Winnebago County approves spray-foam change order for new storage building

The Winnebago County Board of Supervisors voted to approve Change Order No. 2 for the county’s new storage/shop building, authorizing spray-foam wall insulation supplied by a local contractor.

Scott Meinders, the county’s secondary-roads engineer who updated the board on construction progress, said the contractor will use a local firm, Diamond Spray Foam, to install closed-cell spray foam in the exterior walls. Meinders and others described spray foam as providing better sealing and vapor-barrier properties than typical batt insulation.

Meeting discussion put the spray-foam work at about $22,000; Meinders said that change raised the wall-insulation line by roughly $14,000 compared with the subcontractor work that had been included in the original contract allowance. Meinders told supervisors the building already has walls and much of the roof sheeting in place; the office area now has cut-in windows and interior framing. The center trench drain and the center third of the concrete floor are poured, he said.

A supervisor asked whether the substitution would change the building’s structural behavior; Meinders said spray foam can add a more continuous shell but that, on this new project, installing foam in the walls would not create structural issues. The board approved the change order by voice vote.

Meinders told the board the contractor’s current completion target remains September (the original completion month stated in project documents) and that the contractor had recently improved on-site management and communication.

Votes at a glance: Motion to approve Change Order No. 2 for the Winnebago County storage building (spray-foam insulation) — motion passed by voice vote.