Roof question

prncssgeek · Mar 16, 2008, 04:00 PM

Hopefully someone out there has an answer to my burning question.

For those of you that have rebuilt your roofs, is there an easier way to remove the styrofoam insulation that is glued to the skin? Paint thinner will usually "melt" styrofoam, but I don't know how safe that would be to use. It took me the better part of 4 hours to scrape off exactly half of the rigid styrofoam.

thanks!

austinado16 · Mar 17, 2008, 08:26 AM

I didn't know paint thinner was hot enough to melt styrofoam. I know that gasoline is. I would guess carburetor spray cleaner is too.

Do you have the roof off and it's laying upside down, so you can get down to business?

prncssgeek · Mar 17, 2008, 08:40 AM

Quote from: austinado16I didn't know paint thinner was hot enough to melt styrofoam. I know that gasoline is. I would guess carburetor spray cleaner is too.

Do you have the roof off and it's laying upside down, so you can get down to business?

Roof is off, upside down and on my patio for stability. Styrofoam is 3/4's off now. Paint thinner doesn't work. Bummer. But the scraping is going faster today. DH is helping. WD40 helps on the really tough spots. Only took me a little over an hour to do 1/4 of the roof this morning. So it definitely seems to be going faster.

Didn't know about gas. Since I'm going into the hardest part I'll keep the carb cleaner in mind too. Thanks!

austinado16 · Mar 17, 2008, 08:52 AM

Some people who make molds out of styrofoam as the scupting material will fiberglass over that, and then once the fiberglass has cured, they poor gasoline in. It eats the styrofoam, immediately and then they pour our the liquidfied styrofoam.

Of course the question then becomes, do you pour that out along your fence to keep weeds down, or load it into a bucket and use your Yard-A-Pult to fire it off into the neighborhood....like you do with your 20lb sacks of dog poop.

Have fun and wear some breathing, eye, and hand protection!!!(Yard-A-Pults can sometimes misfire.)

prncssgeek · Mar 17, 2008, 10:23 AM

Quote from: austinado16Some people who make molds out of styrofoam as the scupting material will fiberglass over that, and then once the fiberglass has cured, they poor gasoline in. It eats the styrofoam, immediately and then they pour our the liquidfied styrofoam.

Of course the question then becomes, do you pour that out along your fence to keep weeds down, or load it into a bucket and use your Yard-A-Pult to fire it off into the neighborhood....like you do with your 20lb sacks of dog poop.

Have fun and wear some breathing, eye, and hand protection!!!(Yard-A-Pults can sometimes misfire.)

Now see, the Yard-A-Pult is tempting. I could have just tossed it into the neighbors yard. I could mix it with the dog droppings that their dogs leave in my yard! Of course, DH didn't find that amusing. DD did and set about trying to figure out how to make a Yard-A-Pult!

Gameldor · Mar 24, 2008, 03:55 PM

Quote from: prncssgeekHopefully someone out there has an answer to my burning question.

For those of you that have rebuilt your roofs, is there an easier way to remove the styrofoam insulation that is glued to the skin? Paint thinner will usually "melt" styrofoam, but I don't know how safe that would be to use. It took me the better part of 4 hours to scrape off exactly half of the rigid styrofoam.

thanks!

Can or have you posted any pictures of how this is going?

prncssgeek · Mar 24, 2008, 04:06 PM

Quote from: GameldorCan or have you posted any pictures of how this is going?

I have pictures over on the website listed in my signature. But it's going slow. Yesterday being Easter and today it being cold, I didn't work on it. Tomorrow though I'll make some adjustments to the frame and add the insulation. So tomorrow night there will be more pictures on my site and more progress. I found when I flipped the frame I had some weakness in it that was causing it to sag, so I'm changing the bracing a little. Saturday was spent putting it together, taking it apart, trying different things to adjust the sag. It wasn't a bad sag and probably would have not sagged at all when I attached everything. But since it was a sag in the roof that started all the problems, I figured better safe than sorry.

That and along with having ADHD, I'm a bit of a perfectionist.

So every once in a while that slows things down.

wavery · Mar 24, 2008, 04:10 PM

Be very careful using gasoline on styrofoam. I'm pretty sure that it is actually illegal to do that. That "Goo" that you end up with.....It's called "Napalm" :yikes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napalm

prncssgeek · Mar 24, 2008, 04:42 PM

Quote from: waveryBe very careful using gasoline on styrofoam. I'm pretty sure that it is actually illegal to do that. That "Goo" that you end up with.....It's called "Napalm"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napalm

Dude, I so did not know that! :yikes:
That link was interesting read though, thanks for enlightening me!

wavery · Mar 24, 2008, 05:12 PM

Quote from: prncssgeekDude, I so did not know that! :yikes:
That link was interesting read though, thanks for enlightening me!

OMG.... :yikes:

PLEASE tell me that I didn't create another monster here...... :Z

prncssgeek · Mar 24, 2008, 05:23 PM

Quote from: waveryOMG.... :yikes:

PLEASE tell me that I didn't create another monster here...... :Z

LOL no monsters here! But I've filed that info away so that when the next ice age hits if I'm still here (doubtful), I can run down to the local home depot, grab all the foam insulation and use it to A) fight off bad guys (my current neighbors with the yappy dogs that poop in my yard don't count) and 2)start fires.

wavery · Mar 24, 2008, 05:51 PM

Quote from: prncssgeekLOL no monsters here! But I've filed that info away so that when the next ice age hits if I'm still here (doubtful), I can run down to the local home depot, grab all the foam insulation and use it to A) fight off bad guys (my current neighbors with the yappy dogs that poop in my yard don't count) and 2)start fires.

Now........my biggest concern is that Dee4j didn't read this....

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Roof question