Expanding foam
Discussion
It has recently occurred to me that expanding foam is the most pleasing of all DIY products to use.
It's not sufficient to fill the one hole you have a problem with. Once can is in hand, you actively look for other holes to fill.
And the use of the phrase "use sparingly" is not needed. We know it expands to 30 times its volume and that we know we'll end up with a football size glob stuck to the windowsill but we then have the pleasure of sawing the glob off. And then use it for an indoor football.
That is all!
It's not sufficient to fill the one hole you have a problem with. Once can is in hand, you actively look for other holes to fill.
And the use of the phrase "use sparingly" is not needed. We know it expands to 30 times its volume and that we know we'll end up with a football size glob stuck to the windowsill but we then have the pleasure of sawing the glob off. And then use it for an indoor football.
That is all!
Something which LeMans teaches you; 2 whole cans of expanding foam in an inflatable sofa will do nothing, other than remain soggy and rubbish. Equally, one can of expanding foam surrounded by 4 cans of butane gas in a gaffer-taped microwave does do something, and it does it very loudly.
As I haven't read this for a while, I think it's worth posting here:
someone said:
A friend of mine once built a canoe. He spent a long time on it and it was a work of art.
Almost the final phase was to fill both ends with polyurethane expanding foam.
He duly ordered the bits from Mr Glasplies (an excellent purveyor of all things fibreglass) and it arrived in two packs covered with appropriately dire warnings about expansion ratios and some very good notes on how to use it.
Unfortunately he had a degree, worse still two of them. One was in Chemistry, so the instructions got thrown away and the other in something mathematical because in a few minutes he was merrily calculating the volume of his craft to many decimal places and the guidelines got binned as well.
He propped the canoe up on one end, got a huge tin, carefully measured the calculated amounts of glop, mixed them and quickly poured the mixture in the end of the canoe (The two pack expands very rapidly).
I arrived as he was completing this and I looked in to see the end chamber over half full of something Cawdors Witches would have been proud of. Two thing occurred to me, one was the label which said in big letters: "Caution - expansion ration 50:1" (or something similar) and the other that the now empty tins said "approximately enough for 20 small craft"
Any comment was drowned out by a sea of yellow brown foam suddenly pouring out of the middle of the canoe and the end of the canoe bursting open. My friend screamed and leapt at his pride and joy which was knocked to the ground as he started trying to bale handfuls of this stuff out with his hands.
Knocking the craft over allowed the still liquid and not yet fully expanded foam to flow to the other end of the canoe where it expanded and shattered that end as well.
A few seconds later and we had a canoe with two exploded ends, a mountain of solid foam about 4ft high growing out of the middle, and a chemist firmly embedded up to his armpits in it.
At this stage he discovered the reaction was exothermic and his hands and arms were getting very hot indeed. Running about in small circles in a confined space while glued to the remains of a fairly large canoe proved ineffective so he resorted to screaming a bit instead.
Fortunately a Kukri was to hand so I attacked the foam around his hands with some enthusiasm. The process was hindered by the noise he was making and the fact he was trying to escape while still attached to the canoe.
Eventually I managed to hack out a lump of foam still including most of his arms and hands. Unfortunately my tears of laughter were not helping as they accelerated the foam setting.
Seeking medical help was obviously out of the question, the embarrassment of having to explain his occupation (Chief Research Chemist at a major petrochemical organisation) would simply never have been lived down. Several hours and much acrimony later we had removed sufficient foam (and much hair) to allow him to move again. However he still looked something like a failed audition for Quasimodo with red burns on his arms and expanded blobs of foam sticking everywhere. My comment that the scalding simple made the hairs the foam was sticking to come out easier was not met with the enthusiasm I felt it deserved.
I forgot to add that in retrospect rather unwisely he had set out to do this deed in the hallway of his house (the only place he later explained with sufficient headroom for the canoe - achieved by poking it up the stairwell.
Having extricated him we now were faced with the problem of a canoe construction kit embedded in a still gurgling block of foam which was now irrevocably bonded to the hall and stairs carpet as well as several banister rails and quite a lot of wallpaper.
At this point his wife and her mother came back from shopping......
Oh yes - and he had been wearing the pullover Mum in law had knitted him for his birthday the week before.
Almost the final phase was to fill both ends with polyurethane expanding foam.
He duly ordered the bits from Mr Glasplies (an excellent purveyor of all things fibreglass) and it arrived in two packs covered with appropriately dire warnings about expansion ratios and some very good notes on how to use it.
Unfortunately he had a degree, worse still two of them. One was in Chemistry, so the instructions got thrown away and the other in something mathematical because in a few minutes he was merrily calculating the volume of his craft to many decimal places and the guidelines got binned as well.
He propped the canoe up on one end, got a huge tin, carefully measured the calculated amounts of glop, mixed them and quickly poured the mixture in the end of the canoe (The two pack expands very rapidly).
I arrived as he was completing this and I looked in to see the end chamber over half full of something Cawdors Witches would have been proud of. Two thing occurred to me, one was the label which said in big letters: "Caution - expansion ration 50:1" (or something similar) and the other that the now empty tins said "approximately enough for 20 small craft"
Any comment was drowned out by a sea of yellow brown foam suddenly pouring out of the middle of the canoe and the end of the canoe bursting open. My friend screamed and leapt at his pride and joy which was knocked to the ground as he started trying to bale handfuls of this stuff out with his hands.
Knocking the craft over allowed the still liquid and not yet fully expanded foam to flow to the other end of the canoe where it expanded and shattered that end as well.
A few seconds later and we had a canoe with two exploded ends, a mountain of solid foam about 4ft high growing out of the middle, and a chemist firmly embedded up to his armpits in it.
At this stage he discovered the reaction was exothermic and his hands and arms were getting very hot indeed. Running about in small circles in a confined space while glued to the remains of a fairly large canoe proved ineffective so he resorted to screaming a bit instead.
Fortunately a Kukri was to hand so I attacked the foam around his hands with some enthusiasm. The process was hindered by the noise he was making and the fact he was trying to escape while still attached to the canoe.
Eventually I managed to hack out a lump of foam still including most of his arms and hands. Unfortunately my tears of laughter were not helping as they accelerated the foam setting.
Seeking medical help was obviously out of the question, the embarrassment of having to explain his occupation (Chief Research Chemist at a major petrochemical organisation) would simply never have been lived down. Several hours and much acrimony later we had removed sufficient foam (and much hair) to allow him to move again. However he still looked something like a failed audition for Quasimodo with red burns on his arms and expanded blobs of foam sticking everywhere. My comment that the scalding simple made the hairs the foam was sticking to come out easier was not met with the enthusiasm I felt it deserved.
I forgot to add that in retrospect rather unwisely he had set out to do this deed in the hallway of his house (the only place he later explained with sufficient headroom for the canoe - achieved by poking it up the stairwell.
Having extricated him we now were faced with the problem of a canoe construction kit embedded in a still gurgling block of foam which was now irrevocably bonded to the hall and stairs carpet as well as several banister rails and quite a lot of wallpaper.
At this point his wife and her mother came back from shopping......
Oh yes - and he had been wearing the pullover Mum in law had knitted him for his birthday the week before.
Now that did make me laugh.
I had a bit of a hole under the shower where there's a bit of the plinth rotted away.
The bathroom is due a refit so I thought, squirty foam, that'll do it for the moment. Lord only knows where all the foam has gone but I'm dredding finding out when I take out the shower. Loads and loads went in, only a medium sized football on the outside.
I had a bit of a hole under the shower where there's a bit of the plinth rotted away.
The bathroom is due a refit so I thought, squirty foam, that'll do it for the moment. Lord only knows where all the foam has gone but I'm dredding finding out when I take out the shower. Loads and loads went in, only a medium sized football on the outside.
A few years ago I was helping my children make model sheep out of paper-mache covered balloons and cotton wool balls. In a rush of s
t to the head I decided to give them some extra solidity by filling them with foam. The bloody things ended up near life size and I'm forever being reminded of the best table cloth that I ruined 
t to the head I decided to give them some extra solidity by filling them with foam. The bloody things ended up near life size and I'm forever being reminded of the best table cloth that I ruined 
silverthorn2151 said:
I had a bit of a hole under the shower where there's a bit of the plinth rotted away.
The bathroom is due a refit so I thought, squirty foam, that'll do it for the moment. Lord only knows where all the foam has gone but I'm dredding finding out when I take out the shower. Loads and loads went in, only a medium sized football on the outside.
Have you seen the occupants of the dowsntairs flat since you did it?The bathroom is due a refit so I thought, squirty foam, that'll do it for the moment. Lord only knows where all the foam has gone but I'm dredding finding out when I take out the shower. Loads and loads went in, only a medium sized football on the outside.
furtive said:
As I haven't read this for a while, I think it's worth posting here:
someone said:
A friend of mine once built a canoe. He spent a long time on it and it was a work of art.
Almost the final phase was to fill both ends with polyurethane expanding foam.
He duly ordered the bits from Mr Glasplies (an excellent purveyor of all things fibreglass) and it arrived in two packs covered with appropriately dire warnings about expansion ratios and some very good notes on how to use it.
Unfortunately he had a degree, worse still two of them. One was in Chemistry, so the instructions got thrown away and the other in something mathematical because in a few minutes he was merrily calculating the volume of his craft to many decimal places and the guidelines got binned as well.
He propped the canoe up on one end, got a huge tin, carefully measured the calculated amounts of glop, mixed them and quickly poured the mixture in the end of the canoe (The two pack expands very rapidly).
I arrived as he was completing this and I looked in to see the end chamber over half full of something Cawdors Witches would have been proud of. Two thing occurred to me, one was the label which said in big letters: "Caution - expansion ration 50:1" (or something similar) and the other that the now empty tins said "approximately enough for 20 small craft"
Any comment was drowned out by a sea of yellow brown foam suddenly pouring out of the middle of the canoe and the end of the canoe bursting open. My friend screamed and leapt at his pride and joy which was knocked to the ground as he started trying to bale handfuls of this stuff out with his hands.
Knocking the craft over allowed the still liquid and not yet fully expanded foam to flow to the other end of the canoe where it expanded and shattered that end as well.
A few seconds later and we had a canoe with two exploded ends, a mountain of solid foam about 4ft high growing out of the middle, and a chemist firmly embedded up to his armpits in it.
At this stage he discovered the reaction was exothermic and his hands and arms were getting very hot indeed. Running about in small circles in a confined space while glued to the remains of a fairly large canoe proved ineffective so he resorted to screaming a bit instead.
Fortunately a Kukri was to hand so I attacked the foam around his hands with some enthusiasm. The process was hindered by the noise he was making and the fact he was trying to escape while still attached to the canoe.
Eventually I managed to hack out a lump of foam still including most of his arms and hands. Unfortunately my tears of laughter were not helping as they accelerated the foam setting.
Seeking medical help was obviously out of the question, the embarrassment of having to explain his occupation (Chief Research Chemist at a major petrochemical organisation) would simply never have been lived down. Several hours and much acrimony later we had removed sufficient foam (and much hair) to allow him to move again. However he still looked something like a failed audition for Quasimodo with red burns on his arms and expanded blobs of foam sticking everywhere. My comment that the scalding simple made the hairs the foam was sticking to come out easier was not met with the enthusiasm I felt it deserved.
I forgot to add that in retrospect rather unwisely he had set out to do this deed in the hallway of his house (the only place he later explained with sufficient headroom for the canoe - achieved by poking it up the stairwell.
Having extricated him we now were faced with the problem of a canoe construction kit embedded in a still gurgling block of foam which was now irrevocably bonded to the hall and stairs carpet as well as several banister rails and quite a lot of wallpaper.
At this point his wife and her mother came back from shopping......
Oh yes - and he had been wearing the pullover Mum in law had knitted him for his birthday the week before.
Almost the final phase was to fill both ends with polyurethane expanding foam.
He duly ordered the bits from Mr Glasplies (an excellent purveyor of all things fibreglass) and it arrived in two packs covered with appropriately dire warnings about expansion ratios and some very good notes on how to use it.
Unfortunately he had a degree, worse still two of them. One was in Chemistry, so the instructions got thrown away and the other in something mathematical because in a few minutes he was merrily calculating the volume of his craft to many decimal places and the guidelines got binned as well.
He propped the canoe up on one end, got a huge tin, carefully measured the calculated amounts of glop, mixed them and quickly poured the mixture in the end of the canoe (The two pack expands very rapidly).
I arrived as he was completing this and I looked in to see the end chamber over half full of something Cawdors Witches would have been proud of. Two thing occurred to me, one was the label which said in big letters: "Caution - expansion ration 50:1" (or something similar) and the other that the now empty tins said "approximately enough for 20 small craft"
Any comment was drowned out by a sea of yellow brown foam suddenly pouring out of the middle of the canoe and the end of the canoe bursting open. My friend screamed and leapt at his pride and joy which was knocked to the ground as he started trying to bale handfuls of this stuff out with his hands.
Knocking the craft over allowed the still liquid and not yet fully expanded foam to flow to the other end of the canoe where it expanded and shattered that end as well.
A few seconds later and we had a canoe with two exploded ends, a mountain of solid foam about 4ft high growing out of the middle, and a chemist firmly embedded up to his armpits in it.
At this stage he discovered the reaction was exothermic and his hands and arms were getting very hot indeed. Running about in small circles in a confined space while glued to the remains of a fairly large canoe proved ineffective so he resorted to screaming a bit instead.
Fortunately a Kukri was to hand so I attacked the foam around his hands with some enthusiasm. The process was hindered by the noise he was making and the fact he was trying to escape while still attached to the canoe.
Eventually I managed to hack out a lump of foam still including most of his arms and hands. Unfortunately my tears of laughter were not helping as they accelerated the foam setting.
Seeking medical help was obviously out of the question, the embarrassment of having to explain his occupation (Chief Research Chemist at a major petrochemical organisation) would simply never have been lived down. Several hours and much acrimony later we had removed sufficient foam (and much hair) to allow him to move again. However he still looked something like a failed audition for Quasimodo with red burns on his arms and expanded blobs of foam sticking everywhere. My comment that the scalding simple made the hairs the foam was sticking to come out easier was not met with the enthusiasm I felt it deserved.
I forgot to add that in retrospect rather unwisely he had set out to do this deed in the hallway of his house (the only place he later explained with sufficient headroom for the canoe - achieved by poking it up the stairwell.
Having extricated him we now were faced with the problem of a canoe construction kit embedded in a still gurgling block of foam which was now irrevocably bonded to the hall and stairs carpet as well as several banister rails and quite a lot of wallpaper.
At this point his wife and her mother came back from shopping......
Oh yes - and he had been wearing the pullover Mum in law had knitted him for his birthday the week before.
Edited to add, I'm going to go and get a can of this stuff. I'm not sure what for, but I'm sure I'll find a hole to fill somewhere.
Edited by Timmy35 on Wednesday 25th August 12:43
Simpo Two said:
silverthorn2151 said:
I had a bit of a hole under the shower where there's a bit of the plinth rotted away.
The bathroom is due a refit so I thought, squirty foam, that'll do it for the moment. Lord only knows where all the foam has gone but I'm dredding finding out when I take out the shower. Loads and loads went in, only a medium sized football on the outside.
Have you seen the occupants of the dowsntairs flat since you did it?The bathroom is due a refit so I thought, squirty foam, that'll do it for the moment. Lord only knows where all the foam has gone but I'm dredding finding out when I take out the shower. Loads and loads went in, only a medium sized football on the outside.
I was a bit nervous going down to the kitchen to be fair being half convinced it was going to look like something from Quatermass and the Pit. I suspect it's just filled up the stud partition behind the shower!
I once had a dinghy with a leak I couldn't find. Even the boat repairer couldn't find it. We think the hull and deck eased apart when keeled over so closed as it settled back. I contemplated filling the bulkhead with cans of expanding foam to exclude the wat but feared leaving a gap where the boat would become unbalanced in water did get in.
I Live in a mews house where someone (heathens) had prior to me living there converted the two garages into bedrooms etc, placing a wall, built in wardrobes, another bathroom against the wall.
The problem is they didn't insulate and it was cold down there in the winter, there was also garage door sized gaps on the outside plus holes leading directly into the cavity where the wall is.
I am awful at DIY, just don't do it, however I relished this project having used the mental stuff before (didn't wear gloves that time and it felt like a bear was pawing me for two weeks every time I touched my face)
Bought FOUR large cans, sprayed them in the cavity, all round the door seals, sanded it off and painted it black like doors. Bingo!
Rooms are now toasty, Brilliant! It probably goes up like a Christmas tree though thinking about it...
We were selling recently and a question that kept coming up was "Can we easily convert back into garages?
Yes...............Of course.
I wouldn't mind watching though to see where the four cans went.
The problem is they didn't insulate and it was cold down there in the winter, there was also garage door sized gaps on the outside plus holes leading directly into the cavity where the wall is.
I am awful at DIY, just don't do it, however I relished this project having used the mental stuff before (didn't wear gloves that time and it felt like a bear was pawing me for two weeks every time I touched my face)
Bought FOUR large cans, sprayed them in the cavity, all round the door seals, sanded it off and painted it black like doors. Bingo!
Rooms are now toasty, Brilliant! It probably goes up like a Christmas tree though thinking about it...
We were selling recently and a question that kept coming up was "Can we easily convert back into garages?
Yes...............Of course.
I wouldn't mind watching though to see where the four cans went.
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