A new wall system at the Putnam Hospital Center in Carmel, N.Y., features 6-inch metal wall studs with 2-inch foam board mechanically fastened with ties to the exterior brick work. Mid-Valley Restoration sprayed 30,000 square feet of 1-inch, 2-pound-density, closed-cell urethane foam to the sheathing between the studs. (Photograph courtesy of Ray Micucci Jr.)

Ray Micucci Jr. is saving his customers a lot of energy, but he apparently has plenty to spare for himself. As president of Mid-Valley Restoration, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., the 24-year veteran of the construction industry specializes in lowering his customers' utility bills. From coatings to spray polyurethane foam (SPF) to draft proofing to polyurea, this roofer-at-heart is into it all.

Things really heated up for the company at the end of 2003, when Micucci hired a contractor with 30 years of experience in SPF to recover a gravel roof system.

"As I watched the spray foam application being installed, I knew that was it for me," Micucci says. "I had to have that technology with my own cool roof system as an upgrade to sell to my clients."

However, the promise of becoming partners with the SPF veteran was just the beginning for Micucci.

"This system put me in a much better position, with less chance of roof failures and added extra energy savings for my clients and bigger profits for us," he says.

In 2004 nearly one-third of the contractor's business was SPF, and this was just his first year out of the gate. For this kind of performance, Mid-Valley received a new dealer of the year award from a spray foam supplier and concentrated more on foam and coatings in 2005.

At this point, Micucci was paying his spray foam associate one-third of the company's gross revenues, and by early 2006 there were a lot of SPF jobs on the table — but still no partnership with the foamer. Micucci decided to move on, and in May 2006 purchased his own H20 35 Pro spray rig and a trailer to tow it.

"I started spraying my own roofs and grossed $700,000 that year with a three-man crew," Micucci says. "It was the most profit I had ever made in my 24 years in the construction business."

Micucci kept his 2007 New Year's resolution when he configured a 2008 4400 Series International crew cab and a beverage body truck, loaded and ready to spray for the upcoming season.

"After I ordered the truck, my dreams were on paper and ready for production," the contractor says. "Just $2,500 and a loan commitment were all I needed to get started."

SPF

Not wanting to cut any corners in his first year out with the truck, Micucci signed up for training classes held at the 2007 Spray Polyurethane Foam Alliance (SPFA) conference and got up to speed on SPF applications and business practices.

By adding spray foam to its repertoire, Mid-Valley was able to offer its customers two energy-saving roofing packages — a coatings-only cool roof or a full-on foam and coatings roofing system.

A cold spring meant a late start for Mid-Valley in its first year with the new rig, but it gave Micucci time to come up with the down payment on his $111,000 truck. After meeting Hesse Truck Body at the Canadian border to pick up his vehicle, the contractor transferred his trailer rig to the truck and upgraded it.

Micucci was tempted to install the H20 35 Pro behind the driver's-side first bay door but opted to put it in the second bay, closer to the huge foam reel and across from the transfer pumps.