Do not use SPRAY FOAM until you watch this! Our SPRAY FOAM ventilation and humidity nightmare! 

I'm an HVAC contractor, 2 minutes into this video and already I realized this guy's problem is not enough fresh air being taken into the envelope of the building.

The title should be changed to: Do not use newbie HVAC guy! A few issues: 1.) Spray foam should cover the rafters. 2.) You need to supply air through an ERV or HRV. 3.) ALL fireplaces require fresh air to be supplied from outside. Most builders are unaware. 4.) Towels are not drying because humidity is too high in the house because HVAC is over sized and not having enough runtime. Your AC is a dehumidifier and if not oversized it will run long enough to pull humidity out of the home. Spray foam is an inert material that does one job really well and that is to slow the transfer of heat. It is the job of the Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning contractor to do the appropriate calculations to determine proper air flow. It is a SCIENCE not a guess and 500 sq ft / ton is not the answer. cheers!

Been living in a spray foamed house for 12 years.. Best decision I've ever made efficiency wise.. would do it again in a heart beat..

We’re building a house now and the first question the hvac guy asked is if we were using spray foam. He said , like in most of the comments, that you have to size your unit and fresh air differently with spray foam.

Sounds like the contractor that sprayed your home didn’t educate you properly. Everything you said isn’t really a foam problem. It’s a ventilation problem. We always advocate to “insulate tight, ventilate right”. They insulated tight but didn’t ventilate right. Like stated above you need an air recovery unit. We always tell a customer that’s doing a whole house to have a air recovery unit installed. Foam is always the easier thing to blame when you actually have an HVAC issue.

Have an HVAC tech lower your fan speed to the lowest possible cfm. This lowers the overall static pressure in the house which is rough in these types of homes. It also pulls the air across the coils slower and pulls more moisture out. There are a shit ton of options based purely on additions to your current HVAC system

So your house is so well sealed you can't do the same things you could do in a drafty house. Seems like it worked as advertised.

I’m a chimney guy- this guy does not understand air balance and is confusing and conflating different issues. Don’t listen to him. Please, you need proper air intake and air balancing. It is an entire science. Don’t blame the insulation system.

I have nothing to contribute, I'm just so happy with all the comments ripping this video apart. "MY FOAM INSULATION IS WORKING FLAWLESSLY! DON'T SPRAY FOAM YOUR HOUSE!"

All you need to do is add an air exchange so your house can breath. We had the same problem and did all the things you have mentioned, the air exchange has fixed everything.

Install an HRV integrated into your HVAC system. Now stop yelling.

Spray foam is a miricle product. I have a Santa Fe whole house dehumidifier and its the best investment i have ever made. In this video you certainly have ventilation problems. Get a SMART Hvac contractor and instead of complaining get your home ventilating properly. The next problem in your home will be mold.

My son-in-law fixed his same exact fireplace issue you have by making the opening of his fireplace smaller. After he installed glass fireplace doors (that he leaves completely open while using fireplace mind you - it's the extra 1.5 inch around the perimeter of the frame that made the aperture of fireplace smaller) that changed the dynamics of his airflow and he never has smoke wade into the house anymore. This was professional advice given to him that worked. Try it.

Put an intake vent in your crawlspace or basement. Your furnace should also have a combustion air intake, which serves the same purpose as long as it is piped to the open and not directly to the furnace.

Hello Brantley, I do HVAC in Florida and it may be if you didn’t decrease the tonnage of your systems after the insulation job your systems are not running long enough to remove the humidity. Too much tonnage is not a good thing it lowers the temperature too quickly not allowing the unit to run long enough to remove the humidity. Also (if you have not already) try putting the fan settings to a lower speed in the air handlers this may help some. Having proper return air to all rooms helps a lot and using thermostats with dehumidification capability. Good luck👍

Yep. Fellow tuber here. Thank you for this video. I’m building a home right now and I’m completely turned off by spray foam and these points that you’ve made make it even clearer. Plus I’ve been doing a lot of reading about long term off gassing and the air releasing carcinogenic properties into the air. If a home can’t breathe… the voc’s have to go somewhere. I don’t buy the clam that once it’s dried means it’s safe. It’s not green guard gold certified and polyurethane is a known carcinogen. Just crazy stuff man. Thanks for making this vid.

As you note in your other video, an ERV will fix 90% of the problems. They also make special bathroom and range hood vents that can connect to the erv to allow air IN the bathrooms to allow the exhaust out to work properly. It’s going to be quite a bit of work to install properly (vents in each room for example) but when you are done your problems should basically disappear. You may not even need the dehumidifier.

Spray foam is a wonderful product if everything is installed correctly. Problem is most folks do not know enough about it (installers included) to install it correctly and avoid pitfalls. We will get there one day, but its still in the newer phase (even though its several decades old) where the ins and outs are not yet, what i would consider, general building knowledge.

So there’s a lot of great comments here and you are acknowledging that you need an ERV. Please change the title and description of the video to reflect the real issue. Air management, not spray foam.

This was comedic gold, I dont find to many things funny in life ant more, but this made me smile, I hope you get it figured out, the video should be titled why to buy spray foam, and why its important to ventilate correctly.

Change the title. It’s a ventilation problem. NOT, a problem with the insulation.

I know it's been a couple of years and I do hope you found a way to make your house more comfortable, but I do think a situation like this could really use a heat recovery ventilator. You can heat or cool your incoming air so you don't lose your energy efficiency, but allow more flow. Then all the fans would work as they're supposed to. This should also fix the fireplace issue.

Air seal tight, and ventilate it right. You have to install a balanced ventilation system such as HRV or ERV, as well as a kitchen range hood fan than includes a mechanical damper to bring in make up air. Also need a make up air vent for an open combustion wood burning fireplace.

Yes, the barrier aspect of foam cuts both ways. Depending on location, you need to add a dehumidifier to manage internally generated moisture, and/or downsize the tonnage of your air conditioner. A short cycling a/c does not dehumidify!!! I imagine places in middle climes [like kentucky] are the biggest engineering challenge. Canadians focus on cold, and for summer... can open a window [just screen out the bugs].

You just need a Heat Recovery Ventilation. Cheap one with a fan, few outlets and a control panel. You've done such a good job so far. Just needs to be finished.

It’s probably already been said but most a/c units have a variable speed blower and if you reduced the blower speed your unit will probably run longer to cool the home. And running the a/c removes humidity form the air. So making a small change might help before spending the money on more expensive things.

Thank you for the video. Originally I was against closed cell spray foam and was kind of looking for videos to support that, then I saw this video. A great help changing my mind in deciding to get closed cell spray foam insulation. Your house looks like it's vacuum sealed! That's exactly what I want! Decreased drafts, potentially decreased heating bills and increased over all comfort...sort of. I don't have a fireplace so no worries, though if I did I'd probably get an insert to increase 2nd combustion as well as the option for a direct outside air vent/source to prevent backflow and use of in house O2 as well as increase wood burning efficiency. Also I'd add an ERV and look for some kind permanent dehumidifying solution, possibly an ERV with dehumidifying options regardless of low ambient room temp. My house in North Dakota is pretty much a highway underpass, cold and leaky with news paper for insulation from the 1950s. I hear you on the temp with the sun during the day, my brother's house is new and stays colder than the outside in the spring. Georgia is crazy humid, but winters look mild. Do ya have a mini split for heat? One of my best friends lives in tokyo and his bath towels would get moldy the next day, he went and got a electric towel rack/heater, great for winter but kind of counter for summer. Can't win them all.

I hope you fixed your problems. I have foam in my 2000 sqft home that’s 3 years old. I have a fresh air intake on my hvac and I have no problems with anything. I love my foam!! Another thing, every company told me it didn’t matter if I put 3in of foam or 5in of foam, the r value will be the exact same. Only difference is more money for more foam.

You just need to have a fresh air pump installed its not the foams fault.

I live in Florida. I agree with some of your assessment. I would like a whole house dehumidifier myself. Super humid days, it could make a difference. But I will say this. It is worth every penny in a hurricane. People with spray foam insulation and metal roofs -- houses were pretty much untouched, barring a tree falling through it, after a Cat 5 hurricane. Love the adhesive qualities of closed cell on a roof and you get a wind mitigation discount for insurance. It also cut our electric bill in half, over when we had batt and blown in. I know because it ripped the roof off my house and we got to redo it down to wall studs. My neighbor? He had spray foam and a metal roof. His house? Minus some serious yard work, untouched.

Foam works wonderfully. We use it in some of the homes we build. But builders often fail to account for the cfm from vent fans etc. Also many HVAC contractors don’t perform a J plan on the home so oftentimes they over size the unit, hence the need for fresh air introduction. If your unit was properly sized you wouldn’t need fresh air introduction and it would run long enough to de humidity on its own. For example the last home we did with foam HVAC tonnage went from 9 to 6 1/2 total. That way the unit was properly sized to accommodate the foams efficiency. Not to mention if you’re tying to let the outside change the temperature of the inside, like on those warm winter days, you’re defeating the purpose of insulation.

You have a chemical based closed cell foam as opposed to a water based open cell foam like icynene which allows wood to breathe at the same time stopping draughts. It will also allow water leaks to be traced. Your fireplace needed a couple of four inch pipes going under the floor to the outside to bring air in from the outside to the base of the fireplace with a sliding vent to control the air. The fireplace looks to have too low a lintel and the fire itself is set too far back so all the heat goes up the chimney. Also with a Rumford there is a large brick area that reflects the heat into the room. The throat is the whole width and had a flap to control the fire and also shut off the flue when desired. Behind the flap is a smoke shelf that stops any downdraught smoke from entering the room and in my case has a soot door leading into the garage so that I can sweep the chimney easily Here is my Rumford and below is a link to the design I would tell everybody put icynene spray foam in your house! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZPvDovyLIdI.html www.google.com/search?q=rumford+fireplace+design&sxsrf=APq-WBv_xrUD9pCwdj6PlBwasGizHV7Mcg%3A1650603654694&source=hp&ei=hjZiYtXEKL-FhbIP46GmiAQ&iflsig=AHkkrS4AAAAAYmJEljAPGNg7k_mVg1YsZu9pBKz0ipal&oq=rumford+fireplace&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAEYATIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQ6BAgjECc6EQguEIAEELEDEIMBEMcBENEDOgsIABCABBCxAxCDAToOCC4QgAQQsQMQgwEQ1AI6CwguEIAEELEDEIMBOggILhCxAxCDAToECC4QJzoLCC4QgAQQsQMQ1AI6CAgAEIAEELEDOgsILhCABBDHARCvAToLCC4QsQMQgwEQ1AI6CAguEIAEELEDOggILhCABBDUAjoFCC4QgARQAFiDPmD-UWgAcAB4AIABtwGIAa4SkgEEMS4xNpgBAKABAQ&sclient=gws-wiz

1) You need more air exchange throughout the house. You can have someone measure it and they’ll tell you your Air Change it Air Exchange per hour. This keeps fresh air moving throughout and if insulated tight keeps the air pressure relatively stable. 2) It’s not typically advisable to insulate against the bottom of the roof deck. It can create a few different issues depending on the climate you live in, but mostly it really sucks for the next guy who has to put a roof on it if he has to replace any of the wood sheeting 😬 It’s really important to make sure you have adequate ventilation in your attic. Air exchange will solve most of the problems you brought up.

I live in a normal older house, nice and cozy, but had a buddy build a small vaulted ceiling farmhouse totally spray foamed like this ( open cell ) and put 3 or 4 mini splits in for the HVAC. I was questioning his reasoning when he was building it, but he's one of those guys that "knows everything" and researches like crazy, so didn't give advice. Now he has all kinds of moisture and other issues just like described here. Obviously people have different outcomes due to climate, region, quality of job done, etc.

Videos like these kill the foam industry. We have a tough time as it is, change the video title. These are simple things to fix, issues aren’t from the spray foam. Just need some extra steps added.

Buddy, you home insulation is awesome, actually too many people looking to have tight home as yours. Your problem is fresh air through HRV/ERV. You should use central ventilation system through HRV so the discharged air will be replaced by fresh conditioned air through HRV. For this tight house you should use direct vent fire fireplace as rather than that soot issue, there is risk of anoxia in the house.

You should really change the video title to "DO NOT FORGET MAKE UP AIR". Not sure where you live are but every problem you mention is related to make up air. It's a pretty simple calculation with a blower test and it's a code violation in many states to install vents without calculating the required makeup air. Not sure what kind of heat you have but it's also very dangerous if you burn fossil fuel. You could end up shouse. Exhaust Carbon monoxide back into your house. Your builder should know all of this, and it should have been done durring construction. Pretty easy to fix, just add ventilation system.

Beautiful home. We built our home 12yrs ago and had similar problems. We researched and came to the conclusion the house was so tight that there was negative pressure in the house. I fixed it by putting a fresh air vent to the furnace,and and a fresh sir duct to our pellet stove. I only run our dehumidifier in the winter. I put water in the air in the winter. However I live in New England. I wonder if you just need some fresh air intakes. Hmm it’s such a delicate balance. I would be curious to see your fix. Good luck great video

Yes if you build a a a tight house you have to mechanically ventilate your house your builder should have know that

I saw you other comment on getting an ERV but that won't solve all your issues. If your ERV exhaust vent replace your bathroom vents (which they should) then your overly humid bathrooms and towels drying issue should be solved. The ERV will help with humidity with regard to what is produced in your bathrooms. However it won't help with your kitchen exhaust and you still might have issues with your fireplace as those to things need make up air. The ERV is balance and will only be making jp air for its own exhaust. You need the ERV but you also need a make up air solution as well.

For houses that are built really tight, such as the homes that use air barrier when they build them, whis is basically pressuring your house with vapor silicon caulk and filling EVERY gap, you need to have a way to bring air in from the outside. The benefit is that you get to bring the air in on your terms. Instead of it just random sucking air in all your cracks or holes, which is how so much dirt and bugs get into your house, you can have a hepa filter and positively pressure the home with pure filtered air. This has so many health benefits and keeps things clean. They are called HRV and ERV I believe. It uses the air inside the home to either heat or cool the incoming air. The ERV model will retain, or remove humidity as well.

I find that when its super cold, the smoke does not want to rise until the fire is burning hot. Glass doors are very helpful to keep smoke in until fire gets hot. Kerosene gets it hot fast and helps push smoke upward. If there is a need for more air, crack open a window.

The goal is to insulate the house as best as possible and to have an air right home. I would never recommend insulating with an inferior material in order to create a leaky and inefficient home but instead, as others suggested, would try putting more positive pressure into the home, like running your HVAC fan while you cook or use the fireplace (simply circulating air around the home is beneficial here - exactly what an ERV does). Thanks for the info, though. It’s great so that others can know what to look out for when planning spray foam.

Great video. I was advised to use spray foam but i was hesitant because it doesn't seem to allow for ventillation. Your video backs me up.

You have one more problem that you mentioned briefly. It traps the humidity between the foam and the wood. Recently, an UK article said sprayed foam insulation made the house not salable. Some insurance companies won’t insure it due to trapped humidity, rotting woods, molds, etc.

As a subcontractor employee I have used spray foam insulation on the job and it works great! - For sealing holes in a situation where the decking and columns holding up the building need to be closed up. But I wouldn't use it for the entire building!! What a mess.

Try contacting Spray Jones on RU-vid, he can can prolly give you the lowdown. It sounds like the foam is working great, your hvac system needs to exchange air at controlled temps & humidity

We used to have smoke start rolling into our living room before and it was always the case of needing a extra section of chimney on our chimney. When the wind blows stronger it can affect the way your chimney draws. Make your chimney higher and that will stop the smoke from coming into your house.

Your spray foam contractor should have recommended an erv or hrv before selling you a spray foam project. I have been spraying foam since 1999 and have had excellent success with it. The object is to insulate tight and ventilate right. erv will fix all of these problems without sacrificing your heat savings.

Install and ERV. Your houe is going to rot from the inside out without one. Check your roof ridge since ridge rot is a problem in foamed houses. We have spray foam and do not have any of these problems. We have wifi temp/humidity sensors in several areas around the house and the humidity rarely gets over 50%. You should also get an outside fresh air intake directly into the firebox since the ERV only pushes around 200cfm and a fire will want more. Good luck.

You'll be really happy once you install the HRV. Glad people have contributed

all you need is just a few ventilation flows or just a whole outside the house to create a smart air flow around the house and you can open and close it when needed (cooking, laundry, shower, etc)

Wow do you need some education on the subject. Everything you mentioned isn’t the foams fault. Another thing I noticed was your return ductwork in the attic looks severely undersized.

Most other vids I watched said you do either the walls or the ceiling ...not both. One of the main things for roofs was having a metal roof with hidden fasteners (looks like what you have) because they do not leak and the foam cuts down on rain noise. It hides leaks on normal roofs and some stuff about heat destroying shingles earlier than normal.

Yes, the insulation is perfect but the house lacks a ventilation strategy. I’d recommend anyone insulating with closed cell foam like this to contact a residential building scientist or shop for an insulation company that has one in house. That way when you insulate, managing moisture and air will already be factored into the plan. HRVs and ERVs are great Utilities to help exhaust stale air and simultaneously introduce fresh air to the home. Even still, a tight house may also require passive fresh air ducts to be installed by the range and fireplace to supply adequate make up air for proper ventilation. Furthermore, The ventilation system needs to be designed so that it’s balanced throughout the house. This way you won’t have small areas of mold growing in closets (which I have seen). Managing heat, moisture, and pressure (air flow) are the three sides of the triangle one needs to balance to be comfortable in a home that’s build tight.

You make great points. I live in Alabama and I been debating about spraying. My biggest issue is the leak.. thank you for your video!

Very informative vid & I'm glad ya hit on the leaking roof question. There's no way covering up the roof in foam is a good idea.

fresh air exchanger fix the issues

In my house I used Owens Cornin Pink Panther Bat insulation in the attic. Then, I used Owens Corning Pink Panther ATTICAT blow-in insulation on top of it. It has about 49R value.

The title of this video is really missleading and dumb. Spray foam is a great insulater and air seal. You should have run a blower door test and done a HDL test and CAZ. That would have told you air leakage was not your problem. Most peolpe will feel convetion effect or stack effect in thier homes and thing there is an air leak that is not the case. You should looking into a Outside air intake on your airhandler. Much cheaper than an air handler. You shouldn't be giving advice about things you clearly don't know about.

Great start by creating a properly sealed home! Sounds like you did not install an ERV. You have a good problem, and there is a good solution!

We installed an ERV in our house. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-51GbZsDoHRI.html

Around where I live (Kentucky) a lot of builders are doing a “conditioned crawlspace” if it doesn’t have a basement. I have a good friend that owns an HVAC company, just the conditioned crawlspace significantly cuts down on heat load, therefore making the AC equipment much smaller. The smaller the unit, the more it runs, so the more humidity is being drawn out of the structure. Humidity control is the key, and dumping fresh air back in. If you get those two things under control, your house will feel much much better.

Just a suggestion on the fireplace. Is there an ashdoor in the back that opens from outside? If so, maybe you can modify it to be a source of combustion air?

Install open vents, with no fans from the roof to kitchen bathroom and fireplace area. No fan needed and you can close them when you don't need them. One stak on roof devided into 3 exhausts leaks fome that I have seen in house tends to change color slightly when water is applied to it it's a little tough to find but you can with a good eye and experience. But I get it and see where the problems can be. I have been using spray foam for years the ventilation is a cheap and easy fix. And works wonders in a tightly seald home. 6' stack

I have closed Cell spray foam on the walls in the attic under the first floor. The house is completely sealed it as dry as a bone. They got these things called windows and you can crack them a little bit, and it lets air into the house. It’s amazing.

I also do HVAC and watching a video of a poorly designed total package is just amazing. There are tons of video's covering this specific issue and unfortunately this video is what not to do and spray foam is not the issue.

Thinking about spray foam under floor of an open crawl space. But in whole house? Aside from issues you mentioned, what happens when the house is 50 years old, needs plumbing or electrical work in the walls? Wow what a PITA that must be.

For that small humidifier, I'd probably put it up on something and have it drip into something. Tap a line into a collector tray lol. Then you could have it fill a 55g barrel or something else. At that point, you could use various methods to detect when that thing is full. Or if nothing else, it'd give you weeks in between you having to check the barrel.

Spray foam is great insulation. Your problem is makeup air. A good wood stove/fireplace uses outside air for combustion. Your furnace should also draw air from the outside or you need a makeup air system that preheats or cools the air( expensive). Most building codes requires outside air to prevent the problem you are having. My old boss used to say- You can’t suck air out of a pop bottle.

Issue isn’t the foam; glad I read the comments. Title should be “read the comments of my video before getting foam”

i live on a poultry farm where we raise geese. So I used goose down to insulate our attics. A layer 6" deep gave us an R60 rating. Warm as a comforter. However, within a year the house was totally infested with bird lice.

I think this is a great video to open a discussion on solutions. I’m building an ICF home in central Oregon and will have a hydronic cement slab heating system. There is going to be a lot of wait and see/ experimenting to understand how to get the best conditioned air quality and for what amount of money. There might be simple and inexpensive solutions and there might not. Most solutions are not that easy with the cost of equipment, labor, and electricity. As someone said, “just open a widow” might be your best return on investment. I’ve worked on commercial hood systems for a very large operation as well as repair kitchen equipment at the same facility- a good design is key!

All of the problems listed are a testament to the quality of your insulation. Your insulation is kicking ass, man. Sounds like from the other comments you realized your issue and hopefully have it corrected now.

Where do I begin, so I’ll just cover a couple items. Fireplaces are NOT efficient unless you have a fresh air inlet duct into the firebox and a sealed fireplace door that prevents the loss of indoor air feeding your fire. If your living environment is spray foamed, including your attic (ie non vented attic), then per building code you’re required to have a fresh air exchanger. This pulls approx 200CFM of fresh air indoors and circulates within your house and exhaust equal amount of stale air outside. Spray foam is great, but it essentially creates a plastic bag environment, so if you understand that upfront, then you can design accordingly. I have built two custom homes for myself in two different States within the last 20 years and used spray foam in both. For me, I wouldn’t use anything but foam. Our utility bills are much less. Lastly, there are many other factors when comparing one house to another…. Build and installation quality of doors and windows, number and placement of doors and windows, orientation of house to afternoon sun, and number/type/placement of trees. I suggest you study Passive Solar design.

Yep, my father and I were just talking about newer constucted homes being too tight.

You need a fresh air intake and heat recovery system. Every appliance in the home that uses and exhausts air depletes the available air inside the dwelling. There are calculations for that . I ended up installing a 10" duct for air intake in mine.

Our fireplace does the same thing, and our house is NOT sealed well. It can have to do with the layout on your lot combined with the build of the chimney. It’s not a huge job to install some small vents designed for this purpose. If the towels don’t dry, the humidity in your house is too high which puts the house at risk of mold. We keep a portable unit in our basement into the drain. Get a unit that doesn’t require dumping or a whole house. RE-designing the chimney caps helped the draw a lot.

All the high efficient homes are very tight. They use and ERV or HRV to continually bring in fresh air and exhaust stale air. Each home type have specific parameters that must be addressed

The description actually sounds like it would work wonderfully in the south. My cousin has a house nearby. When power went out after the hurricane, he was comfortable indoors for three days without AC.

thank you for making this, also live in Georgia (lanier area) had my detached garage shop all sprayed, feels the opposite of my house i agree with the noise its better but the holding cold and hot its like 100 percent dependent on my mini split, also you pull in with a wet car/boat it never dries have to leave door open for days in order not to have mold in my boat. im sure its a good product and all but i also prefer my old shop with regular pink insulation. hope you got it figured out.

We are having exactly same issues too. You need fresh air intake installed to you fireplace. Also I do open windows every morning and every night for few minutes to get fresh air into the home.

congratulations. your first properly insulated house. fix your hvac and make sure you get enough ventilation and you will be the happiest youve ever been.

1) The fireplace is likely poorly designed and/or built. The air for combustion has to come from somewhere, and your house is that somewhere. Without an additional exterior intake and/or a draft booster, there will likely not be enough oxygen to allow for the fire to combust fully and ventilate through the flue properly, meaning that it will smoke and that smoke will chase back into your house. The firebox looks to have next to no slope as it travels up to the smoke chamber, which would cause outside weather to have a noticeable effect on the overall performance. 2) How many CFM's does that hood pull under normal conditions? Anything that vents outside of your house (dryer, hot water heater, chimney, vent hood, bathroom exhaust fans, etc) will create a negative pressure in the building envelope. If your house is sealed very well, you won't have as many air leaks, meaning it is harder to pull air out of the system. Your equipment will have to work harder to try and keep up. If you have a fire in your fireplace and you try to cut on any other exhaust, it compounds the issue dramatically. You may want to invest in a makeup air unit/system if you don't want to have to crack a window. 3) You don't necessarily need a dehumidifier, but you definitely need some adjustments on your HVAC system. When there are fewer air leaks, your HVAC, which would normally be your dehumidifier, doesn't run as often, meaning that it is not condensing the moisture in your house onto the coils. Increasing the air changes per hour per room or having the system altered to run more often, but for shorter cycles would probably help a lot. Also gotta ask, is the bathroom exhaust fan running outside or into the attic? And makeup air is key after you hit the "air sealed" level. 4) Blown in insulation sucks lol, but with a vented roof, the attic should never be more than 10 to 15° F than the outside air. If it is, someone likely did something improperly. It's also going to cause a premature failure in your roofing system, but that might be job security for the roofers, I don't know. It can also lead to excess moisture resulting in mold issues or water damage. A large portion of the framers and roofers I've worked with throughout the years were taught outdated methods or just outright wrong by someone who was taught by someone with outdated methods or someone who was outright wrong 😂 A lot of inspectors/code enforcement officers aren't familiar with a considerable amount of building codes and regulations, so a lot gets overlooked Totally feel ya on the possibility of a leak you can't see. Hopefully when the house was designed, there was a backup plan for the backup plan with drainage. Routine inspections and proper maintenance are vital for early detection too.

Have you thought about a heat ventilator exchanger? It brings in fresh outside air into a heat exchanger and heats the air. That will bring in air to help with bathroom fan and fire place. As for the damp towels, maybe putting in a timed motion sensor switch in the bathrooms will help get the damp air out after they leave the bathrooms.

Re: controlling airflow. It is both good and bad. Good if you take control and want to. Bad if you don't want to. FYI a tighter house is getting more and more required by building codes. Regarding trapping the wrong temp inside the house, that's what insulation and a tight house tends to do. As far as benefitting from the sun when it's colder and having it more "even", you may be thinking of things like thermal mass and passive solar designs. If the sun heats up your brick wall, it won't instantly heat up your house like an oven, it'll radiate heat over time, making the temperature more even. The insulation in the walls would tend to keep that heat out just as well as the cold.

All attics need a vent even with spray foam. Even during the winter, not much cold enters as heat rises up and out. A house being that sealed up will promote the growth of mold everywhere behind the walls.

This is the video that convinced me not to use spray foam. I did not understand, spray foam to insulate but pull in fresh air...that just sounded stupid so I wrapped reflectix and it controls my interior temperature perfectly!!

You should have added a few roof vents tbh. When you essentially air seal your home you need something to equalize pressure You would be wise to talk to an hvac contractor to install and integrate a fresh air intake (ERV) to work in tandem with the roof vents (and in your case, also your bathroom vent, cooktop vent, and your fireplace flue)

Our houses in Sweden are tight as a plastic bag and every room with a door has atleast one vent in the window. Either that or the erv to circulate ventilation. So the only place for air to go out is from kitchen and bathroom, so no moist or humidity damage in the bathroom. So the foam has little to do with it.

I agree with many of the commentators. Does anyone use the term ‘bucket of air?’ 4-6” pipe from outside ran into a 5 gallon bucket almost to the bottom. Not supposed to draft unless there’s negative pressure. I agree with not spraying the roof, no way of seeing problems till it’s too late. Batt insulation on the roof, only in finished spaces for me. High r-value is thick and a pain to frame for.

A couple of things, the fireplace is supposed to have a combustion air pipe that brings outside air in, it usually comes in the back behind the the fire, the fresh air pipe would be sized according to the size of the flue, typically a 4 or 6 inch air supply. Secondly, most areas have building codes that require a fresh air intake that is connected to the return ductwork, it's just a screened hood that looks similar to a dryer vent. They are sized according to all of your exhaust fans in the house, a typical home would use either a 6 or 8 inch fresh air hood connected to the return ductwork with a length of insulated flexible round duct. Better range hoods also come with fresh air intakes that are incorporated into their own venting. The dampness in the house is probably the same moisture that was in it when it was built, and simply has never been removed. Your central air conditioning is by far, the best dehumidifier that you can have, so, running that power guzzling stand alone unit is a major waste, if you're running that in the summer time, it's giving off a lot of heat while it's removing moisture. If you want your home to be comfortable year round, I would suggest that you NEVER open the windows in the summer. It literally takes weeks and months to draw the moisture out of a house using the a/c or dehumidifiers but, opening windows when the dewpoint is above 40 degrees can pull a lot of moisture back into the house in just a few hours. Everything in your house holds moisture, carpet, woodwork, furniture, clothes, and anything else that's not plastic. Everything gets wet quickly, but drawing that moisture out, takes much, much, longer! Most homes get rained on during construction and a lot of the wood is wet when they start covering everything up, they also use a lot of wet materials to finish the house, like concrete, drywall mud, and paint. If the house is sealed with spray foam, where do you think all the moisture goes? If you're not using the a/c and drawing that moisture out, it's still inside the house! I've had people complain about their brand new windows steaming up in the winter time, turns out that the house is still too damp inside, it can take a couple years running the a/c and never opening windows to finally get the moisture out that was built into the house, buried deep inside the walls.

Spray foam insulation can create an airtight seal in the attic, which might disrupt the air pressure balance in your home. This could potentially affect the draft in your fireplace, making it harder for smoke to rise up the chimney. Similarly, an overly airtight attic can impact the performance of exhaust vents. Kitchen vents, bathroom fans, and other exhaust systems rely on the ability to expel air from the house. If the attic is sealed too tightly, it might create negative pressure inside the home, making it harder for these vents to function properly. To avoid these issues: -Ensure proper ventilation: When spray foaming an attic, it's crucial to maintain proper ventilation. This might involve installing soffit vents, ridge vents, or other ventilation systems. -Leave spaces around chimneys: Spray foam should never be applied directly to chimneys or flues, as this can create fire hazards and interfere with their function. -Install make-up air systems: For homes with powerful exhaust systems, installing make-up air systems can help maintain proper air pressure balance. -Consider a home energy audit: A professional can assess your home's overall air exchange and pressure balance to ensure all systems work correctly after insulation. From Claude

every house insulation method is a combination of things, so if your going to super insulate like we did in our addon we were told to get a heat exchanger fireplace outside air feeds it and the room air is sucked in at the bottom goes up the side of the fire box out the top of the room never get smoke in the room except to feed wood and a fan can drastically increase the heat but our room gets way to hot i think the guy said the attic was ventilated to but cant remember cool thing is no furnace and plenty warm

I’m in hvac and what we do is install a 6” fresh air damper in the HVAC equipment and put a switch on the wall for the fireplace and tie a relay in for the kitchen hood.

Thanks. I've almost put a spray foam into our big attic, but glad I didn't. We're going with the fiberglass.

I wish my house had this problem. In my room a candle can no joke barely stay lit because it’s so drafty and that’s with the windows closed lol it’s soo poorly insulated. Gonna be working on insulating the house so I don’t freeze with the furnace working overtime

Get a heat resistant glass door for in front of the fireplace to divert the smoke from any backdrafts and also to quickly extinguish the fire if needed…. Also get a stronger exhaust fan for above the stove and it will remove the steam effectively….

Spray foam has many great applications in building a home, most of the comments below hit the nail on the head. When the house's heating and cooling system is balanced to match the insulation variant it works the way it is supposed to. Its one of the best for insulating the rim ply at the basement between the floor joists or other hard areas to get a proper seal. Its about knowing your building materials and utilizing them to get the best benefits.

Thanks for your video. I'm experiencing these same issues. We were not educated about humidity, ventilation or anything at all. We live in an over 100 year old house with no central a/c. Our whole home fan was foamed over and I wasn't told that would happen. Just an example of the lack of information we received on how foam works. Do your research! This stuff may work in new builds with complimentary systems but spray foam should have never been a consideration for me. The house feels like the inside of a ziplock bag in the summer and it's still ice cold in the winter.