Darkness to Light

Spray Foam Magazine – Show Issue 2025 – The old saying, ‘A leopard can’t change its spots,’ is obsolete when it comes to one spray foam company owner. This person has overcome adversity, addiction, and trouble, not only to win at business, but to change his entire life and those of others for the better. Spray Foam Magazine is honored to award this year’s Contractor of the Year (COTY) to Danny Walker, owner of Colony Insulation based in Algonac, MI.

Many readers will remember Danny for winning Spray Foam Magazine’s 2021 COTY Runner-up award. Since then, Danny has expanded his own business and is thriving in all aspects of his life. But, “Why Danny?” To truly understand his remarkable story, we must rewind to 2016 — a time when he was not in a good place. With a substance abuse problem and no home, Danny’s luck changed for the better after meeting someone during community service who introduced him to the spray foam industry.

Turning Challenges into Opportunities

Danny’s zest for life and his determination to grow his business is evident, and he has come a long way from his troubled youth. Following his 19th birthday, he joined the Navy, where he was training to be a machinist and a torpedoman’s mate on submarines. After boot camp at Great Lakes, IL, he went to Groton, CT for sub school (BESS - Basic Enlisted Submarine School). While in BESS, Danny realized he wanted to be a Navy Diver, so he began the process to cross-rate to be the diver for the ship. During this time, he was going through his first breakup.

“It turns out I was super codependent and lost my mind a bit. I began drinking heavily and fighting with my shipmates over petty things,” recalls Danny. “As a result, I was administratively separated from the Navy. When I was receiving my discharge papers, one of the petty officers said, ‘It’s a shame because you were accepted to dive school.’”

When he returned home, he continued to spiral out of control, thinking that he had lost everything that was building him up. He expressed that he felt deep shame, embarrassment, and hopelessness. However, he didn’t hit rock bottom until nine years later when his codependency and addictive behaviors manifested in all other areas of his life.

After numerous unfortunate events, Danny was determined to get clean. In short, he did so and started to rebuild his life. Danny was given a lucky break by someone who saw his potential at a time when many others had nearly given up on him. Fast forward several years, Danny is running a successful spray foam company.

Navigating the Growing Pains of Building a Thriving Business

In the beginning, everything went relatively smoothly for Danny, but once he started expanding the business more and more, things started to get complicated. He attributes this to broadening into all types of insulation, mold remediation, sump pump drainage systems, thermal barrier coatings, etc. He found himself juggling so many roles—boss, project manager, lead installer, estimator, and office guy. Additionally, keeping employees on task from job to job and letting go enough to delegate proved to be a huge struggle. “It stresses me out, taking me away from family time, and I feel like I’m playing catch up all the time,” says Danny.

Even if he’s managing a heavy workload, Danny still loves solving problems. “People call because they have a problem. Most of the time, they think they know what the issue is, but often we can offer options they haven’t even considered. Because of how diverse we have become, we are experts in our area for ventilation, remediation, drainage, and encapsulation, which makes us a one-stop shop for a lot of property owners,” confirms Danny.

Danny strives to maintain a consistent crew, and for the past two years, Robby Marshall has been his indispensable right-hand man. Danny often reflects that he wouldn’t be where he is today without Robby. Their journey together began at Foam All, where they were paired as coworkers when Danny first entered the spray foam industry. The duo operated their own rig for about a year and a half until an accident changed everything—Danny fell through a pole barn ceiling and shattered his heel. While Danny recovered, Robby stepped up as the lead sprayer. However, not long after, Robby left Foam All to explore other opportunities. Danny healed and came back to work, but he eventually left as well to launch his own business, Colony Insulation. Fate intervened and one day Robby reached out to Danny, asking if Colony needed help. What Robby didn’t realize was that Danny had been waiting and hoping for that call. Today, Danny considers Robby more than a colleague—he’s family.

Training, Collaboration, and Growth

Danny is constantly improving and adding to his professional skillset. In the past year, he earned his residential builder’s license and expanded Colony Insulation into mold remediation and specialized cleaning. He also acquired his IICRC WRT (water damage restoration technician) & AMRT (Applied Microbial Remediation Technician) Certification, which has allowed his company to become trusted contractors.

With these new credentials, Colony Insulation is now running several mold remediation jobs on top of several foam jobs each week. “I’m on track to complete over 300 attics by the end of the year, which means I’ll need to hire a couple more guys to divide and conquer all of the projects.” As for Colony Insulation, the crew is currently spraying an average of 15 sets of foam per month. They love their PMC PH-2 and it is in the company’s primary rig. They also have a back up rig with a Graco E-30. Currently, Danny prefers using the Carlisle ST1 spray gun. “I have sprayed many sets with the Fusion AP, Fusion CS, and Fusion PC and have decided that the ST1 has been the easiest for me to maintain while changing chambers and tip sizes frequently,” confirms Danny.

Transitioning to HFO from HFC has been a rough journey for Danny and his crew. He learned early on that storage temperatures for HFO vs HFC are way more sensitive for proper performance. After spending more time with different brands, they are currently spraying Accufoam and UPC closed-cell foam. They landed on these brands because of their tech support from both the chemical manufacturers and distribution centers.

Like many foamers, Danny has had his fair share of strange happenings on the job. “One time, I was spraying a barn, and a young deer walked in. It had a big heart marked on both of its sides. It turns out the homeowner found the baby deer, raised it, and then let it go. It continued to come around though, so they marked it to deter hunters from killing it. I had to shoo the deer out of the barn so that I didn’t accidentally spray it with foam,” laughs Danny.

He recalls a project last year where Colony Insulation completed installing SPF over 75,000 sq. ft. of two-inch roof deck with thermal barrier and latex coating to protect from the high humidity for a major marijuana grow facility in the Detroit area. Another project he recently completed was a 14,000-sq.-ft., three-inch roof deck sprayed with a textured look to resemble a cave feature.

A Foundation of Family and Faith

To Danny, “family” means belonging and unconditional love. His blood relatives have supported him throughout his life with their selfless actions, even when he was going through a bad time. Others in his life, who he considers family, have shown him what it means to be supportive as well through sacrifice and other efforts to help him realize what is important to him, and how to make those things

a reality.

“We need family to accomplish our goals, set new goals, and persevere. I have three children with my wife, Elizabeth. Apart from me, ours is a house full of girls—Serenity Rose (11), Hannah Grace (3), and Norah Lynn (1). I have two younger siblings, Josh and Katie. Josh is currently serving his third term in the Navy and is stationed in Japan with my nephew Joel. My sister recently got engaged to her fiancé, Andrew. They live in Kansas City, MO,” explains Danny.

Danny’s other big commitment includes his faith. He hasn’t always had that connection, but chose to surrender his life to God and turn from everything he was doing to live in his will. Since that day, he cannot even begin to express the amount of gratitude, hope, and joy he gets to live in every day. Because of this, he is inspired to share his experience so that if there’s someone else struggling, they can strive to have an experience similar to his. “My life has been filled with countless blessings after I began living for Christ, growing in my relationship with Christ, and reaching the world for Christ,” says Danny.

Inspiration, Recognition, and The Future

Danny has had many people in the industry inspire, support, and encourage him. He believes that all these people deserve the title of Contractor of the Year. From an installer stance, Danny sees foamers like Trevor Cochrane, Andrew Lilly, Stu Snyder, and Willy (Caleb) Colliver “crushing it.” On the tech side, he looks up to the likes of Cole Fletcher, Dan Mothershed, Shawn Gauthier, Chas Costa, and Rusty Schrader.

“If I’m looking up to a business owner, I’d have to say Mark Gordos, Todd Bolton, Karen Wikert, Chris Kuhn, and Ron Fetzer. There are so many people in this industry who have inspired me to not only be a better installer, but a better human being. Watching how they interact at events, learning about how they manage work, and seeing how they serve others is so impactful in my life. They say, ‘Look for mentors who have what you want and do what they do,’” says Danny, before adding, “Special shout out to my big bro Josh Cotner. He’s been a great mentor of mine from the start.”  

In terms of the industry’s outlook for 2025, Danny has recently noticed that a lot of distribution centers are partnering with manufacturers to offer training seminars, product demo days, and on-site training. He attended several trainings through SPI and Service Partners in 2024 and has had a manufacturer rep on site dialing in foam at least a half dozen times. When it comes to classroom training, Danny has seen this as a great opportunity for his crew to learn more about their trade from experts in their field and connect with other contractors outside of their own company to share experiences and how they get things done. He believes that efforts like this will generate more quality contractors.

He’s been spraying foam for seven years now, and in his humble way is quick to point out, “I still have so much to learn from a business owner standpoint. I’m almost at the three-year mark on my own. Each year is better than the last. I always pay attention to the details and put the customer first. Making sure we meet their expectations before the job is complete.”

Danny’s goal in life is to make a difference in the lives of those around him. He believes that any individual can make a difference, and that we never know what someone is going through. He concludes by stating, “Focus on being the best you that you can be, every day you open your eyes. That alone is inspirational and could move mountains for someone.”

Congratulations, Danny Walker, for being named Spray Foam Magazine’s 2024 Contractor of the Year. Your resilience, hard work, and dedication are an inspiration to all. Every time you fire up that new shiny rig, let it be a reminder of your incredible achievements so far on your amazing life journey.