Styrofoam is a trademark of the Dow Chemical Co. for extruded polystyrene used in products from house insulation to drink cups. It has great heat resistance and can be easily shaped into many forms. It is so well-known that Styrofoam has become almost a generic term for any type of polystyrene material. In the construction industry, Dow Styrofoam is often called "blueboard" because of the color of foamboard insulation panels.
Instructions
1. Use Styrofoam insulation outside on exterior walls, on roof decking or inside or outside poured concrete or concrete block walls. Match the thickness to the heat resistance or R value required; Styrofoam generally has an R value of about 5 per inch. Install it with a moisture or vapor barrier facing the heated area of the house.
2. Install Styrofoam blueboard panels on the outside of exterior walls and on roof decking with galvanized nails, driven with a hammer. Use nails long enough to penetrate the Styrofoam and plywood or oriented strand board (OSB) into the wall studs or roof truss rafters. Drive nails 12 to 18 inches apart and do not hammer them below the surface of the Styrofoam.
3. Start panels 1 inch above the bottom of the sheathing on outside walls. Secure joints with tongue and groove if panels have that option. Overlap the edges of panels at the peak of a roof. Cover exterior walls completely and use a utility knife, drywall saw or reciprocal saw to cut out window and door openings. Seal all seams on exterior sheathing or roof covering with tape specified for Styrofoam. Tape edges around window and door openings too.
4. Put Styrofoam on interior basement walls with a Styrofoam adhesive at the tops of the panels to hold them in place. Fasten 1-by 3-inch wood furring strips at 16 or 24 inch intervals with special concrete screws driven through the furring strips and the Styrofoam with a screw gun into the concrete or block walls. Use four screws per furring strip. Cover the basement walls with gypsum drywall, nailed to the furring strips.
5. Secure Styrofoam to the outside of basement walls with concrete screws, with 1-inch corrosion-resistant washers, driven at least 1 1/2-inches into the concrete. Use two fasteners per panel and put two corrosion-resistant screws with washers into the sill plate at the top of the wall. Rest the bottom of the panel on the concrete footing ledge. Put Styrofoam over exterior waterproofing after that material has dried.
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