Interesting! I used Liquid Nails out of a gallon can applied with a notched trowel to apply two layers of the extruded Polystyrene foam around the outside of my basement walls nearly 20 years ago and so far it has not damaged the foam as far as I can tell. Of course a lot of it is well below ground where I can't tell but there is some exposed still around basement windows on the north side which I just haven't yet got around to finishing yet and it is just fine. We don't have any trouble with termites so far up here so I don't have any personal experience with that, I have never heard of any insect interest in any types of polythene, foamed or otherwise.
Gasoline will certainly eat the foam, I have just put a scrap into a small container of Varsol, I expect it might eat the stuff but so far no reaction. I only have one piece stuffed into a space between the concrete basement steps and the foundation on the west side, it has been there at least 18 years with apparently no damage from the exposure although it would not surprise me to find UV would damage it, it seems to make even specially treated Vinyl siding go brittle over time. Still, if it is exposed to the external environment it isn't robust against mechanical damage like abrasion and not particularly pretty esthetically. Actually the heavy plastic might nearly be enough given the biggest heat loss will be air infiltration. There are special grades though with ultraviolet resistance if sun will contact it. Still, by the time you go to that much trouble you probably want the insulation, about R8 for inch and a half and R10 for two inch. How much is enough is always one of those cost-benefit things. you get probably less than R3 from even very good double pane windows so excessive insulation below a sun room with lots of glass is probably redundant. If the cost difference of material is negligible might as well go the extra, it will be the same amount of work. For best outcomes though take as much care as you can to seal air leaks. One way that I have used with good success is some of that polyethylene foam you sometime see it in packing, it comes in rolls of various widths probably less than a quarter inch thick. I used it places like joining the extension to the house or in some places like sealing doors and windows to the vapour barrier. Run a bead of calk and set the strip into it and fix it with a few staples then fix the other edge to the foam board also with sticky calk. In the case of my windows I ran it around the window frame in calk and staples then when the window was fitted into the hole pull the foam tape against the vapour barrier and calk and stick it there. Then finish up with a squirt of foam to fill any voids between the frame of the window and the framing of the building. Just how you might do that though depends a lot on the foundation under the sun room. If I was Han Solo I'd probably pet my wookie ----- Original Message ----- From: Michael baldwin To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2010 8:47 PM Subject: RE: [BlindHandyMan] Blocking the wind. Liquid nails will eat the foam. You need to use a glue designed for foam, PL300 is what comes to mind. The tape is house wrap tape. The xps comes blue, Dow Chemical, and pink, Owens Corning. Around here the pink tends to be much cheaper, not sure why, the R value of 5 per inch is the same. Because, from what i gather, the xps would be installed outside, you need to add something to it to protect it from the weather and UV rays. Some people use a stucco finish, or others use 1/4 inch treated plywood. If the xps is going to be touching the ground, you need to get the stuff that is designed for that. Bugs like to tunnel through it, especially termites. Michael _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dale Leavens Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2010 5:10 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Blocking the wind. The Polystyrene we buy usually comes in 2 by 8 sheets with rebate like edges so that they can overlap. It comes in various thicknesses, usually inch and a half or two inches. You can cut it with a hand saw or even score it deeply then snap it but that isn't as nice an edge. for some reason they usually colour it blue to distinguish it from the open cell Styrofoam, this stuff is a higher insulation value. There is special sealing tape, it is a lot like the wide packing tape you are probably familiar with, when I bought it it was red I don't know if that is significant. The point is to insulate but also to keep warm air, particularly when you have paid to heat it inside. Now this stuff can be flammable and is best covered if there is any significant risk of exposure to open flame. It can also be helpful for holding it into place. You can run screws through something like particle board and the foam into structure beyond it. I have used wide washers, a couple of inches to hold the heads of screws to hold it into place. A little glue like liquid nails or even some calking on the structure then press the foam into it should also work well in your application. Hope this helps. If I was Han Solo I'd probably pet my wookie ----- Original Message ----- From: William Stephan To: blindhandyman@ <mailto:blindhandyman%40yahoogroups.com> yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2010 3:14 PM Subject: RE: [BlindHandyMan] Blocking the wind. Dale: all good points really. The only reason I was thinking about a temporary set up is that occasionally, the varmint-killing cat leaves us a little something under the porch until the possums get it. But, of course, if the foundation were blocked he wouldn't be doing that in any case. The roof itself, according to the manufacturer, is pretty well insolated. It's about five or six inches thick. If the snow ever meltsz, I'll go see what the lumber yard has in terms of Extruded Polystyrene. Thanks for the eye-opener. -----Original Message----- From: blindhandyman@ <mailto:blindhandyman%40yahoogroups.com> yahoogroups.com [mailto:blindhandyman@ <mailto:blindhandyman%40yahoogroups.com> yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Dale Leavens Sent: Saturday, January 09, 2010 21:14 To: blindhandyman@ <mailto:blindhandyman%40yahoogroups.com> yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Blocking the wind. Is there any good reason why you wouldn't want to block air infiltration in the summer as well? It would be my inclination to wrap the inside of what ever skirting you have around the deck foundation with something like extruded polystyrene sheets and seal them together with the tape sold for that purpose. I would look for ways of sealing it tightly at the top and bottom, keep any air from entering or leaving except between the room and under the floor. Unless the dogs are piddling through the deck or for some other reason you need to air the area to keep stink down there isn't any good reason to loose heated or cooled air to the good outdoors and, it is expensive as well. I would consider insulating under the roof as well if there is a convenient and practical way to do so. You would probably find your heater raised the temperature 50 or 60 degrees, you might even find you want to turn it off quite a bit. If you feel the need to circulate air through the structure you can always open the windows and in that way choose when and how much cold you require. If I was Han Solo I'd probably pet my wookie ----- Original Message ----- From: William Stephan To: blindhandyman@ <mailto:blindhandyman%40yahoogroups.com> yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, January 09, 2010 9:40 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Blocking the wind. All: We have a sort of three-season room on the north side of our house. It faces off into a yard surrounded by privacy fences and a couple garages. The room is sort of unique. It started life as just an open deck. We had a pre-fabricated aluminum room added shortly after we took up residence here. This room is all aluminum and glass with two aluminum doors and many sliding windows. During winter we use this room as a sort of mud room, and it's where we groom our dogs as well. Because of that, when it was constructed, the deck floor was taken up, and an aluminum screen was put in place, and the deck flooring was then replaced on top of this screen. Our idea was that snow from boots and shovels and dogs, and spillage from our fountain etc. would just drain through the cracks between the decking, an bugs couldn't come through either and that part's worked well for us. We've been having snow here, more snow than anybody's seen in twenty or thirty years. It blows here too, and there's quite a bit of snow piled and drifted around this three season room. To keep it more or less useable, we have one of those Sun Twin 5,000 BTU heaters there, and typically, it keeps the temperature between 20 an 25 degrees above the outdoor temperature. This year though, it's been keeping the room about 30 or 35 degrees above the outside temperature. I imagine a lot of this is because of the snow around the foundation. There are several gaps that allow air to circulate pretty freely under thestructure. So, it might be a good idea to block these gaps, though probably only during the Winter months. Does anyone know if there might be say, bladders, that I could fill with a compresser that would form themselves in a way so as to fill gaps ofa few incheshere or ther, and if so, what is the correct term for them? Thanks in advance for any input on this. 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