Foam Day

I finished riveting things to the skin of my Spartan, got all the wiring and plumbing done, and decided to go ahead and get the Icynene insulation done while I wait for my new front windows and vent parts to be delivered. It only costs $1.25/sq ft for 3" thick. Styrofoam costs $1.78/sq ft if you stack it up to 3" worth. So I decided to cover the bottom of the floor of my house. I didn't do it when I did the rest of my house because I wasn't sure how my floor was going to perform. Would termites get in it? After 8 years I have had no problem with bugs, but it is damn cold in the winter. Since I seem to be staying here winter after winter I thought I'd go ahead and foam it while the truck was here.

Here's the before picture of the floor. It's an old gymnasium floor that was held down with clips. That's the rusty marks on the bottom. It's 1 1/2" thick tongue and groove rock maple, so I only needed joists every 4'. I used a plank and beam design in my Architectural Graphic Standards book to find out I needed doubled 2x8s for the beams. The planks are all cut to end on the beams with staggered joints; 12' pieces, 8' pieces, and 4' pieces. This stuff had the tongue and groove on the ends as well so I tried to plan cuts to fall under the walls so the ends joined up.

Foaming the underside of my floor 

While one guy was working under my house the other guy was getting the Spartan ready. They masked everything with duct tape and visqueen.

One guy sprayed the foam while the other guy cut of the excess.
Apparently the respirator is just for protecting his face from overspray and
not really to keep him breathing the fumes. The other guy wasn't wearing
a respirator and he didn't mind. I thought it was stinky. I couldn't go in there
for very long at a time.

This is the air compressor that sends fresh air to the respirator.
It started to overheat so he took it apart to see what was going on inside.
It looked fine so he turned it back on and just let it be hot.

This is the saw they use to trim the foam.
It's flexible like a band saw blade.

After they finished the inside he sprayed underneath the Spartan.
He covered the respirator visor with cling film, just wrapped it around his
whole head. When it got stuff all over it he pulled it down and
wrapped a fresh piece. It's all built up around his neck.

This is the waste. That seems like a lot.

They shoved it in the truck when they were done.
They don't recycle it, just put it in the dumpster at the shop.
It mashes down a lot, like angel food cake.
When the trucks run over it at the
landfill it will only take up a fraction of that room.
But it will take it up forever. Since my brother designs
landfills, I guess I'm a job creator.

Before Panorama: Front

After Panorama: Front

Before Panorama: Back

After Panorama: Back

Of course I made a video of the actual liquid-to-foam conversion. This stuff goes on at 140°F. The smoke coming off it is steam. The formula is Isocyanate MDI + Proprietary Resin + Water = polyicynene foam