Expanding Foam - Argument... Please help

[sh4d0w]

Hi Guys,

I have just had an argument with a mate who is a Painter and Decorator by trade.

I have just put up some new fascias on my garage as the wooden T&G boards were rotten as a pear, i am trying to minimize drafts and try and maintain a bit of heat in there as some of my tools are getting a little rusty, i have had to bring all of my power tools in the house now.

Anyway, My garage has an asbestos roof and i was using expanding foam in the gaps to try and block out drafts, only my brand new can of wickes foam was useless, would not produce any foam but when upright i got solvent so i was complaining that the foam was rubbish... My mate turned round and said,
"Yep, its the worst thing ever, you should use some gapfil"

so i disagreed and he turns round and tells me that it is "Banned" on construction sites, especially for anyone who has a CSS card, i assume he means CSCS card??

This is news to me, by trade i am a second fix joiner but been out of the trade for 5 years now so i just want to know.

Is he right? or, is Expanding foam still used on sites? especially new-builds?

 

[securespark]

Can't be banned: I did a great bricking up job with it:

http://www.balfours.co.uk/news/ban-expanding-foam/

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

Expanding foam (apart from intumescent) should be banned if it isn't. A carpenter/window fitter should make the plug fit the hole. Not make the hole fit the plug.

 

[sh4d0w]

i found that site too, but nothing else.

 

[joinerjohn]

Expanding foam (apart from intumescent) should be banned if it isn't. A carpenter/window fitter should make the plug fit the hole. Not make the hole fit the plug.

Sadly a carpenter/window fitter, can't make a wrongly measured window bigger. Sure , he can add bits of timber/plastic, but what's wrong with the manufacturer doing their job properly in the first place?
Expanding foam does have it's uses.

 

[sh4d0w]

so, is it banned?

 

[Burnerman]

Wickes stuff bloomin' well should be.....
John

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

Sadly a carpenter/window fitter, can't make a wrongly measured window bigger. Sure , he can add bits of timber/plastic, but what's wrong with the manufacturer doing their job properly in the first place?
Expanding foam does have it's uses.

Glad you took it that way! I forgot the "tongue firmly in cheek" Smilie!!

Having said that. The last "Chippies 'r' us/Gutterers 'r' us/Kitchen fitters 'r' us I worked with, hand built the frames to fit the holes. The speed and precision with which he did it was a sight to behold. Seeing as how I was wiring the new build up I wanted to cut the power so he'd have to use "proper" chippy tools! (block shave/axe etc..) .

As an aside. How come chippies have to be so bloody noisy? When power tools aren't doing yer head in, the bloody radio does!!

 

[gregers]

As an aside. How come chippies have to be so bloody noisy? When power tools aren't doing yer head in, the bloody radio does!! icon_razz.gif

nowt wrong wih that m8ty.

but next time ask what song thats just been played and i bet he cant answer .
as i work predominately by myself ive always got a song box on.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

so, is it banned?

No, it's not. Although you do need to use the correct grade, e.g. fire rated, low-expansion (hard to get), etc. It has it's uses; the trade use gun-grade foam which is less wastefull (unless some t*ss*r removes the can from the gun and boogers it, the gun that is), but there is a tendency for the inexperienced, fly boys and incompetent bodge merchants to use it to fix door casings and windows instead of anchoring stuff properly then using it to fill gaps (much as we used to use mineral wool at one time). Yes, I use it - yes, I think it is over-used by some

If you had a can which didn't work the questions have to be were you using it right way up (not as daft as it sounds) and how cold was it? The stuff slows down at lot below about 5°C and stops expanding at all when you get down to freezing point.

A carpenter/window fitter should make the plug fit the hole. Not make the hole fit the plug.

So, smart boy, how do you deal with an opening for a door casing that the mason's have cut for you which looks like something a three year old did on an Etch-a-Sketch?

 

[Deleted member 174758]

As an aside. How come chippies have to be so bloody noisy? When power tools aren't doing yer head in, the bloody radio does!!

We can do stuff by hand, it's just that site managers prefer us to do stuff quickly..... We just have the radios to annoy sparkies, nothing more, nothing less. Hasn't had quite the same effect since the Fat Pratt retired from morning radio - at least the Ginger Wonder is still there to annoy the sparks!

 

[joinerjohn]

Once put a door frame in for my brother. The opening was about 2" wider than the frame so he filled one side up with expanding foam. Sadly there were electric cables running part way down the gap (for an architrave switch for the lighting) . When the foam had expanded and "gorn orf", he got his lad to cut the excess foam off. Unknowingly, the foam had brought the cables slightly out from the wall (but still buried in the foam) His lad wasn't best pleased, sawing through live cables.

 

[pred]

Brilliant stuff, especcially good at sticking old skirting boards on the wall the only downside is it has to be protected from uv rays as it powders away, a mate of mine here in Bristol does fibre glass flat roofs, just over a year ago he got this new product from Germany, a sort of fibre glass spray for asbestos roof sheets, once its done the asbestos is locked in and another benefit is you are then able to walk on the stuff without it breaking, bloody krauts! they think of everything

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Brilliant stuff, especcially good at sticking old skirting boards on the wall the only downside is it has to be protected from uv rays as it powders away

So that fact that it tends to blow the skirting boards off the wall and costs more than Grip Fill don't come into it, then?

 

[pred]

Sorry i forgot to say; you do need to use your brains for this, 1930s semi, the original nails are rusted away in the solid wall which is just a tad damp here and there but nowt to get your knickers in a twist, use 3:1 a decent brand of pva and water, give the wall and the board a couple of coats, spray the foam in two lines on the board then place it on the wall, dont worry about the wall being uneven no spacers required, i used two planks angled across the room kicked in to place and a few blocks as the board WAS twisted, NO MORE!! this was done 3years ago and it is still in the same place as when i removed the planks the next day, also no damp comes through the foam to rot the wood, jobs a gud un.