I spoke to the chief engineer who developed Go-Board here. His main concern was exposure to sunlight that could warp the product but since the outside would be sheeted in some kind of finish material he had no concern there. He did reiterate not only coating any cut edges to seal but painting the inside to protect against sunlight and should be good to go. It lists for indoor use as it is intended to be a tile backer, either for floors, walls and counter tops, the outdoor use I discussed with him is something they never would have even thought about. Not any other outdoor uses for the product even come to mind.
What the product actually is, it is a high density ISo board, pretty much the same as blue or pink board model railroaders have been gravitating to in recent years but compressed and more dense and hard vs the regualar ISO insulation board you see in stores. It has an exterior "coating" sheet of Fiberglass with some kind of polyester binder. Given this it is not really porous and has no grain or internal stresses to be induced to warp. I got a pickup full so I will try a simple structure and see how it manages to deal with mother nature.
Looks like this year we will finally start this project as we built up the elevated gardens in years past, have free granite rocks, pine mulch and unwashed crusher fines and cactus available so the expense is mostly going to be track (And I see track ain't cheap). We have had great weather this winter so we are putting down weed free membrane prior to the construction of RR and scenery, have TPO single ply commercial roofing for membrane so we will NEVER get any weed problem.
Your decision must be influenced on whether you intend to leave your buildings outside all the time through all weather. We have a product in the UK that has some similarity to your Go-board and I have been tempted to use it however, as I rarely leave most buildings out all the time I've not yet tried it. If you intend to collect in your buildings at the end of a session the weight of the final model is clearly very important.
Most of my present buildings are either resin or jigstones with a few made of wood or plastic but any new ones will be of a much less heavy construction.
I would take note of the advice given previously about hot glue and pine and also note the warning on the Go-board website about the need to seal edges to make it totally waterproof.
I'd be concerned that GoBoard is apparently rated for interior use. If you get snow or associated freeze-thaw cycles that could put the material at risk and compromise its stability. Don't underestimate Mother Nature.
Thanks for the input. Going to cedar or redwood sounds logical, liquid nails and small drywall screws good too as well as ventilation and painting the inside. Thanks for the link to Ray's stuff, good ideas there and nice stuff.
I believe the Go-board I can get will be as good or maybe even better than the PVC board, I can ge it 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick and with the fiberglass reinforcement should be even more stable than the PVC board I think. Goboard is a very new product so most folks probably never heard of it. Below is a link to it so you can see what it is all about.
Any Modelers in the Denver area on here ? I may be able to give a sheet or two of this stuff away for someone local to try out. I won't be building structures myself for a while yet.
http://www.johnsmanville.com/fr_ca/home-insulation/tile-backer-board/goboard/
I must agree with Norcal Logger, pine acts like a sponge when exposed to moisture. When the paint job is about two years old it will start to crack and and allow moisture into the wood. Hot glue will not stand up to your weather. My wife bought a "corner drug store" (bird house) at the county fair that had been assembled with hot glue and pine. In just under a year it turned into a pile of parts and pieces, and this is in sunny San Diego county where it's exposure was limited to 3 minutes of sprinkler system twice a week. Exterior "Liquid Nails" stands up just fine. About 15 years ago I built a coaling tower from red wood fencing slats 1"x6"x5'6" and liquid nails. I "finished" it by "painting" it with used lawn mower oil and it is still standing strong. Hint for lap siding: I set my table saw with the blade at five degrees and run 3~4 red wood boards cutting off a 1/4 inch thick sidding board from each side of the board. Reset the blade to zero and run the boards again. It is a bit of a bother to constantly reset the blade but the end product is very uniform siding material.
Ray has produced many magnificent buildings with Sintra. He has posted a great many construction project here, I would highly reccomend looking at some of his work for inspiration.
Tom Trigg
Another alternative is PVC foam board, sold under the brand name "Sintra". It's very easy to work with, can be cut with an X-Acto knife, yet is very tough and durable. I'm using it on all my buildings now, mostly in the 6mm thickness.
Sintra is available in a variety of sizes and thicknesses from www.foamboardsource.com
I recommend using Weld-on 16 acrylic adhesive for gluing Sintra.
Might want to lose the "hot glue" and Pine wood.
Maybe use Redwood or Cedar and Liquid Nails (exterior) or E6000, Probably won't need the epoxy. Be sure to paint everything well inside and out and provide some ventilation so condensation doesn't collect.
Rick
My wife and I are developing our backyard landscape and hope to add a garden railway as we move forward in the finishing process. i guess I can search forums but thought I'd be lazy and just ask some questions.
We live in the rockies west of denver, about 8500 ft elevation. Winters are not bad but can get 2 ft of snow every few winters, most snow 6-12 inces and a few 3 inch storms, most of the time pretty dry. Sun is pretty intense adn summer time mid to upper 90's is experienced several times a summer. Humidity is low most of the timer but we can get heavy rain June-August depending on how monsoon season shapes up.
Having never built any garden railways we are considering construction of buildings. We assume a weatherproof base board core for a structure and attach outside finish (stone, clap board and windows) with very strong contact cement to stave off warping. We are considering using 1/2 square and 3/4 square pine to reinforce the inside of the walls and corners attaching with hot glue drywall screws and epoxy. We have access to a new product called Johns manville Go-board, it is a light weight replacement for cement underlayment board used in tile floor installations. Product is 1/2 inch thick, it is waterproof, i is s combination of polyesters with fiberglass reinforcement.
Should this work or do I need to consider a different design and construction technique?
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