foam board

caveman · Mar 27, 2010

I am just trying to help out the new members of this site so please take the time to read this before spending your hard eaned cash.................

Blue board will not hold water..................
Pink board will............
In the end it is your boat
I have tested both....................

https://www.glacierbay.com/dowtest.asp

wasilvers · Mar 27, 2010

I second that the blue board will not hold water, but some spray in foam will.

Took my boat apart and the blue foam put in by the prior owner has been soaking in water pleanty of times, but was light as a feather. The floor also had some type of spray in foam as support, that did hold water and was pretty darn heavy getting out.

Will

caveman · Mar 28, 2010

wasilvers said:
I second that the blue board will not hold water,

If the new members would take the the time to go back and look at old post then they would find the answers that they are looking for..................
Then again at one time i was a new member also :lol:

MeanMouth · Mar 28, 2010

I'm confused as to why you're insisting that "color" is the deciding factor of choosing insulation. You say not to go with pink board, because it absorbs water.

The link you provided says to use Extruded Polystyrene for best results.

We've installed Extruded Polystyrene, which happens to be pink (made of same material as blue board). Of course, this company who makes this pink Foamular board (Owens Corning) has a trademark on pink insulation; the color is part of the product's image. It is also "closed-cell", with skin on the front and back sides of the insulation.

https://commercial.owenscorning.com/assets/0/144/172/174/61844438-a0d0-483f-9d26-7790a20857b2.pdf

I'll be doing a little test on Sunday. I have a shipping scale that I'll use before and after soaking our pink foam, to see if the product page (10% maximum water absorption) is true or not. Manufacturer should tell the value of the board, not the color.

Froggy · Mar 28, 2010

So in layman's terms..... what board is best?

MeanMouth · Mar 28, 2010

Froggy said:
So in layman's terms..... what board is best?

Well, Caveman said pink holds water....so I would go with blue to be safe. I'll be doing a test on mine today, so I'll report back to you all later this evening.

Truckmechanic · Mar 28, 2010

Keep us posted, I am going to go get some here in the near future for my boat.

caveman · Mar 28, 2010

Not trying to start a argument all i am saying is ....
When i put form board in mine the suppler told me That the Dow (blue) wouldn't hold water and the Owen's (pink) would .
So i got some off the job Dow and Owen's.Put both in a bucket of water with a brick holding them under water for 24 hrs.
Then weighed both and the Dow did better...........less water.
If you will look at how dense the blue vs pink is you can see it is much more dense and not as likely to break down with time .

Meanmouth
Look forward to how your test turn out so please post your findings as i could be wrong but i don't think i am.but it would not be the first or the last time.

MeanMouth · Mar 28, 2010

caveman said:
Not trying to start a argument all i am saying is ....
When i put form board in mine the suppler told me That the Dow (blue) wouldn't hold water and the Owen's (pink) would .
So i got some off the job Dow and Owen's.Put both in a bucket of water with a brick holding them under water for 24 hrs.
Then weighed both and the Dow did better...........less water.
If you will look at how dense the blue vs pink is you can see it is much more dense and not as likely to break down with time .

Meanmouth
Look forward to how your test turn out so please post your findings as i could be wrong but i don't think i am.but it would not be the first or the last time.

You could most definitely be right Caveman...I was trying to figure out what the company specs say versus real time absorption conditions. Of course, our boats aren't submerged like a piece of insulation in a bucket or bath tub, so I'll have to monitor the life of the pink extruded polystyrene over time.

I'll update the thread after submerging it and weighing it...

caveman · Mar 29, 2010

I hope not your boat as that would be a waste.....

Just the foam please.............................caveman

wasilvers · Mar 29, 2010

MeanMouth said:
Of course, our boats aren't submerged like a piece of insulation in a bucket or bath tub...

Speak for yourselves!! :LOL2: :LOL2: :LOL2: Mine was pretty much submerged every time I went out - had a good leak in the boat. :roll:

caveman · Mar 29, 2010

just pull the plug.........................

as that is what i did just make sure it is not in the water as it is very hard to get out after doing that.. :LOL2:

wasilvers · Mar 30, 2010

I've heard that white foam block, when it falls apart, can clog your bilge pump. That pump is important to my floatation these days :LOL2:

MeanMouth · Mar 30, 2010

Alright, I performed a little "home test" on the pink insulation, made by Owens Corning. The particular insulation was Foamular 150, and came in a 4'x8' sheet.

The test was done on a 17" x 12" piece, cut from the main sheet. It took approximately 15 lbs to submerge this little piece in the bathtub for it to stay underwater.

Using a packaging scale, the piece weighed exactly 4 ounces dry. After exactly 4 hours underwater, it weighed 4.2 ounces. I think that for a jon boat, this insulation will provide adequate buoyancy and moisture resistance, considering that the insulation is underneath aluminum flooring.

Blue Board will undoubtedly be a good choice, and after this little experiment, I'm satisfied with Foamular 150 when it comes to our project. If anyone has the blue insulation laying around, it would be nice to have a little comparison. Here are the pics:

tripwirenh · Mar 30, 2010

quick question,
If your boat never capsizes or fills completely with water, does the foam do anything?? Just wondering for future boat mods.

dyeguy1212 · Mar 30, 2010

nope. :lol:

MeanMouth · Mar 31, 2010

tripwirenh said:
quick question,
If your boat never capsizes or fills completely with water, does the foam do anything?? Just wondering for future boat mods.

No, it doesn't do much unless you take on water. With all the money involved in our project, a little can go a long way just in case we have a mishap of some sort. Getting the boat back would be the main concern.

The big deal here on the site, is whether or not the insulation will break down when faced with moisture.

caveman · Mar 31, 2010

First and for most a very good report back meanmouth.
Not in a P contest here as all members here have a lot of cash in there projects as well (wood or ALUM),
Both i am sure will work and i wish i had pics of my test but don't.
If you don't leave your boat in the water for long periods of time then im sure it is no problem.

AS for floating a BIG NO it will not help much and IF it gets to that point then something has went very wrong ,the only help is a PFD.

MeanMouth · Apr 1, 2010

caveman said:
First and for most a very good report back meanmouth.
Not in a P contest here as all members here have a lot of cash in there projects as well (wood or ALUM),
Both i am sure will work and i wish i had pics of my test but don't.
If you don't leave your boat in the water for long periods of time then im sure it is no problem.

AS for floating a BIG NO it will not help much and IF it gets to that point then something has went very wrong ,the only help is a PFD.

Agreed, hopefully we don't have to find out whether or not the insulation makes that much of a difference

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