I googled “homasote” and can find no reference to it outside the USA. Ii wonder if a similar product, under a different name, is available in Canada?
Check your local Home Depot they’re the only one’s around here that sells it. It’s actually nothing more then compressed cellulose aka paper and glue. It’s my understanding that it was used for sound deadening as well as sub flooring in attic spaces as I found it in my own house and have since removed it. I have read where most have stopped using it in the construction field because if it’s flammability properties. I am convinced it’s solely manufactured for the model railroad community. I am attempting to find an alternative to using homasote but so far it’s the best bag for the buck.
The Homasote web site lists Mickey MacMurchy, 604-526-5153, as the sales rep for your area. You might try calling him.
I think it’s called fibreboard or paperboard in Canuckland. No one has ever heard of homasote way up here.
Homasote is the registered trademark name of a product made from compressed, recycled paper. In the U.S. it is sold at some lumber dealers in 4 x 8 foot 1/2 inch thick sheets as an insulation material.
Here’s a link to the Homasote Corporation’s web site:
I can still get it in the Toronto area. Its called Homosote up here too. There are very few lumber yards that carry it. Home Depot near me ( Barrie Ont. ) has never heard of it. some of their people wouldnt know wood if it fell on them. Before everyone jumps on me, my son works there.
Dave
Homasote…I’m 64 years old, my dad used it in our laundry room for the walls and ceilings, wringer wash machine’s back then. I was about 9 years old. Soundboard and insulation and wallboard all in one! He even used it for the hog pen, tougher’n hell, even the hogs couldn’t bust through it!
I used it when we built my first layout when I was 12, nailed it to plywood. Well like I said I’m 64 and am in the process of building probably my last layout and I’m still using it. Only for the roadbed and yard. I glued it to the plywood. Simply push the track nails with a pair of long nose pliers. Still the best sound deadening material I know of. I live in a high humidity climate and have had no problem with it expanding from moisture, some posters claim they do. Even when I was younger, never had a problem with it even in a wet basement. Up north in Canada, I don’t know where you would get it! You might try a full service building supply that deals strictly with lumber and building supplies, like a builder would use as opposed to Home Depot or Lowes!
A large lumber yard in Northen Ohio sold homosote cut to size for bed boards for sagging mattresses back in the 1950s… You placed them between the matress and the box springs.
I used to work for a company that built a lot of private church schools… we used it for bulletin boards! I stopped using it for subroadbed when I switched to blue foam and adhesive for mounting track.
There was a time, though, when I swore by it!
Lee
The company’s official name for the product is “440 SoundBarrier” That may help you find it…
Bruce,
As a fellow Winnipeger, I tried to find the stuff when I built my benchwork 3 years ago and couldn’t find a local supplier. I tried all the smaller yards too.
CN Charlie
In the club I was in we were investigating alternatives to homasote, we found some board, I don’t recall the exact name, Cyrotex or something, I totally forget, it had similar properties like homasote, it was fireproof, but like me I hand spike stuff and I tried hand spiking into a sample of this stuff, and it simply does not hold spikes that well, Homosate does. Homasote you spike into and the spike holds, this other stuff, you spike into it, the material spreads and stays spread, homosote it tries to compress back in and it HOLDS the spike. For flex track stuff and glueing down track, homosote might not be that necessary but I SWEAR by it for hand spiking.
Menards is about the only source I know around these parts for Homasote and thay have 2x4 cuts of it, very handy for my modular work, and can transport it in my weelte compact car…heh
A nearby lumber company I know has had stock of it but havent checked them out lately, you should poke around all your lumber yards for it.
Im in the Niagara Region (St Catharines Ont), and cant find it here either… What a bugger!
alexP
That could very well be! They even list it on their website.
440 Homasote is used in dozens of artful ways by crafts people and hobbyists. It is lightweight, easy to cut with a mat knife or saw, has no splinters, and makes an excellent tackable surface. It’s waterproof and can be used inside and out. Just use your imagination!
- Under stained glass
Hi: I bought my present house in 1960. When I remodeled, I used Homosote, as an underlayment for the thin plywood paneling I put on the walls. The paneling was only 1/8 in thick, and the homosote made them stiffer. I also moved my stairway from enclosed, to open and when I covered the upstairs hallway all I used was the homosote on the walls. My cats liked the corner for a clawing post, it was soft for their claws. I had to put some metal shields on the corner.
At about the same time I was doing the inside of my house, my brother built a Garage, and used the homosote on the outside of the walls. The rain never seemed to bother it except that when it got wet it turned to a dark gray. The sides of the garage that could be seen from the road, he painted, but the back wall is still bare homosote. This was done back in the 19 sixties. still standing.
Sam
Homasote can be found in Ontario in the Hamilton area at Ontario Plywood Specialists here is the website link - not much of a website but they have a phone number.
http://www.eureka4you.com/op/index.htm
It is around $38 for a 4x8 sheet (as of Jan 20, 2010)
It is very hard to find around here, Home Depot, Lowes, Hamilton Builders Supply all just look at you as if you have 9 eyes when you ask for it.
Bruce,
Why not check with the guys in the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club - I bet they can give you some leads!
Jim
I use Homasote for my roadbed, but it’s been milled into shape by the California Roadbed Company into a product called Homabed. I love the stuff, and recommend it highly.
I used 4 by 8 sheets, cut to need, in building my Santa Fe in Oklahoma layout, started in 1983 and still going strong. I used the 1/2 stuff for railyards, and I buy the Homabed roadbed for the mainlines and sidings. Good stuff, never have problems with it. I bonded the homasote to 3/8 plywood, good and sturdy. The guy that owns Homabed in California has really refined it over the guy back east who started selling it in the beginning.
Bob
I have been reading all these wonderful things about Homasote both in this thread and on the Homasote web site, and it brings some questions to mind…
I am wondering why you stopped using it – does blue foam and adhesive have better properties?
So does everyone agree that for hand spiking (which is what I intend to do on my layout), Homasote is the best material? Or is there anything better, if money is no object?
Should I assume here that Homasote should only be used for roadbed and rail yards? And not for layering it and for example carving it up to make hills, and mountains, rivers, landscaping and such?
I am wondering…to mill this stuff for roadbed, would milling it on my table saw be advised? Or is this unsafe to cut on a table saw – hazardous dust etc?