Imagination Station

Spray Foam Magazine – February 2025 –  For a kid, a playhouse is a stage for the imagination to run wild. The materials it’s made of matter not. It could be a palace of pillows or a treehouse of scrap wood, but what does matter is that it’s crafted with love by someone who cares. But as the saying goes, “if you’ve got it, flaunt it,” and that’s precisely what an Illinois dad did for his children by designing and constructing a luxurious playhouse from leftover materials from his construction company.

This doting dad upped the ante by having the entire playhouse enveloped in a cozy two-inch layer of Huntsman Icynene HFO 200, from the inside walls to the exterior underfloor. Sealtite Insulation and SlabJacking from Fairbury, Illinois, was charmed to do the honors. Because this client was a longtime customer of theirs, Sealtite‘s owner, Jeremy Leman offered to foam the playhouse completely for free.

Sealtite Insulation’s client is a local builder who specializes in post-frame buildings, also known as pole barns. The client frequently called on Leman and his team to install a foam building envelope to the completed structures. Recently, the Sealtite team visited this customer’s personal residence to foam his basement. While there, the client inquired about how much it would add to the bill if they were to foam his children’s yet-to-be-completed playhouse in the backyard.

“He was like, ‘it might be overkill, but I’m thinking about insulating this playhouse for my kids. Could you throw me a price?’ Since we were already gonna be there doing the basement, we threw the playhouse in for free as a thank you for all his business.” said Lehman.

The Sealtite crew of three, composed of one lead sprayer and two helpers, foamed both the playhouse and basement in just two days. They completed the project in mid-November of 2025, right as the holiday season began to approach, and the weather started to get bone-chillingly frigid. They did all the spray foam work for both the basement walls and the playhouse in one day, then returned the next day to add fiberglass batts to the basement ceiling for soundproofing.

According to the client, he’d had his construction team build the playhouse in their downtime, but no one had expected it to turn into the fancy domicile it’s becoming. It now resembles one of those pre-built garden sheds that are all the rage for she-sheds or detached mancaves, only with higher quality materials and thoughtful custom elements. Having a playhouse with shingles and a porch is one thing, but having it insulated for all seasons is the gift that keeps giving.

“It seems he was having his team work on it as they had time, but I know he’s planning to completely finish the inside now that it’s insulated.”

Illinois has the propensity to get cold, really cold, with snow blanketing the ground for several months in the winter season. Such weather makes playing outside for long periods a little difficult. But now, the kids won’t have to suffer from cabin fever. They can play on the attached swing set until their noses go numb, then climb on inside the playhouse to crank a tiny space heater and warm up in a place that’s truly their own.

Despite this being a house for play and make believe, the Sealtite team foamed it with the same care as if it had been a standard residential construction. While the sprayer and one helper finished up the basement, the other helper went outside to prep the playhouse. They masked absolutely everything with plastic to protect it from overspray, from the interior floors, the door, and each of its many windows. Outside, they covered the posts that the playhouse is perched upon and draped a tent of plastic around on the house’s porch so that they could spray the exterior underside to protect the ground and attached swing set from overspray.

After masking up all vulnerable areas, the Sealtite sprayer installed the two-inch layer of Huntsman Icynene HFO 200 foam using a Graco H-30 and Probler P2 Elite spray gun. They used supplied air respirators, along with standard PPE like protective suits and gloves.

Although spray foam teams are used to having to crouch and stoop in low places like attics and crawlspaces, the Sealtite crew was pleasantly surprised to find the playhouse was quite roomy. At about 10 by 12 feet, it was plenty tall enough for the sprayer to stand up and move around inside. While the wall height was only five feet, the roof peak went up to about eight feet at the highest point. In all, they added foam to about 125 square feet. And although they were working on the basement and playhouse in the same day, they crushed the job like it was nothing.

“They left the shop around 6:30am and returned at about 1:45, and the site was an hour away, so they definitely blitzed seven and a quarter hours, including drivetime.” said Leman, also adding that for both the playhouse and basement it took just under a full set of foam.

With the spray foam installed, the owner plans to finish the inside of the playhouse, adding walls atop the foam as well as flooring and electrical wiring. Leman and his team at Sealtite are proud to have done their part to contribute to childhood wonder. After all, there’s no place like foam.