2026-06-29 - Site Visit - Midstate Spray Foam Insulation

Purpose

On-site visit by Midstate Spray Foam Insulation LLC — the insulator referred by Hershberger’s Amish Builders — to assess the loft roof/envelope and scope an insulation quote.

Name corrected 2026-07-01 — it's Midstate, not "Mid Michigan"

This note originally recorded the name as “Mid Michigan Spray Foam.” The emailed quote received 2026-07-01 arrived on Midstate Spray Foam Insulation LLC letterhead (owner Eli Coblentz, 11749 N. Meridian Rd., Farwell, MI 48622) at the same

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number — so the site-visit “confirmation” was a mishearing. The original open question on Insulation Contractors was literally “Mid Michigan or Mid State?” — and the answer is Mid State / Midstate. Same company; corrected name. (Still distinct from the web-researched Morrice company “Mid-Michigan Spray Foam” at

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.) This note (and its filename) were renamed from “Mid Michigan” to “Midstate” on 2026-07-01, and all cross-references updated to match.

Weather

N/A — assessment/quote walk-around, not weather-dependent outdoor construction.

Notes

Their Recommendation

• Spray foam the entire roof. In their professional opinion, spray foam is the only way to insulate this roof to code. This is consistent with the depth problem already documented in Insulation Strategy: the A1 attic trusses have a 2×8 top chord (7.25” actual), and after a vent baffle there’s only ~5.75–6.25” of cavity — R-49 is not achievable with batts or cellulose alone on the sloped sections. Foam’s higher R/inch is what closes that gap.
• Keep the kneewall triangles as conditioned space. They immediately saw the value of conditioning the perimeter triangles and using them as storage — moving the thermal/air boundary out to the roof slope rather than the kneewall face.

How This Maps to the Existing Design

This recommendation lands squarely on an already-open envelope decision — the “Condition the Triangles for Storage” alternative under reconsideration since 2026-06-23. See the Conditioned-Triangle Alternative.

• The insulator’s “foam the whole roof + condition the kneewall space” is essentially option 3b (unvented hot-roof to eave) from that section, applied to the entire roof plane.
• It reclaims roughly 280–400 sq ft of conditioned low storage wrapping the loft — exactly the win that section is weighing.

Vented → unvented is a real assembly change — verify before committing

The roof is currently built as a vented cathedral assembly (soffit + ridge vent already installed). Spraying closed-cell foam to the entire deck converts it to an unvented “hot roof” per IRC R806.5. That is a legitimate code path, but it reverses the previously-confirmed vented assembly and means the existing soffit/ridge ventilation no longer functions as designed. This needs to be re-confirmed with the inspector, and the quote should state open- vs. closed-cell and foam thickness (Zone 6 / R806.5 wants the air-impermeable layer to carry ~R-25 of the assembly to keep the sheathing above the dew point).

Cost / Quote

• ✅ Quote received 2026-07-01 — $7,\mathrm{864.00.}\ast \ast Handwrittenquotation:roof\ast \ast 5½"closed-cell$6,590 + gable ends & dormer walls $1,274 for the 24×40 garage. 5½” CC ≈ R-38 on the deck (clears the R806.5 ~R-25 air-impermeable ratio for the unvented hot roof). Filed at quote summary; figure logged on Insulation Contractors.
• This is a full-roof foam scope — more than the targeted ~350 sq ft flash-and-batt-on-slopes-only that Option B in the strategy doc was costed against ($2,000–2,800).Compareontotalassemblyperformanceandthestoragegain,notjust$/sq ft. Get ≥1 competing full-roof quote before committing.

Decisions

• None finalized. No commitment made — this is an assessment visit with a quote pending. The recommendation is now a strong professional input into the still-open Conditioned-Triangle / vented-vs-unvented envelope decision (pre-insulation gate).

Action Items

• Receive Mid Michigan Spray Foam’s emailed quote; file in Email Imports/ and log the figure on Insulation Contractors — done 2026-07-01: $7,864 (vendor is Midstate Spray Foam Insulation LLC), filed at quote summary — owner:: Owner — stage:: 5
• Confirm quote specifies open- vs. closed-cell foam and thickness (R806.5 Zone 6 wants ~R-25 air-impermeable for an unvented deck) — owner:: Owner — stage:: 5
• Re-confirm the vented → unvented (hot-roof) conversion with the inspector before committing — full-deck foam disables the existing soffit/ridge ventilation — owner:: Owner — stage:: 5
• Measure available eave/heel depth on site (the eave-pinch gating item) — informs whether full foam to the eave is the right call — owner:: Owner — stage:: 5
• Get at least one competing spray-foam quote for the full-roof scope before deciding (RetroFoam of MI, Mid-Michigan Spray Foam @

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  , etc.) — owner:: Owner — stage:: 5
• Resolve the Conditioned-Triangle envelope decision in Insulation Strategy and record it in Decisions Log — pre-insulation gate — owner:: Owner — stage:: 5

Timeline Impact

No schedule change yet — quote pending. This is a pre-insulation-gate decision: the vented-vs-unvented / condition-the-triangles question must be settled before insulation and drywall. Once the quote and the envelope decision are in, update Timeline and Decisions Log.

Related Notes

• Insulation Contractors — candidate tracking (company name now confirmed)
• Insulation Strategy — design options, depth limitation, and the Conditioned-Triangle alternative this recommendation supports
• Insulation Execution — installation reference
• Loft Apartment Conversion Plan — kneewall closet that depends on conditioning the triangles
• Considerations Backlog — eave-depth measurement gating item
• Timeline