Bob Bird
Bird Family HVAC & Insulation
July 12, 2026
Tired of odors and stale-air issues arising from the spray foam insulation in your attic? This article is meant for homeowners who are suffering from odors arising from spray foam attic insulation. Here are the ideas and self-help to resolve your problem.
Let me set the stage…
Are you house shopping, and have your eye on a home with spray foam in the attic? Better pay attention!
The Problem
Odors, mold, mildew, stale-air issues arise from attics that have been sealed. You may have purchased a house that was designed with a vented roof. It’s got soffit vents, ridge vent, gable vents, passive or mechanical roof ventilation, etc. Along comes the insulation salesman and sells spray foam attic insulation.
Spray foam insulation is a polyurethane sealant, with air pockets. The spray polyurethane foam (spf) completely seals the attic, thereby sealing every vent designed into the original roof system.
You now have a house with an attic that is behaving like an airtight rubbermaid or tupperware!
Your family’s lifestyle generates humidity (moisture) that until now was migrating into your vented attic, and escaping to the atmosphere. Unfortunately, now all this moisture is trapped in your sealed attic.
The open cell spray foam acts like a huge sponge, absorbing the moisture during the cooler night temperatures, and releasing the moisture back into your cooler (dryer air) living space during the summer/daytime warmer temperatures. It’s physics.
Home Performance experts refer to this 24 hour activity as the “Ping Pong Effect”. And it’s driving plenty of homeowners crazy mad. The odor can be obnoxious – and cause reactions in people with respiratory issues.
And if you have an incomplete spray foam insulation job in your attic, it’s much worse. When a foam insulation installer doesn’t completely seal your attic from the atmosphere, it can lead to a continuous never ending cascade of issues that create very poor, harmful Indoor Air Quality inside your home!
Our Experience with Spray Foam Insulation in Attics
Several years ago, before I discovered the Fresh Air Device remedy, this problem of odors got really bad for our company. You see, our promise to homeowners, for any of our insulation services, is that you must be completely satisfied. That promise is for one year. It was so bad that I was becoming double-minded in my sales appointments and attempting to talk homeowners out of spray foam!
“Is anyone pregnant in this household?
Does anyone have respiratory issues?
Anyone suffer from chronic headaches?
Do you plan to get pregnant in the near future?
I was asking questions I had no business asking – and it was confusing for all parties involved. We’d spray an attic, and cross our fingers.
Finally, I SOLD OUR $60,000 SPRAY FOAM RIG, after we were actually SUED BY A HOMEOWNER within days of spraying his attic with foam. His reason was because his pregnant wife moved out of the house, due to the stubborn, lingering odor.
That occasion, many years ago, is when I met the experts at Energy Vanguard. And they gave me an education and a design that has helped our company come to the rescue of many homeowners since then.
We also learned that our Contractor’s General Liability insurance (in our case) was no help to the homeowner, nor to us. After performing IAQ (Indoor Air Quality) tests in the home, and having core samples of our spray foam tested by an independent lab, our insurance company wrote the homeowner, telling them in so many words, “Bird Family Insulation had done nothing wrong. We’ll see you in court!”.
Since that awful experience, I have been hired by a homeowner who’s spray-foamed attic project turned into a 2-year long nightmare for their family. I was hired to evaluate their attic and document what their installer had done wrong. My report became testimony in their court case.
These attics that have been improperly sealed with spray foam, particularly in the southeast USA, can be a real problem for homeowners. And if you decide to sell your home – I understand it should to be included in the seller’s disclosure to avoid problems when the buyer moves in and has respiratory issues.
The Solution for Smelly Spray Foam
Here is the answer to your problem: First, you need to verify that your spray foam insulation is completely sealing your attic. No voids to the atmosphere, no open chases to a vented crawl space under the house, no roof vents left open to the sky. (We’ve seen some very crazy stuff).
Once you confirm that the attic is sealed, you’ve got to evacuate (remove) that trapped, stale air from your sealed attic.
How we do this, has to be carefully designed so as not to create more problems for you.
I am giving you a solution we have incorporated into many occupied homes for Atlanta clients for the last 10+ years.
Our Answer for Spray Foam Odors
I told you that we sold our foam rig. We went about 5 years without spraying any attics with spray foam. During that time, we responded to many unhappy homeowners who were suffering from these foam odor issues. They would pay us to fix the problem. After several years of “fixing” these spray foam attics, our company, Bird Family HVAC & Insulation has resumed spraying foam insulation in attics under the direction of my son, Beau Bird. We now know what has to be included in the installation process to protect our clients from the odor and stale-air issues that predominate in our Atlanta market.
Install the Fresh Air Device. (We refer to this as a FAD system)
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- We purchase high-performance, low-energy exhaust fans. The fan is mounted in one end of the attic, close to a pre-existing gable vent, or roof vent. Position the fan in the highest elevation possible.
- Run electric power to the fan. These fans communicate and operate through your house wi-fi system, and an app on your phone.
- Attach the proper sized flex air duct to the exhaust side of the fan, (usually 4” or 6” diameter) and terminate the air duct into the attic vent. When you do this, install a damper, to prevent atmospheric air from being drawn backwards into the attic when your fan isn’t running. You will have to cut away the spray foam, to expose the roof vent, and position your hose in the hole you just created in the spray foam insulation. Use canned-foam to reseal the hole around your exhaust duct. You need a good, tight seal.
- Go to the opposite end of the attic. In the attic floor, cut a hole in the sheetrock ceiling and install an 8” x 14” hvac vent boot. From your living space, install the corresponding 8” x 14” return-air vent cover.
- Purchase and install a wireless “weather station” unit in your attic. As with your new exhaust fan, this should communicate through your house wi-fi system, and an app on your phone. Position the sending unit central in your attic, at the highest elevation.
- Your goal is to maintain approximately 45-50% RH in your attic. For many of our clients, we advise them this way: “At Easter, turn the fan on, and at Thanksgiving, turn it off. Try that, and see if it solves your odor issue. If the odor returns, at any time – simply turn on your exhaust fan. Start with a low speed. If you begin to smell any odors associated with your attic, ramp-up the fan speed until the odors disappear.”
Why Does Our Fresh Air Device Work?
The Fresh Air Device system works because of simple physics. The exhaust fan purges the attic of the trapped, stale air. That air is readily replaced with dryer, healthy air drawn from your living space through your 8” x 14” passive ceiling vent. This is why it is extremely important that you verify that your spray foam insulation has thoroughly sealed the attic space from the atmosphere. If not, the Fresh Air Device system is compromised and humid air from the atmosphere is drawn into your attic, creating more moisture being stored in the foam. More moisture is the last thing you want!
Because of the fan’s design, it is extremely efficient with electricity. In fact, our experience with these set-ups is that it uses less electricity than a 60 watt light bulb.
Alternative Solutions
If you don’t want a hole cut in your ceiling, there are other options.
- ERV or a HRV. Hire an HVAC company to install a Energy Recovery Ventilator or a Heat Recovery Ventilator and plumb the ducts into your existing hvac air-duct system. Be aware, this is the most expensive solution.
- Install a dehumidifier in your attic. This may or may not stop the odors – but it will definitely help. A dehumidifier will add a substantial load to your electric bill, and you’ll need to figure out how to get rid of the water it collects. Lot’s of homeowners with spray foam odors try this as a first idea. We’ve installed our Fresh Air Device system to replace a lot of dehumidifiers!
- Go ahead and mount the FAD system, and see if it works for your particular attic without cutting a hole in your ceiling for the make-up air. Your attic floor may have so much air trespassing back-and-forth with your living space that it’s enough make-up air for the FAD to be effective at removing your odors, trapped moisture, and stale air.
What you Absolutely Do Not Want To Do
No matter how upset, tired, and frustrated you are with your spray foam attic problems, do not cut a hole in the spray foam and passively ventilate your attic to the atmosphere. Our year-round Relative Humidity in Georgia ranges from 55% to 70%. You are surrounded by water! When you open up your sealed attic to the atmosphere, you will have a bigger humidity problem inside your attic similar to the RH in your yard. BIG PROBLEM!
Want More Help?
Time is of the essence. It is Beau’s policy to include the FAD (Fresh Air Device) system in most every spray foam attic job we perform. Rarely is there an exception. If you are currently suffering from a spray foam odor, or stale-air issues due to spray foam insulation in your attic, I have given you a remedy. However, if you’d prefer to have an experienced professional troubleshoot your attic, call Nicole in our office at 404-538-9168 and ask to schedule Beau Bird to your home. It’s that simple, and you’ll get this terrible drama all behind you in short order!
Thanks for reading.
God Bless You!
Bob Bird
P.S. The initial idea and design for our FAD system came from Energy Vanguard. I need to give credit to Allison Bailes and his outstanding team, as they are brilliant and innovative when it comes to home performance.
