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Old 02-14-2018, 05:01 PM   #21
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Has anyone documented the effectiveness of spray foam over rigid 2"foam. I like the idea of spray foam, but am not into the 3-4 days of manual labor shaving it down and off everywhere you don't want it. Is it cost effective over rigid concerning initial cost and labor involved?

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Old 02-14-2018, 05:06 PM   #22
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Has anyone documented the effectiveness of spray foam over rigid 2"foam. I like the idea of spray foam, but am not into the 3-4 days of manual labor shaving it down and off everywhere you don't want it. Is it cost effective over rigid concerning initial cost and labor involved?
Aside from the labor/ clean up, if the two part closed cell doesn't cause chemical harm to the metal then I don't see why it wouldn't be the best option.

The only other negative I've ever heard was that after time it begins to deteriorate and come loose from where you've put it.

but that could just be another one of those situations associated with the cheaper stuff. I have no experience with spray foam other then around my outside water spigots
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Old 02-14-2018, 05:23 PM   #23
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The only other negative I've ever heard was that after time it begins to deteriorate and come loose from where you've put it.
I did not experience that with the bus I foamed. In fact, a bit of foam got on the exterior (Imron) paint and I never was able the get it off.

I had that bus for about 12-13 years and never noticed any foam coming loose.

I expect that if the surface you were applying to was not clean that could reduce adhesion.
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Old 02-14-2018, 05:26 PM   #24
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I did not experience that with the bus I foamed. In fact, a bit of foam got on the exterior (Imron) paint and I never was able the get it off.

I had that bus for about 12-13 years and never noticed any foam coming loose.

I expect that if the surface you were applying to was not clean that could reduce adhesion.

Yeah I could see a lack of prep-work and/or poor quality foam being the culprit for those few times I've heard about it coming loose.
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Old 02-14-2018, 06:11 PM   #25
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Yeah I could see a lack of prep-work and/or poor quality foam being the culprit for those few times I've heard about it coming loose.
I mistakenly threw a can of Great Stuff into a trash burn pit next to the house. It blew up and was apparently not yet empty. I have that stuff splattered over a good section of the vinyl siding on the house. I need to replace the siding because that stuff isn't coming off.
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Old 02-14-2018, 06:44 PM   #26
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That sounds like some real hot lava.

I've had them explode from sitting outside in the sun. Well, it's more like a slow leak that makes a basketball size clump of foam with a can in the middle.
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Old 02-14-2018, 07:04 PM   #27
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I mistakenly threw a can of Great Stuff into a trash burn pit next to the house. It blew up and was apparently not yet empty. I have that stuff splattered over a good section of the vinyl siding on the house. I need to replace the siding because that stuff isn't coming off.
FFS!?! I’m just glad to hear it didn’t get on none of y’all and burn the $#!T out of you and send you to the ER
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Old 02-14-2018, 07:05 PM   #28
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Yes it does. You are not as feeble as you claim

I had my first bus spray foamed. The difference in the driving experience between driving the bus to the insulation shop and driving it home was amazing.

It was August and the drive home with the bus insulated was soooo much quieter and cooler than the drive to the insulation shop.

It also sealed any air infiltration.

I just finished wiring a bus for another gent here in town and much of the time we were working inside the bus it was 20F-35F outside. He had about 2" of spray foam. With minimal or no heat running we stayed quite comfortable.

My $0.02.... I cannot see myself NOT putting spray foam in my bus.
So maybe this is a silly question but what sort of shop did you get to spray foam your bus?

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Old 02-14-2018, 07:18 PM   #29
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You can order spray foam kits, or you can find a local spray foam insulator usually working in residential or commercial construction.

If you do all the prep work so they can just walk in with the spray gun and shoot it you can get a pretty good deal, possibly.
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Old 02-14-2018, 07:18 PM   #30
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So maybe this is a silly question but what sort of shop did you get to spray foam your bus?

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https://www.homeadvisor.com/tloc/Sai...am-Insulation/
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Old 02-14-2018, 07:28 PM   #31
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So educate me. What insulation should I be putting in the ceiling/walls? Spray in foam insulation? I'm going to be at that stage soon and the more things I get right the less things I'm doing twice.
Foam board will do wonders.
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Old 02-14-2018, 07:48 PM   #32
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But yeah, the reason that I brought up the mineral wool was this.... (long explanation inbound, sorry)


The busses like any car have holes here and there in strategic areas to allow for water drainage. This is a good thing.

They then toss in some insulation to make it tolerable for passengers. This is also a good thing.

The first problem comes from the density, and material of the insulation.
(It comes from whatever brand name agrees to a contract helping the bus maker maintain a certain price point) So, while 'acceptable' it's pretty much worthless to us as Skoolies.

The second problem is that the cheap, sparse stuff they use ends up holding quite a bit of moisture. thus causing rust.

Since no mater what we do condensation will be a regularity heres how I thought to deal with it.


First thing that needs to be done is to obviously Coat all exposed metal with some sort of chemically bonded base layer to help prevent rust.

In theory a completely air tight space would be the solution, but the likelihood of having an air tight bus is beyond most of us. So I figure that if an insulation were to be used that 1. Is dense enough to reasonably stop most of the airflow, 2. Resists the accumulation of moisture, 3. Still has the OEM ventilation points to allow for evaporative vapors to escape when the ARE present, 4. Has a high resistance to mold/mildew, and 5. Provides an adequate R value. Then it would be a prime candidate for a conversion.

The particular products that I got directed to from the Rockwool representative also have the added benefit of acoustical dampening, and extreme heat resistance.
Let me throw this in the mix(haven't seen it in this thread yet) https://youtu.be/fB5CH-834gk

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Old 02-14-2018, 07:57 PM   #33
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With foam board you should be able to get the job done for two or three hundred or a little more. I have a medium size bus so I'm speaking averages here.

To do a full foam job, and considering I'm talking about 2 year old prices, it was $800 for me. There is a considerable amount of cleanup and trimming of the spray foam, depending on how passive agressive your spray foam guy actually is.

Spray foam is great, but you really do some cussing during the clean and trim process. I'm sure there's frustrations with cutting panels of rigid to fit just right too. I'm planning rigid for my next bus so I can actually compare them, and because I'm cheap.

My foam panels did come loose. You could hear them peal off the inner skin of the roof. At times it was caused by heat and slight tortion on the body of the bus because it wasn't parked flat. It was very audible even while driving. The panels did not fall out of place at all. I trimmed everything to rib level leaving a small pillow hill in the middle of each section between the ribs. When I attached plywood to the ceiling and walls the ply pushes on the center or each panel and presses the foam tightly against the roof skin.

Before you ask, no I didn't leave a thermal break. There was way to much foam sprayed in the first place. I anticipated the foam panels coming loose from the roof while trimming the excess foam as some were already loose. The 19/32nds ply compresses the foam panels against the roof tightly.

I about had a heart attack when I walked into my bus after the spray foam as saw stalagtights hanging from the ceiling. The guy didn't seem to have a sense of humor. More of a desperate air about him. I was trimming for close to two weeks, or about 12 days. See why I'm planning to use rigid in the future?
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Old 02-14-2018, 08:17 PM   #34
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Rigid is way cheaper than a spray foam DIY kit, but it seems like you lose out on following contours. In my mind that seems like it'd be a big deal, but this is not my area of expertise. I'm still debating what I'm using on my floor!
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Old 02-14-2018, 08:18 PM   #35
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With foam board you should be able to get the job done for two or three hundred or a little more. I have a medium size bus so I'm speaking averages here.

To do a full foam job, and considering I'm talking about 2 year old prices, it was $800 for me. There is a considerable amount of cleanup and trimming of the spray foam, depending on how passive agressive your spray foam guy actually is.

Spray foam is great, but you really do some cussing during the clean and trim process. I'm sure there's frustrations with cutting panels of rigid to fit just right too. I'm planning rigid for my next bus so I can actually compare them, and because I'm cheap.

My foam panels did come loose. You could hear them peal off the inner skin of the roof. At times it was caused by heat and slight tortion on the body of the bus because it wasn't parked flat. It was very audible even while driving. The panels did not fall out of place at all. I trimmed everything to rib level leaving a small pillow hill in the middle of each section between the ribs. When I attached plywood to the ceiling and walls the ply pushes on the center or each panel and presses the foam tightly against the roof skin.

Before you ask, no I didn't leave a thermal break. There was way to much foam sprayed in the first place. I anticipated the foam panels coming loose from the roof while trimming the excess foam as some were already loose. The 19/32nds ply compresses the foam panels against the roof tightly.

I about had a heart attack when I walked into my bus after the spray foam as saw stalagtights hanging from the ceiling. The guy didn't seem to have a sense of humor. More of a desperate air about him. I was trimming for close to two weeks, or about 12 days. See why I'm planning to use rigid in the future?
I'd rather do rigid foam and have some spaces I can fill with a can of Great Stuff than deal with the fun you went through. Insulation is one of those things where none is bad, some is good, more is better. But some is way better and more expensive than what is actually needed.
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Old 02-14-2018, 08:40 PM   #36
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So maybe this is a silly question but what sort of shop did you get to spray foam your bus?

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A local insulation outfit was recommended to me by another bus owner.

The folks that I am talking to about foaming my current bus are a trailer repair outfit. They spray foam refer trailers.
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Old 02-14-2018, 08:44 PM   #37
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Rigid is way cheaper than a spray foam DIY kit, but it seems like you lose out on following contours. In my mind that seems like it'd be a big deal, but this is not my area of expertise. I'm still debating what I'm using on my floor!
I'd go with an inch or two of foam board, then plywood.
Superdave's was done like that and it was solid and worked great.

Compared to what you're used to, simply replacing the factory insulation with foam board and putting up something other than the metal ceilings will be a HUGE improvement. Like night and day.
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Old 02-14-2018, 08:47 PM   #38
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Foam is good because it's so air tight. If I considering using foam again I'd order a kit and spray it myself so there wasn't so much waste.

I'd like to use rigid panels and possibly seal around the edges of the panels with either spray or canned foam. If the rigid panels could be glued to the roof interior it seems like it would work well to leave a thermal break.
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Old 02-14-2018, 08:50 PM   #39
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Foam is good because it's so air tight. If I considering using foam again I'd order a kit and spray it myself so there wasn't so much waste.

I'd like to use rigid panels and possibly seal around the edges of the panels with either spray or canned foam. If the rigid panels could be glued to the roof interior it seems like it would work well to leave a thermal break.
My plan on the shorty is to use foam panels, and one DIY spray kit for sealing it all in and for the odd spaces the panels don't conform to as well.
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Old 02-14-2018, 09:03 PM   #40
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That's about the only way you can insulate the end caps. Way to many angles.
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