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Diane Fredricks
Posted: Nov 01, 2013 09:32 AM
Fishy smell odor
Hello: i have just had spray foam insulated in our Kitchen and dining room walls,ceiling and 1/2 in our living room wall and ceiling. Also installed in our walls in our attic. This was last Wednesday. The first two days there was no smell both those days were gray. On Friday when we got home from work the smell was awful it was a fishy smell and then my biggest fear hit me the foam was not installed correctly. I had did my research on this before we hired the intstaller. I contacted his references and they all said no smell and he did a wonderful job. This monday i called the Manufacturer and they put me thru to the NJ Field Tech he came out the very next day did an inspection the foam was fine but it was up in the attic (crawl space) and it is a vented attic. The sprayfoam hit the fiberglass that was on the floor. The Field tech said that that was the problem and where the smell is coming from. The installer came back the very next day which we were very happy about. He chipped away at the bad smelly foam and reapplied we had windows and doors opened thru out the house. Well we came home yesterday and the smell was still there but not as strong, but yesterday was not a sunny day and we had air purifier and fans going. Today it is going to be over 70 i turned off the fans and the air purifier this will be the true test if the odor is stronger than ever.

I have read stories about this before. We used a spray foam company we went with never had any complaints. We cannot even put up our walls until this is taken care of.

Here are couple of my thoughts:

Is the foam still off gassing? We get a lot of sun thru my kitchen and dining rooms. Maybe since the walls are not up the sun is hitting the walls and it is off-gassing? i am guessing.

Here is a brief description of our house it is a ranch open all to the sun no trees surrounding. We have solar panels on our roof due to so much sun we get.


What do you think? Would like your advice. We cannot live like this.

Thank you.






Would appreciate your advice.

Diane
Bryan Kwater
Posted: Nov 01, 2013 03:59 PM
What type of foam was installed, open cell or closed cell? How thick was it applied? Does it all smell, or just certain areas?
Bill Clark
Posted: Nov 01, 2013 04:28 PM
It would help if we knew the brand of the spray foam installed.

The easiest way to reduce odors quickly is proper ventilation.

If the attic's roof deck was sealed, you will need to get a fan that has a duct attached to it, so you can exhaust the air currently inside the attic and house, to the outside so fresh air can flow through the space.

Opening windows and doors is seldom enough to correctly ventilate a well sealed spray foam insulated home. You must use mechanical ventilation and set it up so the attic air is exhausted to the outside of the house, not just circulating air around.

I would also suggest that you ask the manufacturer of the spray foam to send some one from their tech services team to the house to take a look around and not just the territory manager, who may not have the best grasp of spray foam issues...

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