Industrial Insulation, Scoped to Your Schedule.

The Numbers, and the Limits.

• Spray foam stops at 80 °C, and we would rather say so up front. CAN/ULC-S705.1 puts closed-cell spray polyurethane foam’s service range at −60 to +80 °C, and manufacturers require it to be kept at least 75 mm clear of any device whose surface exceeds 80 °C. That rules spray foam out of hot process piping and vessels. It is why this site carries no high-temperature insulation page: writing one would mean describing materials we have no sourced technical basis to describe. Tell us the operating temperature early and we will tell you straight whether this is our scope.
• The envelope requirement is NECB 2020 at Tier 1. In Climate Zone 7A that caps walls at 0.215 W/(m²·K), roofs at 0.121 and floors at 0.138 — effective RSI 4.65, 8.26 and 7.25, or roughly R-26.4, R-46.9 and R-41.2. Assemblies in contact with the ground come from Table 3.2.3.1 at 0.284 for walls and roofs. AR 5/2024 fixes Alberta at Tier 1 and bars a municipality from requiring more.
• Airtightness testing is an option, not a mandate. Article 3.2.4.1 permits compliance by whole-building test at 1.50 L/(s·m²) at 75 Pa to ASTM E3158 — pressurised and depressurised, results averaged — or by the assembly route at 0.2 L/(s·m²). NRC’s own change summary calls whole-building testing an option. That makes a measured result a differentiator on a project rather than a box to tick.
• Payback works off avoidable cost, not the average on the bill. Alberta’s default-rate gas commodity ran roughly $0.93 to $3.42 per gigajoule through 2026, and ATCO Gas North’s schedule effective 1 August 2026 puts variable delivery near $1.05 per GJ. A saved gigajoule is therefore worth something in the region of $2.50 to $5.00 — not the $4 to $7 you get by dividing a whole bill by consumption, because the fixed daily charge does not move whatever you save. Modelling it the second way inflates payback claims substantially.
• Application has documented conditions attached. Article 9.25.2.5 of NBC(AE) 2023 requires spray-applied polyurethane to be installed in accordance with CAN/ULC-S705.2, which covers substrate conditions, lift thickness, daily testing of the installed product and documentation. Substrate must be frost-free, at 19% moisture content or less, and at least 3 to 5 °C above the dew point. In a live facility that is a scheduling constraint, and it belongs in the outage plan.

Envelope figures and their clause references are set out in the Alberta code compliance guide; the two airtightness routes are in the air barrier explainer; and cold-weather scheduling limits are in the winter application guide. For building-scale work, the industrial insulation page goes further into the NECB requirements.