# Where to buy foam insulation?



## paulrail (May 22, 2016)

Hi. I work in commercial and industrial roofing. I recently used a very high density Dow Board that was 2" thick. I suspect quite expensive though (of course things from a job site sometimes end up in someone's pick-up truck from time to time )

What do you guys use and where do you get it? 

Also, I've heard Liquid Nails "Project" in an adhesive that does not react negatively with the insulation. I know from my roofing experience some chemicals completely disintegrate this type of insulation. What do you guys use?

Thanks
Paul


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## The New Guy (Mar 11, 2012)

paulrail said:


> ...Dow Board that was 2" thick. I suspect quite expensive though...


Expense is relative Paul. Home Depot typically carries it, about 35 dollars for the 2".

Used judiciously one sheet will cover a lot of ground.


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## paulrail (May 22, 2016)

The New Guy said:


> Expense is relative Paul. Home Depot typically carries it, about 35 dollars for the 2".
> 
> Used judiciously one sheet will cover a lot of ground.


Expense in this sense in not relative. Relative to what? 

Home Depot does not sell the material I mentioned. If they did they would charge more than $35. I mentioned that the material was vey high density (unlikely to warp and better to nail into than a more porous material).

I would like to know if experienced model railroaders think there is an advantage to this given the certain but not quantified extra cost.

"A lot of ground"...that is more relative than anything I said.


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

here it's around that price as well, for roofing or insulation, high density, comes in blue. green, or pink depending on who made it ..
i imagine the project glue would work, or get the stuff that's made or glueing foam board vertically, around five bucks a tube or so


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## WIrailfan (Mar 6, 2016)

I used this foam board from Lowes.....they worked great :thumbsup:

http://www.lowes.com/pd/Kingspan-In...ft-x-8-ft-Actual-2-in-x-4-ft-x-8-ft/999972968

And here's the Liquid Nails that doesn't eat the foam, it couldn't be easier to use 

http://www.lowes.com/pd/LIQUID-NAILS-Interior-Projects-Construction-Adhesive/3014660


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## RonthePirate (Sep 9, 2015)

I too used Lowe's foam board, although I used 1" thick.
That worked well for me.

It is $19.74 per 4 x 8 sheet.
And that's in Bullhead City, AZ for cost reference.
And yep, same thing, Liquid Nails projects doesn't eat the board away.
Very inexpensive also: $1.78 per tube.


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## bluenavigator (Aug 30, 2015)

I use this adhesive. It works fine with both pink and blue foamboards.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Loctite-PL300-10-fl-oz-Foamboard-VOC-Adhesive-1421941/202020476

We only have up to 3/4" thick, due to the location.


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## D&J Railroad (Oct 4, 2013)

I buy the 2"X4'X8' foam board from Lowes. About $35 a sheet. I've used about 3 dozen sheets in my empire. I found the locktite one time and they only had a couple tubes of it. Gorilla glue works very well with the foam board so I use that. Another way to glue the boards together is to put small pieces of plywood between the layers and glue them with liquid nails. The Liquid Nails won't set up when used directly between the two foam layers, but put the small 3"x3" pieces of plywood in there and it will set up over night.



It's the air circulation that works. After the glue has set, shape the foam board or use screen material over the foam board then cover with wall plaster. 



You can shape the foam board with a rasp type tool you can buy from Lowes. I tried the hot wire route and it is painfully slow.



The dry powder and water route is a mess. The 5 gallon buckets of ready mix plaster you can get at Lowes or Home Depot make the plaster work a cinch. Once the plaster has set, color the white plaster with your choice of ground color. Use a flat color so it doesn't shine. I use a mix of BEHR Interior Texture Paint (2 gallon bucket) and flat earth tone paint along with a few drops of yellow and black artist paint base. 



Do this in a Tuperware bowl so you are only mixing about a half quart at a time to cover about 5 square feet. The yellow artist paint keeps a pink tone from coming through from the earth tone. The black will help vary the color of the earth tone across your layout for variety.
If it doesn't look right, mix another batch and paint over the first coat.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

paulrail said:


> Expense in this sense in not relative. Relative to what?
> 
> Home Depot does not sell the material I mentioned. If they did they would charge more than $35. I mentioned that the material was vey high density (unlikely to warp and better to nail into than a more porous material).
> 
> ...


Paul, expense is ALWAYS relative. I'm having to buy materials for my new layout in small batches, a couple of months apart. Warren Buffett could buy all the materials, all at once, for not just me but my entire town, and not notice the drop in his bank balance. THAT is what we mean by relative.

Extruded foam insulating panels made by Dow (blue) or Corning (pink) are a tried and true solution for building a layout. Home Depot and Lowes both carry them in the NE US. I haven't priced them there lately, but at the lumber yard near my house, a 2x8 sheet of 1" foam goes for about $15; $24 for the 2" variety. I use the stuff as a layout base on L-girder joists installed on 18" centers, and it is plenty strong enough and very workable. It's a little more expensive than plywood, yes, but its light weight and dimensional stability (it doesn't expand or contract with temp and humidity) make it worth it. I can make legs out of L girders (a 1x3 glued and screwed to a 1x2 in an L shape) and save significantly on wood costs. Foamboard is also easy to carve into landscape shapes.

I use a variety of foam-safe construction adhesives, depending on what I happen to grab.


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## The New Guy (Mar 11, 2012)

paulrail said:


> What do you guys use and where do you get it?





paulrail said:


> Home Depot does not sell the material I mentioned. If they did they would charge more than $35.


You asked what we use and then deride the answer as not what you asked and somehow inferior.

Best of luck with your RR. I hope it works out for you.


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

D&J Railroad said:


> You can shape the foam board with a rasp type tool you can buy from Lowes. I tried the hot wire route and it is painfully slow.


That may have been the type of hot wire cutter that you used .. firstly, I have no experience with commercially available cutters, but did make two different 'home built' styles .. 
one was a table style with a vertical nichrome wire, with a guide for doing most of the cuts .. and the second was just using ordinary household 16/2 stripped copper wire in an old weller 100/140 gun type soldering iron, both were fairly quick to make cuts in two inch foam .. 
They both made cuts that were 'heat sealed' and shiny, for preparing a flat foam surface to take glue down scenery details the rasp method may give a better 'tooth roughness' to help paint or glue to adhere .. I have never tried a rasp, sometimes a razor knife though


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## beepjuice (Sep 17, 2014)

Sometimes a lumber yard or Lowes, etc will have broken pieces or scraps you can get on the cheap. Just ask them. Maybe yes, maybe no.


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