Hi, my name is Larry Edgerton and I am a builder in northern Mich. for the last 25 years. I have a question about urathane foam sprayed into wall cavitys. I only have one job twenty years ago that used this method of insulation and today the house has major problems, namely ants eating the foam. this house was a geodesic dome and the panels came pre made and pre foamed.
Anyway………… I now have a customer that wants to spray his conventional framed home with urathane. I have not commited one way or the other but I am inclined to talk him out of it. The area that the home will be built is has extreme weather variations. I have seem -50 and +115 degrees We get a lot of moisture because we are between the Great Lakes. Lots of snow Conditions simular to east coast but maybe a little more severe.
I would like to hear facts and experiances of builders that have used this system, preferably in a simular climate.
Thanks, Larry Edgerton
Crooked Tree Joinery
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Anyone?
Larry, welcome to BT.
If you expand the discussion categories by the hitting the 18010 or what messages, it will show you MANY past posts , this subject has been recently given much dissertation. Good luck.
The seeach function is kinda lame..try to just open and expand this category of Gen Disc. upper left, left click on the total # of messages.
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Hi Larry,
I have a friend in Michigan who has been in the foam installation business for well over a decade. Give him (Dave) a call @ 616 813 7333 and tell him Torsten sent you. He can answer any questions you may have and help you out with an installer if your customer decides to go the foam route.
Hi,
Ants will not eat the foam. It is inert and undigestable.
What they do, is to poke tunnels through it by nibbling away with their mandibles and make their homes inside the wonderfull warm cavities.
Like those of us who know how nice it is to live in a foamed house, they aren't fools.
So many of the modern foam products are treated with borates which make the foam inhospitable to them
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Thanks for the number, I'll call.
I never thought about it, the ants not eating the foam, but that would explain the piles on the floor. The piles can be three inches tall if they are gone for extended periods. But they are eating something and it is the structure that I was worried about. And they require moisture to survive so trapped moisture must be givving them what they need because [so far] there are no leaks. Its trapped moisture that I am more worried about. I have always been in the " A house needs to breath" camp.
Some of you builders may appreciate this, the dome customer wanted to know what I was going to do about his problem, after 25 years, on a "Kit" he bought and paid me to errect. Sorry to disapoint you buddy, but........
I'm not real good with computors, and I couldn't figure the 18010 thing you were talking about. And you are right, the search funtion is hard to find what you are looking for specifically. It does'nt help that I keep getting sidetracked on other reading.
Larry, Crooked Tree Joinery
Go with a half pound, open cell foam and your walls will breathe.<!----><!----> <!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----> <!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----> <!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!---->