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How to install foam board insulation for your house properly

How to install insulation foam board on the walls of your house with your own hands in a proper way.

Foam board insulationFoam board insulation with your own hands is quite a time-consuming process, but it’s rather simple. All work can be carried out without resorting to the services of professionals, but the process itself should be carefully prepared: you will have to select high-quality building materials and tools, work out the technology and explore all the nuances. Usually the house owners choose exterior foam board insulation. Nevertheless, the interior one is also very effective, but it has only one drawback – this method can only insulate the house with not more than two floors.

What is foam board insulation? Polystyrene is an excellent material perfectly letting you perform insulation inside or outside the house with your own hands. It is inexpensive, but it has very high thermal insulation characteristics. If you wonder how to cut foam board insulation – it should be noticed that foam boards are very easy to process and use: insulation foam board can be easily cut by any improvised tools right inside the room, and for its installation on a wall surface you will need only standard construction glue of good quality.

Foam cladding

Despite the simplicity of this type of construction works, it has its own subtleties to be aware of. First and foremost, as with any other method of insulation with your own hands, foam board insulation must start with the preparation of the walls.

Important! If the house is built of bricks, plastering walls is needed. If you are to attach foam board insulation to concrete walls of foundation, this step can be omitted.

After the drying of the putty the wall surface is finished with leveling filler, for this it’s better to use a vertical plumb. Before you insulate the walls of the house inside with the foam, the walls need to be prepared.

How to install foam board insulationThe preparation involves some additional steps and generally consists of the following stages:

  • cleaning the walls of the old lining material: paint, plaster or wallpapers;
  • searching for surface defects (cracks, chips and pits) in construction;
  • elimination of these defects using putty or plaster;
  • alignment.

Important! Large cracks can be repaired with foam.

When the surface of the walls is perfectly smooth, they need more time to be primed for the material to lay down securely and insulation to be more reliable.

When you perform the insulation on the walls inside of the house it’s the perfect time to take care of waterproofing as well. Many insulation materials are categorically not tolerate with moisture. Unfortunately, polystyrene is one of them. For moisture not to spoil insulation materials laying inside the walls depriving them of all their positive properties, it’s necessary to lay the inside waterproofing layer with your own hands right inside the walls. Typically in this case a common plastic film is used as the moisture protection. Although modern construction market offers a wide range of waterproofing materials for any purpose and purses. Whichever of them you choose the insulation process will become much more effective with it.

How to install foam board insulation

Private house insulated with polystyrene foamFor installation you will need the umbrella plugs with caps. For their installation of the foam boards mastic is the best choice of today. This is a special construction adhesive that is applied to the corners in the form of relatively small drops or uniformly applied to the edges. As a rule, just one layer of insulation is sufficient to reliably protect the house from the cold. Sometimes builders decide to supplement the adhesive with mechanical fasteners. In this case you will need umbrella anchors with caps They are installed in a few days – you should wait until the glue is completely dried. It is highly recommended for the insulation not to “float”.

Important! Stacking foam boards on the inside walls starts from their lower part.

The series of foam boards are laid out in staggered rows, just like masonry. Црут all the walls are lined with foam, they should be treated with stitches. In deep joints strips of material remaining after processing are placed on the adhesive; small cracks are sealed with mounting foam, which combines perfectly with the foam boards. Surpluses can be cut or overwrite a special float.

Important! The joints between slabs need a very special attention, otherwise the insulation inside the house may be useless.

Finishing work

External home insulation foamTo strengthen and improve the reliability of the design of the walls with foam boards insulation the reinforcement is highly recommended to be performed. For this the fiberglass mesh is mounted on the insulation layer. For fixing it you will need to use a special glue and special tools – it has to be overwritten with sandpaper after drying.

The stage terminating wall insulation from the inside is primer finishing work. Many owners usually neglect them, limiting themselves with the application of putty material only. Then decorating the walls – painting or wallpapering – is finally performed.

Important! If the walls turned to be uneven, after priming them drywall can be attached on their surface with glue – this way you will be able to perform a final finish much easier.

Vapor barriers

Most pros recommend to lay a vapor barrier layer on top of the foam board insulation layer. This is especially needed in houses located in regions with often showers and climate variability. A vapor barrier is also needed in such parts of the living space as bathrooms and kitchens. It protects the walls and the insulation layer from moisture and subsequent decay causing the destruction of the structure.

Important! Inside the vapor layer between the insulation layer and the surface of the walls a small ventilation gap should be.

Foam board insulation with your own hands is quite easy, and if you stick to all the main parts of the technology, your house will be well protected from cold, moisture and noise. The main thing is to use the highest quality materials and suitable adhesives. You should never save on coziness and comfort of your “home, sweet home”.

We hope this article helped you in case you were looking information about foam board insulation.

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