Development of a Canadian standard for urea formaldehyde thermal wall insulation

A committee of manufacturers, applicators, users, and concerned interests was charged with writing a Canadian standard for urea formaldehyde (UF) foamed-in-place thermal insulation. The findings of this committee and of the research that it commissioned are presented herein. The integrity of the material was found to be retained after several years' service, but installation techniques need drastic improvement. Available data suggested that the linear shrinkage of UF foam installed in wall cavities could be expected to stabilize at about 7 percent. The magnitude of the shrinkage, equivalent to 21 percent by volume, was estimated to reduce the effective thermal performance of the material to 60 percent of that which would have been realized had there been no shrinkage.
Symposium on Thermal Insulation Performance: 22 October 1978, Tampa, FL, USA