I live in So. California and went to the Homedepot to buy the owens corning 4’ x 8’ x 2" ridgid foam board. They no longer stock it. Just the styrofoam type. I called around and found an 84 Lumber that can get it for $50 a sheet.
I saw some blue ridgid foam board on the internet. Has anybody used the the blue stuff?
I wanted to ask those who used foam on their layout, what type of foam and how much the cost?
Thanks
Maryland Home Depot foam, I would call purple, branded Fomular 2" x 2’ x 8’ is $29, Lowe’s is called Kingspan, is blue green and the same price so $50 for a 4 x 8 isn’t a bad price.
You might check plastic distributors, big warehouse facilities in industrial parks, the kind of place where you might also buy a 4 x 8 sheet of styrene.
The pink is an Owens Corning product. On line Home Depot shows it as being carried in the Sacramento area stores. Entering a Los Anges zip code in their search yields no results.
I used blue (not sure of brand) 20 years ago. It and the pink were considered equal by model railroaders at that time.
The blue you refer to is probably the Dow product, competitor to the Owens Corning.
Pink (Owens Corning), Blue (Dow) and Green (Kingspan) are competing XPS (extruded polystyrene) products. Probably all would work.
They are all the same. For whatever reason, I have seen some Owens Corning pink that looks more purple than pink - messed up batch ooof dye or what I don’t know. Maybe the stuff comes out blue and mixed with pink dye you get purple. Foamular is the trade mark of Owens Corning, so purple or pink, if it syas Foamular, it’s theirs. Dow is blue, and for a while my local Lowes carried the green stuff - that in 4x8 1" thick sheets, while they had the full range of pink but all in 2x8 sheets.
–Randy
Thanks Henry! I need to find a sorce other than Homedepot and lowes.
DSchmitt
Thanks for the info. I found that homedepot will order the pink stuff, 4’ x 8’ x2"
But…and its abig but
minium order is 64 sheets. 64 x $40 = $2560
Thats a lot of sheet!
Thanks Randy
I should see if 1" foam is a better option.
There are insulation contractors in the mid-Atlantic. I’m sure there must be some in the parts of California where it gets really hot, which would be closer to you than the high Sierras. Maybe they could sell you a couple pieces.
Cuyama
I found some expanded polystyrene foam board
by polysheild at lowes.
$16 for 8’ x 4’ x 1.5" sheet.
The pink stuff is avaialble here for $60 for the 8’ x 4’ x 2".
Does the pink panther have more advantages than white polyshield?
I’m not personally familiar with polyshield – note that the pink and blue foams are extruded, polyshield is expanded. Looking at the spec sheets for each, the pink extruded foam is significantly more rigid than polyshield. I have no idea how easy or difficult the polyshield is to cut or shape.
graymatter !.. Are you kidding me ! Do yourself a favor and do a little research.
By the way welcome to the forum.
Extruded is extruded. It doesn’t matter what color the foam is.
Just like electrical wiring. The current going through the wire doesn’t care what color the casing or shroud is. It all functions and works the same.
Current info, grades in pink. Page 4 on this current forum.
1 inch foam does just fine. I was the guinea pig and did the experiments before I did the build.
I don’t understand why southern states do not have availability in this product. One must insulate air conditioning just as well as heat.
Who knows, go figure. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of this before.
Can I send it to you ? Just kidding. I don’t think 4-foot by 8-foot UPS would be any cheaper then you can find it for. Chuckle chuckle
I wish you the best of luck in your search.
I found an Insulation company with extruded blue…I said how much a sheet?
He asked is this for trains? I said yes.
He said "I can let you have it for $60 a sheet.
If he knew he was the only place in So Cal with some in stock he probably would ask for more.
Lowes offered to ship some from Illinios for $100 in shipping at $40 a sheet for lowes extruded blue.
Ironically thats about $51 a sheet! But (and its a big but) I have little faith it will arrive in the condition I would like.
maybe homasote…
The Polyshield that the Original Poster is talking about is not extruded.
Homasote has no structural strength, so it’s not a substitute for extruded foam. And it may be just as hard to find in So Cal.
Plywood also works great for subroadbed (cut in cookie-cutter style) and is available everywhere. It worked great for model railroad layouts for the 50 years or so before extruded foam became widely available - and still does.
I was wondering why It was so expensive. Thanks for the correction cuyama. I certainly have been known to be wrong before.
Edit. What is polyshield and how is it different from extruded ?
Cuyama
I agree homosote is not a subsitute for extruded foam, its a different construction technique all together and more complicated then extruded foam stacked and sculpted.
I have gone full circle and will draw up plans using wood…and maybe some styrofoam…
I am in Florida (northern part) and the 2" foam is rather hard to get here.
But in my research it appears as though with proper glue someone can simply glue 2 sheets of 1" together and get the same result.
In my case where the studs are 24" apart in my shed I believe I would want the 2" stuff. In a house where the studs ar 16" apart. I think 1.5" would be fine.
I also saw the recommendation that a 1/8 thick masonite/plywood be glued to the bottom of the foam. I thought this to be a very good idea,…little extra stiffness, mounting surface for items underneath, and supposely helps with the nasty transmission of sound that comes with foam subroadbed.
I’m going to utilize foam on my upper deck level of my new layout.
BTW I looked over craigslist and found several folks selling off surplus foam insulations they had.
Brian
Oops I pissed you off somewhere. That was not my intent. You definitely have it spelled out though the pink stuff is better. I would have to agree with Ken Patterson it is very easy to work with.
If you Google Menards Owens Corning pink extruded foam insulation. This is where I have found it definitely the cheapest.
It can’t be that much to ship the stuff is so lightweight.
OP asked if anyone has used the blue foam. Yes! When I lived in Texas any foam was semi-hard to find and Homasote was IMPOSSIBLE to find. “Homa What?” and “Homa Who?” were the normal responses from big box stores and building supply places. Pretty much the same when asking for foam sheet products.
I finally called a plastics company in the yellow pages. He sold the Dow blue foam in lots of thicknesses in 4x8 sheets. I got some in 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8" thicknesses. It’s been quite some time so the price eludes me but it wasn’t as expensive as you would think. He also had a lot of scrap pieces and damaged sections he threw in as a bonus.
So don’t rely soley on Lowes, HD or whatever big box store you have locally.
The blue foam worked well for everything I used it for on my layout. It cut, carved and glued well. I glued it together with yellow glues like Titebond and Bordens…whatever I had available and some pieces are still stuck together after at least 10 years.
Good luck.
oldline1