Thinking of DIY Spray Foam Insulation

[Teddy Bear]

I was looking at carrying out a DIY spray foam insulation on my saleaway shell but came across this product withdrawal for ‘Handy Foam’ It is still available to buy on some sites. But be careful, apparently its only Class 1 and O spray foam systems that meet the requirements of current UK Building Regulations.

 

>CLICK HERE<

[Biggles]

Just pay someone to do it. Its a horrible job best left to the pros. They will do a better job than you for not a lot more. Just IMO.

 

I hate paying someone to do something I "could" do. But this was a no contest decision.

 

Good luck.

 

Biggles

[bottle]

Spray foam (ing) is a specialist and skilled job, it also requires a lot of protective gear (personal) when applying.

 

As Biggles says, pay a specialist to do it, it will save you a lot of time and energy.

[station tug]

im of the opinion that if i can i will do everything myself..BUT this sprayfoam lark does seem the be a specialist job......everyone seems to have there boats foamed these days.....im very close to the insulation stage of my build and after alot of thinking im going for kingspan....2" under the floor....3" hull sides..2" cab sides and 3" roof...recon with the help of a internet auction site i recon i'll do it for £1000...

[Ally]

I don't know the size of your boat of course, but you can get a good spray foam job for under £1000 for say a 57' narrowboat...

The good thing with sprayfoam is it bonds to the hull so reduces the chance of any condensation between the hull and lineout. It is done very quickly and of course coats all surfaces left unmasked so no stretchers etc are left bare.

Personally I think DIY-ing for this job is a non-starter. It is a skill to get it on evenly and to the right depth, dangerous chemicals which, as said, need specialist protective clothing and breathing equipment, then the cost of chemicals and hire of equipment.

We use a guy who does it very well, cuts back and removes the waste for very well under £1000. We use him regularly admittedly, but I know he well undercuts a lot of the 'big names' and to be honest, does a better job!

[bottle]

Station Tug

 

Mind the gaps.

[Nathan90]

"I don't know the size of your boat of course, but you can get a good spray foam job for under £1000 for say a 57' narrowboat...

The good thing with sprayfoam is it bonds to the hull so reduces the chance of any condensation between the hull and lineout. It is done very quickly and of course coats all surfaces left unmasked so no stretchers etc are left bare.

Personally I think DIY-ing for this job is a non-starter. It is a skill to get it on evenly and to the right depth, dangerous chemicals which, as said, need specialist protective clothing and breathing equipment, then the cost of chemicals and hire of equipment.

We use a guy who does it very well, cuts back and removes the waste for very well under £1000. We use him regularly admittedly, but I know he well undercuts a lot of the 'big names' and to be honest, does a better jo"

 

 

 

 

 

can i have the chaps number please as i need a quote.....

many thanks

[Ex- Member]

We looked into spraying ourselves and that was clubbing together with my brother to spray foam 2 boats, the best DIY cost I came up with was just £40 cheaper than the Pro's and that didn't take into account our labour. The pro's have a big advantage on foam cost and equipment cost due to the quantities they buy, and taking into account even small things like nozzils which you need a lot of and protective clothing masks etc.

 

You can get a good price if you shop around, if you're near other boats that need insulating you can get a good price if they can come and do 2 or 3 boats in one location, saves them travelling cost between jobs so you can get a better price.

 

It's a real crap job to do much like shot blasting is.

[Sunset Rising]

I have only seen half a dozen boats at the sprayed but not yet lined out stage but none of them seemed very good to me. The foam was uneven, two inches thick in places, only one inch or so in others, bits lifting off or missed altogether. None of them seemed to fill the void to the full thickness of the battening and I cannot see any advantage in having an air gap between the foam and the lining ( could be wrong )

 

I am coming to the opinion that kingspan or similar is a better way to go, at least you can get the thickness you want even all over.

[nb Innisfree]

I have only seen half a dozen boats at the sprayed but not yet lined out stage but none of them seemed very good to me. The foam was uneven, two inches thick in places, only one inch or so in others, bits lifting off or missed altogether. None of them seemed to fill the void to the full thickness of the battening and I cannot see any advantage in having an air gap between the foam and the lining ( could be wrong )

 

I am coming to the opinion that kingspan or similar is a better way to go, at least you can get the thickness you want even all over.

 

That's my experience, if I had my build to do again I would go for Kingspan with aerosol foam in any gaps. A fellow fitter outer did this and stuck 9mm ply on top of that, talk about a solid job, if you hit the upper lining hard with the side of your fist it felt like a brick wall.

[Sunset Rising]

Mind you, Kingspan/Cellotex costs a hell of a lot more than sheet polystyrene. Is it actually better as a thermal insulation ? ( I know about the electrical wiring thing but I would run it in tubing )

[Ex- Member]

The foam was uneven, two inches thick in places, only one inch or so in others, bits lifting off or missed altogether. None of them seemed to fill the void to the full thickness

That's why we wanted to do our own, but it cost as much as a pro job, we then didn't bother with spray foam at all for that reason, as the cost of Rock wool was less than half.

In the boat yard we were at we measured the thickness of spray foam on about 5 boats under construction, the only place where 2 inches was ever reached was next to battens, in the middle of most panels was barely an inch, and in some places just 1/2 an inch. On the front bulkhead of a couple of boats were under 1/2 inch.

We used 2 inch Rockwool in the end but then covered it with 10mm Celotex to create a vapour barrier. What a lot of people don't realise is that uneven insulation is far less effective as it causes cold spots that attract warm air. If spray foam was the full 2 inch thick all over it would certainly be superior to any other, however I've yet to see any spray foamed boat that has a full 2 inch thickness all over.

The batten thickness was increased to take the additional 10mm of celotex, so 60mm of insulation 50 Rockwool 10mm Celotex, in this photo only the front bulkhead is completed and below the gunwale where the celotex was even thicker. When the 9mm oak board was applied to the upper cabin it pressed against the Celotex which them pressed the Rockwool tight up against the steel. Where you see silver stripes in the applied Rockwool is where Celotex has been adhered to the ribbing. The porthole square were eventually filled with sprayfoam after the liners were fitted. Below the gunwale was box section steel 3 inches thick, so we put in 2" Rockwool followed by 3 10mm layers of celotex, this also pressed the Rockwool tight to the steel.

After all the Celotex was applied Silver Alloy tape covered any gaps tears and all the battens that were showing in an attempt to create the vapour barrier, all 1 1/4 inch square tube ribbing was also filled with spray foam as these can condensate.

Basically Job done.

[Sunset Rising]

Nice to know its not just me that thinks spray foam is not the be all and end all that most think it to be.

[Ally]

messaged you the details Nathan.

[soldthehouse]

For what its worth.

 

I have considerable experience in sparay foam the same type used in boats and farm buildings. Having witnessed many farm buildings being sprayed I thought when doing the boat I would do it myself. However the cost of the kit [around £500 as I worked out] was half way to getting the job done [Properly]. In the end Ive decided on kingspan and small cans as the independant me won and theres no point in paying someone to do it if they "on the day" dont do it properly.

[Ally]

Kingspan is a good insulator, no doubt about that, and has many benefits, but it isn't bonded to the hull like spray foam, so there will always be a risk of condensation between the hull and insulation

[Ex- Member]

When we did the Rockwool I was tempted to apply tar first then adhere the bat to the tar. I probably would have been pretty messy though so didn't. When I was in the car trade they used to have glue in aerosols that stuck DA sanding discs to air sander pads, this glue never really fully dries so if you left a sanding pad on it, it would still remove days later, something like that would work well with Kingspan. I wouldn't worry that much though I had to remova some panelling last week and insulation and no signs of moisture or rust and ours was insulated 7 years ago.

[soldthehouse]

Kingspan is a good insulator, no doubt about that, and has many benefits, but it isn't bonded to the hull like spray foam, so there will always be a risk of condensation between the hull and insulation

In essence I have to agree but the corrosion argument for me is variable. The waterline on any hull is the most vunerable as is the bsaeplate which isnt covered by internal foams whether sprayed or rigid. My superstructure will be timber so my views are slanted anyway with hindsight. In an ideal world with a steel shell spray foam properly applied with the emphasis on even and complete coverage would be the best solution, but sadly the variables mean that the job is often compromised an as a result all the theory goes out of the window

[system 4-50]

I have got my bilge professionally sprayfoamed. I'll update this topic in 10 years time with an assessment of how well it has fared.

[Dovetail]

From my experience looking at spray foamed boats is that you will have plenty of room in places to fit slabs of 25mm Kingspan type boards.

 

The boards will not fit tight to the batons but will never the less help with the insulation of the boat.

 

It will give you a sort of best of both worlds.

[Sunset Rising]

I have got my bilge professionally sprayfoamed. I'll update this topic in 10 years time with an assessment of how well it has fared.

 

Can I ask how you have done that ? presumably it is under the ballast, is it just stood on top of the insulation ? was there room ? Have you already had a winter with it yet ?

[Ex- Member]

From my experience looking at spray foamed boats is that you will have plenty of room in places to fit slabs of 25mm Kingspan type boards.

 

The boards will not fit tight to the batons but will never the less help with the insulation of the boat.

 

It will give you a sort of best of both worlds.

 

They'll not fit that snugly to existing spray foam though unless possibly you could use spray foam aerosol on the existing then press the kingspan into it. It would probably ooze out around the sides as well. The real answer is though to get it sprayed properly in the first place.

 

 

 

[system 4-50]

Can I ask how you have done that ? presumably it is under the ballast, is it just stood on top of the insulation ? was there room ? Have you already had a winter with it yet ?

I had it done at the same time as the rest of the boat.

The ballast, engineering bricks, is sat on top.

I asked them to get it as close to 25mm as possible and it is that or slightly more everywhere except under the stringers (? - the bits across) which they mostly missed entirely.

The bearers mostly allow the bricks the pass under them.

Height is not a problem for me as I am short (and shrinking), I am aiming for a headroom of 6ft 1in. I aim to keep the boat until I pop my clogs and after that I don't care.

Yes, but I am only now locking the floor down. Most of my time last year was taken up with painting the damn thing. I haven't had a typical winter in it yet.

My reason for doing this is UFH. I have a single loop making 6 passes down the length of the boat with no joints. I have not started on the above floor work eg boilers.

I can't tell how well it saves heat yet as I have massive bust widows (sorry I couldn't resist that) (6 x 2ft x 4ft & 2 x 2ft x 3ft) which lose lots of heat. Or must do as they certainly let in a lot of heat in the summer. I am working on removable window blanks containing 1" Kingspan to correct this.

[Ex- Member]

I was thinking about the poster wanting to use Kingspan, i did post on some spray glue we used to us. However I found this spray glue on the net.

 

http://www.affixit.c...ve-500ml-p-1744

 

Quite a reasonable price too. How I would do this would be to cut the 2" Kingspan about a half inch short all the way around the sections it's to be fitted in, use the spray glue to adhere it to the steel. when dried then use aerosol spray foam in all the remaining gaps. This would result in all the insulation being adhered to the steel and of course all the steel obtaining a coat of glue. I did sevaral areas on our boat in spray foam like filling tubing and awkward gaps. I used Screwfix tubes and bought the spray foam applicator with about a 10 inch tube to get the spray in awkward places. I was really surprised how far the foam went, I also foamed all of the porthole areas when the porthole liners were eventually fitted. And I spray foamed a calorifier too, I think I only used 3 cannisters in all to do all this. I reckon around 4 to 5 cannisters would be about all you need for a n/b, i think the fireproof foam is around 9 quid a tin.

 

I will add though do buy the cleaner thinners, the gun gets clogged very quickly when you stop spraying. sometimes screwfix do a starter kit with all you need and it comes out quite cheap.

 

I really wish I had thought of this before doing ours now LOL

Edited August 9, 2011 by Julynian

[vicozzy]

I don't know the size of your boat of course, but you can get a good spray foam job for under £1000 for say a 57' narrowboat...

The good thing with sprayfoam is it bonds to the hull so reduces the chance of any condensation between the hull and lineout. It is done very quickly and of course coats all surfaces left unmasked so no stretchers etc are left bare.

Personally I think DIY-ing for this job is a non-starter. It is a skill to get it on evenly and to the right depth, dangerous chemicals which, as said, need specialist protective clothing and breathing equipment, then the cost of chemicals and hire of equipment.

We use a guy who does it very well, cuts back and removes the waste for very well under £1000. We use him regularly admittedly, but I know he well undercuts a lot of the 'big names' and to be honest, does a better job!

my i have the name of the chap you use please