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Discussion Forum

various homasote uses

rez | Posted in General Discussion on September 18, 2006 03:10am

Speaking of the standard blackened on one side 1/2 inch thick 4×8 type sheets of asphalt impregnated fiberboard commonly found in lumberyards or the bigboxes.

Aside from it’s standard use as a siding underlayment, I was wondering if there are any number of other uses for this sheet product as recently referenced by another poster regarding it’s use as a sound deadener beneath a hardwood floor.

Thanks

The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

Reply

Replies

  1. User avater
    PaulBinCT | Sep 18, 2006 03:41pm | #1

    In my past life I used it (without the asphalt impregnation) as a huge "bulletin board" to pin up artwork in a photo studio.  Also have seen a few houses here that used it as a wallboard. Ugh...

  2. WNYguy | Sep 18, 2006 03:53pm | #2

    I once owned a house built in 1935 in which, as the previous poster mentions, all the interior finish walls were Homasote.  It was actually quite ornate, with stamped "panel" designs and cutout dentils and scallops as ceiling cornice, etc. 

    Allen

    1. User avater
      PaulBinCT | Sep 18, 2006 04:03pm | #3

      You're lucky... the houses I've seen just had raw Homosote with battens to conceal the seams.

      Uuuuuuuuuuuglllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

      1. migraine | Sep 18, 2006 08:33pm | #10

        Did you do anything to fix the "paneling?  Did you remove it then drywall or did you go over it with drywall.

        Inquiring minds want to know...  The majority of my upstairs floor(1930 home) is homosote boards and needs replacing/covering before it sells.

        1. WNYguy | Sep 19, 2006 04:19am | #18

          Migraine, in my 1935 home, I replaced the Homasote with drywall in two rooms.  I removed the Homasote, exposing the studs, then drywalled as usual.  The fiberboard panels each had the "Homasote" brand name printed on labels that were attached to the backside.

          This was back in 1987 ... I really had to rush the job because my twin sons were almost due.  One of the rooms was to be their temporary nursery, the other was to be their bedroom.

          Allen

        2. User avater
          PaulBinCT | Sep 19, 2006 03:22pm | #23

          We went over it in most cases... in some places it had to be removed because it had become so warped.

    2. rez | Sep 18, 2006 04:32pm | #4

      Reason I was asking is a while back a buddy who has boomtruck equipment gets periodic calls from truckers with overweight loads at the local interstate weighscales and often the merchandise removed is not worth the hassle for the companies to send a man and truck back to retrieve the overages.

      So for a buck a sheet I was able to buy 100 half inch 4x9 sheets of the stuff I still have sitting and need to do something with.

      I have seen new home construction using the sheets as the sole wall sheathing with osb on the corners and got to thinking that might do for a shed.

      Then another poster's comment about it's use as a hardwood flooring underlayment got me wondering how else it might be used.The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

      1. Piffin | Sep 18, 2006 07:52pm | #8

        I knew from your first post that you'd found a DEAL!I used to use it for flooring protection on remodels, but I don't know if I would do that with any aspalt in it. 

         

        Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

        1. rez | Sep 18, 2006 08:04pm | #9

          Broke a tree limb unloading it with a come-along.

           

           

          be that was one of those daysThe bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

      2. reinvent | Sep 19, 2006 03:46pm | #24

        See if you can return some or all of it to a lumber yard or big box store for store credit. Tell them you bought way to much but you lost the receipt and can they help you out.

        1. User avater
          PaulBinCT | Sep 19, 2006 05:52pm | #25

          Nice... really nice. Hope it's a joke.

  3. DanH | Sep 18, 2006 05:25pm | #5

    I've read that model railroaders like the uncoated stuff for their layouts.

    If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. --James Madison
    1. frontiercc2 | Sep 18, 2006 05:58pm | #6

      Yes, us wacky Model Railroaders sometimes use homasote. And since they use it under the tracks and cut "cookie cutter" style out of full sheets, sometimes they use quite a bit of it. I've also seen it used as interior sheething in modular houses. Might it make decent wall material for a garage? Sound deadening and easy to pin the Snap On calendars up to it. Might not be the most fire safe though.

    2. jackplane | Sep 18, 2006 07:47pm | #7

      You can make "weaponized" grade homosote. Just load 8-10 hacks of it onto a C 130, and drop it in Afghanistan. It's a lot cheaper than cruise missiles. 

  4. timkline | Sep 18, 2006 10:12pm | #11

    we use it mostly to protect hardwood floors during demo.  it's gotten pretty expensive for this use anymore.

    we've used it in 2" thick 2' x 8' tongue and groove panels for roof sheathing on some comtemporary residences in the area.  all repair work.

    lots of other uses:

    http://www.arcat.com/arcatcos/cos33/arc33102.cfm

     

    carpenter in transition

    1. CaseyR | Sep 19, 2006 12:39am | #12

      I own a 1957 vintage ranch style house in the SF Bay Area which has a roof of Homasote panels. There are about two dozen similar homes in the area and all use the same construction. The panels are 3 1/2" thick, 12" wide and 8 feet long and have tongue and groove along the sides. There is white vinyl bonded to one side while the top is the bare fiber which is covered with hot-mopped tar roofing. I have been told that this type of roof is more common in Southern California than in the Bay Area. Needless to say, the Homasote roofing doesn't hold up too well if the hotl tar membrane is breached - as I found out when I had to replace several panels when I tree fell on the roof. Homasote reportedly no longer produces the the panels but similar panels are available from a different company, although they are 1/2" narrower. I think the R value is about R-7.Unfortunately, the builders also put a 3/8" homasote type panel under the vinyl flooring in the bathroom. Again, not an ideal material for an area that can potential see water penetration. I am no in the process of removing that material...

      1. timkline | Sep 19, 2006 12:55am | #14

        see, you got to experience it too.

        why in god's name did they change the panel width  ???

        they are the only manufacturer of the damn product  !!

        they are making it on their own machines !

        they can charge whatever they want for it and we will pay cuz no one else makes it

         

        it's like Weyerhauser changing their plywood to 47 1/2" wide !

         carpenter in transition

  5. mike4244 | Sep 19, 2006 12:55am | #13

    Homosote is also used for table pads, sometimes covered with fabric.Years ago homosote was used for soffits . It was nailed with roofing nails and painted. It will stand up to the weather if it does not come in direct contact with water.

    mike

  6. bobguindon | Sep 19, 2006 01:02am | #15

    We have homasote on our soffits and ceiling on the back porch.  We live in a '63 ranch that desparately needs paint, but I'm not thinking that scraping the alligatored white paint on the homasote is going to be much fun...

    I think that most of the homes in our plat were built this way.

    1. DavidxDoud | Sep 19, 2006 02:43am | #16

      I've got a pole building with homosote (maybe celotex? - a similar product) between the strapping and the metal,  and a double layer with an air space below the roof -

      congrats on your score - I'd be more impressed if it were plywood....

       

       "there's enough for everyone"

  7. Cork in Chicago | Sep 19, 2006 03:36am | #17

    Hey rez,

    I've worked extensively with this product while doing commercial interior finishout. We have used it to make fabric covered panels. Cut the panels to size (use table saw, circular saw etc...) and then spray with 3M contact adhesive - let adhesive get tacky and then spray again - do same thing to fabric covering ( the covering must be overcut to go around edges of panel), then wrap panel with fabric. Let dry, then apply "panel adhesive" to back of panel and hang on wall or ceiling. If you want to butt a lot of panels together you can just butt cut them. If you are leaving spaces between them, then a great look is to put a chamfer on the edges to give the panels a 3 dimensional look.

    Besides wall panels these fabric covered panels are also used in office and kitchen spaces as "tack boards" to pin up various messages etc...

    They are also great for their sound deadening quality.

    Have a good one,

    Cork in Chicago

    1. gstringe | Sep 19, 2006 04:22am | #19

      Homosote and Celotex, asphalted or not, are not the same. Hopefully it is real Homesote as that is good heavy dense stuff. Lots of uses. Go to homasote.com for info.
      cheersI like your approach....now lets see your departure

      1. rez | Sep 19, 2006 04:48am | #20

        so what are the differences?

        Is it something in the paper compression makeup or a coating?

        The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

        Edited 9/18/2006 9:49 pm ET by rez

        1. BillBrennen | Sep 19, 2006 05:55am | #22

          Rez,Homasote is a company name. Their 440 underlayment product is gray and very dense compared with Celotex. I think it is made from recycled newsprint. It costs a lot more than the Celotex, too.Standard Celotex is less dense and made from wood fibers, not paper. It has a coarser texture, is brown, and is not rated for use under floors; it crushes too easily. Asphalted Celotex (nearly black) was once very popular as a nonstructural wall sheathing, typically with plywood on the corners. Critters, including bees, like to burrow through it and nest in the wall cavities.Was the stuff you scored gray or brown? Or black?Bill

      2. Cork in Chicago | Sep 20, 2006 02:49am | #26

        Hey gstring,

        You're right, good call.  I'll claim I was up late and real tired so didn't read the post to well. The stuff we used was expensive and made from recycled paper. In re-reading the original post what is being talked about is an entirely different product.

        Have a good one,

        Cork in Chicago

  8. User avater
    IMERC | Sep 19, 2006 05:48am | #21

    stay away from it..

     

     

    Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming

    WOW!!! What a Ride!

    Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!

    1. rez | Sep 22, 2006 04:30pm | #27

      ok, how come you are saying that?

       

       The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

      1. User avater
        IMERC | Sep 22, 2006 04:39pm | #28

        I've never had any use for the stuff.... 

         

        Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->

        WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->

        Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!

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