Survivor: 700 Acre Island

Spray Foam Magazine – Fall 2025 – Skip Doodson of Exeter, Maine has worked in the construction industry for 44 years and spent the last 18 of those years running his spray foam company, Circle D Sprayfoam. From complex builds to straightforward sprays, he figured by now he must have seen it all. But just when he thought his spray foam career had no more surprises, along came a job with a twist: a spray foam project on an island only accessible by a barge that couldn’t accommodate his regular trailer and rig.

Like many in the spray foam industry, Doodson is a natural problem solver. Even so, most jobs don’t require you to build a rig from scratch, pack as light as possible, and haul your tools across a body of water– but spray foam jobs aren’t most jobs. Doodson wasn’t about to let a little water and logistics stop him. In May, he and his lead sprayer Trenton Astbury completed a project on Maine’s scenic 700 Acre Island, reaching the site via three different vehicles and constructing a makeshift foam rig inside a tent built on the back of a truck. That setup allowed them to spray Enverge closed-cell foam on two separate buildings during their weeklong stay. As far as Doodson is concerned, it was one of the more interesting jobs he’s had the pleasure to coordinate.

It began with a call from Ken Richards of KLR Construction, a local contractor Doodson had worked with before.

“The contractor, Ken, we’d done multiple jobs for in the past. Foam is his preferred insulation method, and he always recommends it to clients if it’s within their budget. With the island being right on the ocean, winters get wet, windy, and chilly, so foam was really the best option,” Doodson recalled.

The project sounded like a chance to work in a beautiful setting as well as a compelling logistical challenge. Getting supplies and equipment from the mainland to the island would take careful planning.

“Basically, all spray foam jobs are the same. You show up in the truck, get everything prepped and set up, then spray, clean, pack up, and leave. This one was different,” he said.

Though the job took place in May 2025, planning began months earlier in November 2024. Exeter is a good distance from 700 Acre Island, and the journey required multiple stages: an hour-long truck ride from Circle D’s base in Exeter to a port in Rockland, where they would load all the equipment onto a barge. From there they’d take a 20-minute barge trip across the water. At the end of the day, they’d head back to the mainland via a small boat, which would land in Lincolnville, then do it all again the following morning until the job was finished.

The biggest hurdle wasn’t travelling or spraying but hauling. Doodson’s 45-foot truck-and-trailer rig was too big and heavy for the barge’s ramp and trying to maneuver it on and off the island would’ve been risky. He needed another solution.

He turned to his longtime distributor, Dave Boyko at SPI, for ideas. After discussing options, Doodson rented a spray foam unit from SPI and mounted it onto the bed of his truck. They welded down the air compressor to keep it secure and built a plastic tent over the rig setup to protect the chemicals from rain and moisture.

“SPI had both a rental rig and a trailer ready for me, but the bargemaster said the trailer was too long,” Doodson recalls. “They put the rig in a shipping container and shipped it to me. They actually removed the rig from the spray booth where they tested all their applications.”

Their makeshift rig, now ferry-ready, was light enough to transport. On the first day, Doodson and his crew loaded four sets of foam, ladders, and staging supplies, into the back of his own pickup. From Rockland, they shipped both of Doodson’s trucks over to the island. Doodson’s pickup truck was just a convenient way to transport the rest of the equipment. Unlike the truck with the rental rig, Doodson’s pickup didn’t stay on the island. After unloading the pickup, one of the contractor’s employees returned the truck to Rockland on the barge. They then drove it back to Lincolnville so Doodson could access it later, after he returned on the main boat. The flatbed with the rig remained on the island for the week.

After making landfall on the island, they travelled by ATV to one of the two sites they’d be spraying. The job consisted of two buildings: a newly built house and an older structure undergoing renovation. In the new build, they foamed the roof deck and a wine cellar with Enverge closed-cell foam. In the older building, they insulated several rooms, spraying the walls and ceilings.

Because Doodson already knew the contractor and the client had used foam before, the setup was smooth. There was already a skid steer on site to move and swap out barrels of foam as needed. “It wasn’t their first time working with foam, so they knew what to expect before we even arrived, and were super helpful once we got there,” said Doodson.  

The site was well-prepped, but there were still some architectural quirks– like a 24-foot pocket door that needed careful masking. “It’s not every day you see a pocket door to begin with, but I don’t think I’d ever seen one that big,” Doodson said, adding. “We took care to cover it up, because no way could I replace it.” Once it was masked, it was easy to spray over.

The contractors helped Doodson build the plastic tent over the rig to keep it safe from the island’s rainy weather. They had already cleared and prepped the site for spraying, so Doodson’s lead sprayer, Trenton Astbury, could get started without much pause. That teamwork helped streamline the process. They put on industry-standard PPE, then it was time to move.

While Astbury handled spraying, Doodson kept their flow going by changing out barrels, prepping, cleaning, and coordinating with the contractors. “He works with me, not for me,” Doodson emphasized.

They used a Graco Reactor with a ClearShot gun to apply Enverge closed-cell SPF, spraying a total of around 17,461 board feet across the two structures. The short 70-foot hose on the rental rig meant they sometimes had to get creative with their approach.

“Since the hose was so short, we’d have to park outside as close as possible and put the hose through a window and just spray as much as we could before moving and readjusting again,” said Doodson.

If a slightly too-short hose is the only issue one encounters when spraying on a rainy island using a rented, plastic covered rig, call it a win. After about a week, they were completely finished with the spray job and ready to coordinate their equipment’s return trip.

A touch of bad weather delayed the final equipment pickup for a few days, but fortunately, the delay didn’t disrupt their day-to-day operations. On the job’s final evening, they brought back the hand tools and essentials on the job’s final evening, then returned the following week to collect the empty drums and rental rig. The last step was disassembling the rig and shipping it back to SPI. “Then we lived happily ever after,” Doodson said with a chuckle.

Doodson expects to retire at some point in the next couple of months. Pulling off unique gigs like the 700 Acre Island job is the cherry on top of a long and varied career, the success of which he attributes to the relationships he’s built along the journey.

“I get a little emotional because it was a life-changing decision to get into spray foam all those years ago. I worked construction for 26 years before building my first rig in 2007. Since then, I’ve met so many wonderful people in this industry. Best decision of my life.”

With all its quirks and logistical hurdles, the 700 Acre Island job demonstrates the power of good relationships to make your life easier. As Doodson is quick to point out, it was his relationships that truly made this logistically challenging job possible. From the contractor who hired him, to his longtime employee who did the spraying, all the way to his trusted distributor that shipped the rig over—their contributions kept this island job anchored ashore rather than adrift at sea.