Foam Board Purchasing Question

[Anonymous]

Hello Everyone,

I called around to all the local stores (HomeDepot,Dills, Lowes..etc.) and all anyone seems to carry is the 2" 2' x 8' sheet of tounge and groove foam board.I live in New York. The question I have is that I want to use the 2" foam as my base on my benchwork. Is this the correct stuff to use?
I don't recall anyone mentioning tounge and groove before or am I mistaken. If this is not the right material can someone please tell me exactly what I'm looking for. I also thought it came in larger 4' x 8' sheets.
Once again thank you all in advance for all your help.

Louie

[grayfox1119]

It is the right stuff. You see, this is designed for home wall insulation, so the tongue and groove is for interlocking as you install it. If you don't like the T&G, you can meerly cut it off. Bottom line, it will work.

[tstage]

Louie,

I've seen the thinner (1" and under) in tongue 'n groove but not the larger 1-1/2" or 2" thick. What you want is either the pink Owen Corning or Blue (??? can't remember the manufacturer ???) extruded foam insulation. Great stuff. You can see it in my pic below.

Louie, it maybe worth it to you just to stop by one of the home centers that you called and seeing it for yourself. I've only seen it in 4 x 8' sheets. It'll run you ~$20-25 per sheet.

Hope that helps...

Tom

[Anonymous]

Most home improvement places will not carry thicker than 1/2" panels. You might try the yellow pages for an insulation supplier or use the Dow-Corning website to find the area distributor.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Guys for the info.
I will take your advice and just go to the places I called, but all the places I called only seem to have the 2" 2' x 8' sheets of T&G but I guess I will be able to see it for myself . The 4' x 8' sheets would work much better but I may have also asked for the wrong thing. I asked for foam board insulation instead of the extruded foam board. If I can't find it I will do what grayfox1119 said and just cut the T & G off.
Tstage if you remember the manufacturer of the of the blue stuff please let me know....Also your layout looks great. Keep up the wonderfull job.

Louie

[Anonymous]

To solve your 4x8 problem, just glue the tongue into the groove of two 2x8s. It should form a fairly rigid panel. Use foam compatible glue however. JWS

[RoyalOaker]

Lowes and Home depot carry 4x8 sheets in various thiknesses.

The home depot near my work always seemed to have the 2" pink stuff , but the one by my house did not. Funny think is that when I called either of these stores, they never seemed to have it or they never understood what I wanted.

I ended up going into a Lowes and they had the Dow Chemical Blue board in stock, but when I called them, they could not find it either.

go figure.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

I got 1" 2x8 pink t&g at my local Home Depot.

Beware, although this stuff looks pretty uniformly thick, it really isn't. May or may not matter depending on what you are doing. It was thicker along the edges, apparently as a result of forming the tongue and grooves.

Mike

[Bikerdad]

The "blue" foam is DOW Styrofoam, the real, trademarked, original extruded polystyrene foam. Call a commercial insulation supplier, up there in NY they should have all thicknesses, as well as the 4x8 sheets. One other thing you may want to check out if you're in the vicinity of NYC is theatrical foam, used for making sets and props. There should be one or two suppliers up there as well.

[Anonymous]

Thank You everyone for all the information. I would be lost with out all your help.
I found 2" 4' x 8' blue foam boards at a local lumber yard. WOW this stuff is not that cheap $28.00 bucks a sheet...oh well when you got to have it... you got to have it.
Happy railroading everyone....

Louie

[Anonymous]

Yeah...it's just crazy how much prices on building materials like this have gone up since this past summer's hurricanes...I had some friends build a house out in Montana four years ago. If they'd built it this summer if would have cost them $150,000 more just in materials. That's insane.