Radiant Barrier Paint Spray vs. Radiant Barrier Foil

What is the difference between Radiant Barrier Paint and Radiant Barrier Foil?

Both the radiant barrier spray paint and the radiant barrier foil "Reflect" or will not "Emit" attic radiant heat. The best available radiant barrier paint will reflect about 75% of the radiant heat transfer and the radiant barrier foil will reflect about 97% of the radiant heat transfer. Radiant Barrier Foil is actually the "Best" radiant barrier. You can either install it yourself or hire a professional installer who uses our foil insulation.

Which is Better? Radiant Barrier Pricing

What is Radiant Barrier Paint?

Radiant Barrier Spray Paint is essentially "liquid foil". All Radiant Barrier Paints are different, but basically pure aluminum is ground into a powder and put into a clear paint. Once the clear paint dries the aluminum powder forms a layer of aluminum. The best radiant barrier spray spray is only available to commercial contractors, and is an environmentally safe, water-based low-e paint called HeatBloc-75, Radiance e.25. or Lo/MIT. When the spray is installed CORRECTLY it will reflect about 75% of the radiant heat and can be a very good product. I have personally sprayed hundreds of homes in the Dallas - Ft Worth DFW area with fairly good results.

Getting good results with radiant barrier paint assumes a couple of things: First, that the rafters are being sprayed completely (this usually costs more). Second, the paint is being applied with the correct coverage (many spray contractors put it on too thin or too thick). Finally, there are some contractors (even large ones who advertise heavily) that will cut the paint with WATER to extend the coverage. This is called "Cutting" and it is cheating to cut costs. As a result, the TRUE EFFECTIVENESS of radiant barrier paint installed by many contractors is really only about 15-40% reflectivity. The typical consumer can't tell the difference between a good installation and a poor job without testing.

Finally, Radiant Barrier Spray Paint is NOT a good Do It Yourself Project. The fumes are noxious, you MUST use a VOC Respirator, you need a high-end airless spray rig, know what size spray tip to use and the proper pressure to get correct coverage and eliminate cloggage. Most people who try to do it themselves will actually blow too much paint and the material cost alone wil be over .30/ft. The radiant barrier foil cost is less than .13/ft. Painting with a roller is impossible since there are thousands of nails sticking through the roof deck and using a brush would take forever.

Different Brands of Radiant Barrier Spray Paint and Test Results.

Many companies have developed radiant barrier spray paint. In fact, NONE are TRUE radiant barriers since they all reflect less than 90% of the heat which is the definition of a true radiant barrier. They are technically called "Reflective Coatings" Here is a REPORT BY RIMA which did independent testing on all the different radiant barrier paints. Notice that the BEST paint STILL emits 22% of the radiant heat compared to only 3% for Radiant Barrier Foil. Some paints claim to be "Award Winning". Please email me if you can find out what this "Award" is and if it has any significance.

And, the paint tests were on perfectly applied smooth samples under laboratory conditions - not your attic. Your attic is made up of porous wood that loves to soak up paint and NOT keep it on the surface to create a smooth, shiny film required to be fully effective. In order for paint to come close to the tested emissivity rating the wood surface MUST be primed with a primer/base coat of paint first.

Product	Manufacturer/Distributor	Emittance -LOWER is BETTER
Radiant Barrier Foil Insulation		.03 Lowest Possible - BEST
Radiance e-0.25	Chemrex - Now owned by BASF	.23
HeatBloc-75	STS Coatings	.22
E-Barrier	Sherwin Williams	.36
Therma-Guard Silver	United Community Services of America	.57
LO/MIT I II	Solec-Solare Energy Corp	.23
HeatShield R-20	Kwik Co	.90 - Highest Tested-WORST
Radiosity 3000	Green Building Supply	.89
Hy-Tech Barrier Coat #85 - A	Hy-Tech	.66
Hy-Tech Barrier Coat #85 - B	Hy-Tech	.70
Insuladd-RBC	Tech Traders	.59
Koolcoat	Pawnee Specialties	.86

"FREE" Solar Attic Fans and other incentives.

Here is where the problem occurs. If you put the paint on too thin, add water or use an inferior "cheap" paint, then customers do not get the "cool" attic they are promised. So, some companies have resorted to doing things like giving away "FREE" solar fans. Yes, if you put an attic fan in the attic it will decrease the attic temperature but a fan will not stop any radiant heat transfer. It's actually a little tricky. A cooler attic is nice, but what we really need to do is reduce the temperature of the insulation.

Who Do We Recommend?

There are some very good radiant barrier spray installers. Unfortunately there are some that are not very good. The problem is you are not sure which one is coming to your house. Therefore, I do not endorse any particular company. If you are going to have the spray method done follow this advise: Use one of the top-rated radiant barrier paints above. CHECK for factory sealed/labeled containers that are opened on site. NO premixed paint in generic buckets. COUNT the number of gallons. It is hard to really estimate but if they are putting it on at 500-1000 ft./gallon it will not get the results promised. INSPECT Physically climb back into some of the dark corners of your attic with a flashlight and digital camera. Take some pictures and see if they got the whole roof. Agree to hold back partial payment until YOU are satisfied. I hate to be so critical but I've seen so many bad installations it is pretty common. I once had an installer who worked for me tell that the prior company he worked for told him that they would rather send him back on the 1 in 20 customers that complained rather then for him to do it right with the proper amount of paint the first time.

Also, ask for quote to spray the entire rafers with the deck AND how much a to apply a primer coat before the radiant barrier paint. This will give a better comparison between the spray and foil. Often, the price to include the full rafter and apply primer is MORE than you can have the foil professionally installed.

Why Use Radiant Barrier Foil?

Basically you are counting on the PRODUCT to do the work not a PERSON. If the foil is installed somewhere between the roof or rafters and the insulation it WILL reflect 97% of the radiant heat. This is indisputable - Radiant Barrier Foil works! And, It is actually difficult to install the foil wrong. This is the difference between Quality Assurance and Quality Control. You can ASSURE that reflective foil will work. You can only HOPE that the Radiant Barrier Spray is installed correctly. We no longer install radiant barrier paint. We only sell radiant barrier reflective foil insulation to do-it-yourselfers and professional installers.

Radiant Barrier pricing