Home repair follies

[musicman691]

Have to rebuild part of the front porch on my home with a ton of help from my wife. Had a few holes to close up so I used some of that expanding foam that comes in a spray can. Oh boy does that stuff expand fast & like crazy. You really only need to put a little in to close a hole that's a good 4 inches in diameter.

That's the good part. Couple of bad parts - if you don't use the whole can you can't store it and come back and use the rest at a later date. The second one is handling this stuff while it cures. They say to spray a light mist of water to hasten the cure. In some spots I sprayed too much and tried to clear away the excess (before it cured) with my hands. Notice that I did not say that I used rubber gloves (I didn't). My hands were a bit sweaty and that spray stuff stuck all over my right hand and a little on my left.

Oh crap - what do I do now? Trying to peel it off wasn't easy. Drove back to the Ace Hardware store to get some turpentine and acetone. Spent over 4 hours last night cleaning some of the stuff off and another half hour this morning. Looks like I got most of it off with some help from 120 grit sandpaper this morning.

Moral of the story: don't be a Tim Taylor/Tool Time idiot and always wear rubber gloves when handling that stuff. Funny thing is noweheres on the can do they even mention to use any kind pf protective equipment. They do warn about prolonged contact with skin can cause sensitivity. They also warn about no open flames or the possibility of any kind of spark while spraying the foam until such time as it's cured.

[John_Toolbox]

Yes, "fun foam" will bond with your skin and stay there until you shed the layer of skin it attaches itself to. It is a very useful product for certain things, but keep it off your skin and don't get it on clothing that care about. I always keep a can of automotive brake cleaner handy when I am using it, this seems to work well at diluting it as long as it hasn't cured.

My favorite uses for it:
1. Fill a hole that an animal has chewed into your house with steel wool, then spray with fun foam. The steel wool will stop the animal from coming back in when they taste the metal.

2. Seal around window frames to eliminate drafts. Make sure you use the "window and door" version which does not expand as much for this application. The standard "fun foam" can actually break your window if you put too much of it into the framing gap.

3. Fun foam also makes a great filler for installing a bathtub, and will also insulate the tub, which allows the water to stay warm longer.

4. In some instances for soundproofing where you have a gap that traditional caulking can't be used easily, fun foam can seal up a crack in a wall and reduce STC significantly. Caulking is obvioualy denser and therefore more effective, but the fun foam expands and fills in tight corners and gaps that you would never be able to seal with caulking.

[TOM@METRO]

I love the stuff. It can do what nothing else can. But yes, it sure can get messy.

[Sardi]

Funny how we bark at people about cautionary steps before doing stuff to their studio computers etc. yet we don’t do the same in other aspects of our lives.

Perhaps we should all be a little more tolerant around these parts and realise that we all make mistakes and are in a constant state of learning, more often than not from our own mistakes.


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[musicman691]

Originally Posted by John_Toolbox

Yes, "fun foam" will bond with your skin and stay there until you shed the layer of skin it attaches itself to. It is a very useful product for certain things, but keep it off your skin and don't get it on clothing that care about. I always keep a can of automotive brake cleaner handy when I am using it, this seems to work well at diluting it as long as it hasn't cured.

Never heard it called 'fun foam'. The instructions on the can say to use acetone to clean up spills and to just wipe the hands with a dry cloth to get the stuff off. That last bit didn't work. The fellow at Ace said a lot of people use turpentine to clean stuff hands so I used that. Maybe if I had used the acetone it would have come off easier? I remember seeing a demo on chemicals and containers and what to and what not to store them in. The person giving the demo poured some acetone into a styrofoam cup and it ate right through the cup. Wonder what's in brake cleaner that it works?

[albee1952]

FUN FOAM??? Hehe, there's nothing fun about. The last 3 times I used it, I cursed myself for forgetting to put gloves on Took a wire brush in a drill to get it off the brick on my house

[YYR123]

I still have 2 sets of shorts that were ruined b/c things got out of hand !!!

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by YYR123

I still have 2 sets of shorts that were ruined b/c things got out of hand !!!

There's sooo many ways this comment could be taken

[YYR123]

Hahah no, it was just messy and I was when I was applying the foam

[John_Toolbox]

I looked up the ingredients of brake cleaner, and acetone is one of them. I also learned that one of the other ingredients, Tetrachloroethylene, is extremely toxic if heated over 350 degrees F even after it dries. Good to know if you plan on welding or heating something you sprayed with brake cleaner, probably a good idea to rinse it off before heating.