like formaldehyde or CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons)," Huffman said.
"Contractors will tell you to replace fiberglass insulation every 10 years because it develops mold, holds moisture in and settles to the bottom," she added. "With foam, it's going to stay in place."
Huffman thinks the soy-based spray foam industry will be a "big thing in the future."
"The spray foam industry has been tripling every year," Steffes said.
His most recent project involved three turkey sheds off of U.S. Highway 69 in Story City. Iowa Foam currently services the Central Iowa area, but Steffes is willing to "travel the state."
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