Will this rigid foam insulation board work well?

DrGribble

DrGribble

Well-Known Member
I'm going to be framing my room soon and am planning on using rigid foam insulation, problem is I have a small vehicle and cannot transport 4x8' sheets, don't want to pay delivery fees and don't want to rent a truck for it as unloading a bunch of those will look like i'm up to something anyway...

I found this stuff, each pack is the equivalent to 1 4x8' sheet, is rated R6, it's already white and costs about the same (or less than in many cases) than a full sheet although a lot of those are higher than R6, I'm mainly concerned with a decent vapor/air barrier to help keep smell at bay and insulate the room as well as help cut down fan noise to an extent, this stuff is 1.5" thick too, I was originally looking at 1" thick but it was higher quality stuff I think.

Do you think this material would work well? It will allow me to transport it in a standard sized vehicle, unload with less suspicion and seems to be blank white which is a bonus, I'll tape up the seems of course plus I think if I accidentally knock a hole in the wall (I'd imagine will be easy) I can replace a small panel instead of an entire sheet... another bonus.

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I built a room out of the 4x8 sheets you were originally considering and it did not work out very well. I have since torn it down and rebuilt a proper room with 2x4 studs, drywall, insulation and paint.
If transporting it is the main concern you might consider a grow tent. I wished I'd bought a tent instead of trying to use that crap.:wall:
 
CaptainCAVEMAN said:
I built a room out of the 4x8 sheets you were originally considering and it did not work out very well. I have since torn it down and rebuilt a proper room with 2x4 studs, drywall, insulation and paint.
If transporting it is the main concern you might consider a grow tent. I wished I'd bought a tent instead of trying to use that crap.:wall:
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I have multiple tents but my ceiling height is too low so I can't use any of them anymore since moving to a new home, seems like every good sized tent out there is literally 2 inches too tall so I can't use any of them plus being as concerned about smell as I am I feel I should have a good seal but I see what you're saying about the foam. I'll need to be real careful working around it, will need to have plenty of available studs to hang things from since it'll be useless for that and so on it just seems like the easiest way to construct walls. Thanks for the feedback though, I was wondering if it might be a pain in the ass keeping it in good shape anyway.

I am doing proper framing though w/ 2x4 studs, 16" on center, etc so I'll have a good structural base to hang them and as long as I mark my stud lines well I'll be able to hang things from the walls without issues as well.
 
I'm also wondering if this stuff, being 1 1/2" thick will be able to block light or if I'll have to put panda film over it, I'm trying to avoid using that stuff I want a nice clean look and I can never hang that stuff perfectly, was considering finding some kind of latex sealer paint or rubber-like substance I can spread over the walls to seal it up even better although that will impede the ability to replace a panel easily if I punch a hole through it. I don't mind going overboard in my effort to seal this thing up air tight (with the exception of the passive intakes).
 
One expensive solution for not much R value and weak walls.

Is wall cavity insulation out of the question? What about getting someone in to do it up with that spray insulation??
 
Thanks for all the feedback, I got the idea of using this stuff from other people's journals where they used rigid foam and liked it, it's basically an easy way for me to create a structure that I can seal up air tight (to help with smells) I'm going to tape all the seams and get it real solid then I suppose I could put panda over that, I think 1.5" of dense closed cell foam will at least (to some degree) help w/ smell/sealing room, maybe a little bit on sound levels and just give me a 'solid' but not in the utility sense structure. I am definitely not opposed to using wall cavity insulation as well though I actually considered it and I am framing all walls 16" on center so the stuff would fit correctly as well, maybe both together would help even more, light transmission is not really an issue to the outside of this room because most of it already has structural walls it's a lot to do with sealing it up for A/C and smell control.

Sounds like I'll need to either put some other material over it or seal it up with some kind of sealant, probably just put panda film over it or 1/8" paneling like most cheap basements use then it will be light tight and insulated, I unfortunately already obtained a lot of this stuff before reading all the responses but it certainly won't hurt using it, I think if I go the extra bit to do paneling over it or panda it will work nicely it's definitely going to help me with sealing though since it's super easy to work with and shove together tightly. Oh well, lesson learned I'm definitely going to use the stuff though (not return it) as I can't even transport 4x8 sheet materials in our vehicle anyway.

About using the tent... that's definitely not the only reason (height) I would have just used it inside the room I am constructing otherwise, they're not nearly air tight enough or easy to control temps with from my past experience so I'd probably only use it for a portion of the grow anyway, I only had a 5x5 and a 2x4 anyway. I could fit about 5-6 plants in the 5x5 and that was pushing it.
 
ruwtz said:
One expensive solution for not much R value and weak walls.

Is wall cavity insulation out of the question? What about getting someone in to do it up with that spray insulation??
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I will probably add wall cavity insulation, some reasonably priced fiberglass stuff as an extra layer since it's not too expensive then I'll have two kinds of insulation, I figure the more the merrier in a situation like this, can't see how it would hurt anyway.
 
I will be sure to take some shots of the finished product though so we can all see how it worked out in the end, probably be a few weeks because I'm in no rush and doing things a little at a time but we'll see. Who knows maybe it will surprise me and work out well with the other provisions I mentioned, it'll definitely be better than what I've got going on now either way.
 
Gotch ya on the tent thing .....well it sounds like your going through with building it which is always fun ....I just built another indoor it's fun building it for the purpose of growing mines on a concrete slab built like a house basically structure wise ......anyways good luck keep posting and add pics of what you come up with
 
Thanks, and you're right building it is fun to me so even if it sucks I can do it again (at a cost) I got almost everything I need for under 300 though so it wasn't a big leap, I did hold a piece of the material in front of my MH light and it does indeed leak light but not as bad as I imagined, it's a faint glow I almost think a couple coats of latext sealer/primer would kill the light transmission, not sure if they sell any kind of brush on 'rubberizing' paint kind of like plastidip or something, I really think that would work but hanging white/black sheeting will too I have a huge roll of it.
 
Yeah, that stuff is awesome I've watched videos on it but it's far too expensive for my budget at this time.

I'm actually looking up building materials that will fit in my vehicle since truck rental, delivery, etc are not convenient and I'm finding 1/4 plywood sheets in 2x4' sizes that are affordable, those would make a good wall/paneling to cover the framing when I'm done I think, not thick or good enough to hang things from but will definitely block the light and give the new walls a more finished look. I'm still looking though, just browsing around home improvement sites seeing what options there are that won't require a truck to get home.

I can get OSB waferboard panels for half the price of the plywood too in the same size, I only need it for a relatively small area since the room already has 3 block/concrete walls.
 
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It'll cost a whole lot more than 25... sure you can buy the gun, then you need an air compressor and all of the material to shoot into the walls, I thought it was closer to the thousands of dollars in the end. Unless you're talking about just one of those cans of expanding foam, yeah those are cool for cracks and stuff but I'm talking about insulating several hundred square feet not just a few cracks, I'll definitely use it for cracks and crevices though. I thought you were talking about insulating the entire room with that stuff, that's what I'm trying to accomplish.


This is what I thought you were talking about, and why I said it's expensive.

 
DrGribble said:
It'll cost a whole lot more than 25... sure you can buy the gun, then you need an air compressor and all of the material to shoot into the walls, I thought it was closer to the thousands of dollars in the end. Unless you're talking about just one of those cans of expanding foam, yeah those are cool for cracks and stuff but I'm talking about insulating several hundred square feet not just a few cracks, I'll definitely use it for cracks and crevices though. I thought you were talking about insulating the entire room with that stuff, that's what I'm trying to accomplish.


This is what I thought you were talking about, and why I said it's expensive.

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If you go this way I want to see the job in action! I really REALLY wanted to go with this myself but simply couldn't justify it in the budget.
 
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