Project profile: Henderson Ice Arena

By Emma Peterson.

A spray foam retrofit allows Culver Military Academy's hockey facilities to operate comfortably and efficiently throughout the year.

Along Indiana’s Lake Maxinkuckee sits a little town called Culver. Culver, which is approximately 90 miles southeast of Chicago, boasts Indiana’s 2017 Division II Designee as a Stellar Community and is best known as the home of the Culver Military Academy.

This academy was founded back in the 19th century by Henry Harrison Culver, an American businessman and philanthropist who the town is also named for.

Culver Military Academy is a boarding school and has an impressive roster of alumni that includes “prominent figures like former N.Y. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, auto racing legend Roger Penske and recording artist Dierks Bentley.” Their mission, as stated on their website, is to “educate its students for leadership and responsible citizenship in society by developing and nurturing the whole individual – mind, spirit and body – through integrated programs that emphasize the cultivation of character.”

One such program is their over 100-year-old tradition of athletics which sees students compete in everything from cross country and rowing to fencing and hockey. As one of the cores of the Culver experience, it makes sense that the Culver team works hard to make sure students have access to the best facilities for their sports. Take their ice hockey venues for example. Culver’s hockey teams play and practice at the Henderson Ice Arena, which features an NHL-standard rink and an Olympic-sized rink.

And while some arenas are only operational during the cooler months (late fall, winter and early spring), Culver’s team wanted to make sure their students could use their arena year-round. And to do that, they reached out to The Insulation Guys from Rochester, Indiana for some help.

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The Insulation Guys inspected the Henderson Ice Arena and determined that, if they were to open the arena year-round as is, they would encounter a problematic “mixing of hot air entering the attic from the outside with the colder, conditioned air from the rink below creating condensation problems within the arena.” In other words, there wasn’t proper insulation or venting in the attic of the rink.

To solve this issue, The Insulation Guys worked with Enverge building scientist Aaron Davenport to create a plan, using a four-inch layer of Enverge OnePass closed-cell spray foam, to seal and insulate the attic roof deck. And it worked! The spray foam “created an airtight, thermal and moisture seal across the hockey rink” which “completely sealed off from the attic space, resolving all condensation issues” and allowing Culver students to practice and play all year long!

Learn more about this project.