As demand grows for higher-performing building envelope systems, spray polyurethane foam continues to gain momentum across the construction industry. Few companies are moving faster in that space right now than Polycon.

During a recent conversation with Building Enclosure, Polycon CEO Doug Kramer shared how the Houston-based manufacturer is leveraging innovation, experience and rapid growth to position itself as a major player in the spray foam and building enclosure markets.

Polycon CEO Discusses Spray Foam Innovation

Polycon CEO Doug Kramer shares how the fast-growing spray foam company is driving innovation, navigating supply chain challenges, and helping push the roofing and insulation industries into a new era of energy-efficient building solutions.

Kramer, who has spent nearly four decades in the spray foam industry, said Polycon may be relatively new as a company, but the experience behind it is anything but new.

“We originally described ourselves as a new company with a long history,” Kramer said. “But things have evolved quickly. We’ve reached a point where we really want to be viewed as a leader in the marketplace.”

Polycon manufactures spray polyurethane foam systems for insulation and roofing applications, including exterior roofing foams and elastomeric coatings. The company operates a fully automated manufacturing facility in Houston and has experienced rapid growth since launching roughly a year and a half ago.

According to Kramer, much of that momentum comes from a culture built around innovation and customer support.

“More than 50 percent of our staff came back from former companies I’ve worked with over the years,” he said. “The culture is healthy, positive and very customer focused. We all understand what it takes to support contractors and deliver quality systems.”

Advancing Spray Foam Technology

Innovation has long been central to Kramer’s career in the SPF industry. At a previous company, he helped commercialize next-generation blowing agent technologies that helped move the industry toward more environmentally advanced systems.

That same innovation mindset is now driving Polycon’s approach to the building enclosure market.

One of the company’s biggest recent accomplishments involves achieving what Kramer described as an “Appendix U” certification standard.

Appendix U is a higher-level ASTM testing configuration that allows certain spray foam systems to be used in specific unvented attic assemblies without requiring an ignition barrier.

“It can save contractors and building owners close to two dollars per square foot,” Kramer explained. “We were the first company to fully commercialize that standard, and it’s become a major differentiator for us.”

The testing involves full-scale fire performance evaluations designed to validate the safety and effectiveness of spray foam assemblies in real-world applications.

For architects, consultants and enclosure professionals, those advancements can help simplify assemblies while improving thermal performance and installation efficiency.

Growing Demand for High-Performance Enclosures

Kramer believes increasing awareness around energy efficiency and building performance is helping accelerate adoption of spray foam technology across residential and commercial construction.

“Years ago, consumers didn’t really know what spray foam was,” he said. “Now people are educated. They ask whether it’s open-cell or closed-cell foam. They understand performance.”

That awareness extends beyond homeowners and contractors to architects and specifiers focused on continuous insulation, air sealing and high-performance enclosure systems.

“The industry has experienced steady double-digit growth for years,” Kramer said. “People want better-performing buildings, and spray foam continues to become more mainstream.”

Despite current supply-chain allocation challenges impacting portions of the chemical industry, Kramer remains optimistic about the future.