What do you do with over a ton of foam?

Last Friday was insulation delivery day. Home Depot was delivering about 1 1/4 tons of foam insulation, and almost 700 pounds of plastic sheeting. They were scheduled to deliver between 8 and noon. My dad and I wanted to be ready for the delivery whenever they showed up. So mom, dad and I got up early, loaded the truck, and their car with all sorts of tools and headed out.

The first order of business was to set up a shop, so that we could easily trim the foam to the exact sizes we would need. We set up a tarp suspended from the joists and framing, so that we could be sure that rain leaking through the steel deck, wouldn't damage the saw. Then we setup some light, and the table saw.

Ready to cut foam boards down to size

I called Home Depot to see when to expect the foam. The delivery guy was out making a run, and they were expecting him back around 9:30. So that meant we were looking at 10:30 to 11 till he would be able to arrive. Fine, time to do something about all the water sitting in the valleys on the roof. The steel roof decking isn't perfectly flat from east to west, so it has places where rain water had collected. We thought it would be good to remove as much as we could before we started covering it up. In hind sight, it was a waste of time, since the roof is no where near water proof or air tight. So water is going to get in, and air is going to be able to evaporate the water out. Oh well, we did get quite a bit if dirt cleaned off with the water we removed.

The floor downstairs is a muddy mess, and here dad is vacuuming the roof, whats wrong with this picture?

We also worked on removing the boards that had been attached to the foam forms to reinforce them, including back where the concrete blow out had happened. My dad and I made a muddy mess out of ourselves with that.

I gave Newt a call, and he had some errands to run, then he was coming over. It was now around noon, and no word from Home Depot. So I called again to see what the status was. They told me the driver was just finishing up strapping down my load and would be leaving momentarily. While I was on the phone with them, the driver called me to get details about where he was delivering to. I described where I was. He headed for my place.

Newt showed up, and while we waited for the delivery, I showed him some items that I had questions about with the construction. We talked about the excavation work that will be needed, and some items with the framing that has been done, as well as some plumbing questions. Then we heard a truck coming.

The tractor trailer pulled up at the end of my driveway, then he drove on. Hey, where is he going with my insulation! Newt went after him, and I guess gave him advice on where to turn around. The truck came back the other direction, and he pulled off the side of the road so he could unload.

My order filled the truck!

The driver got out, and after he unstrapped the load, he got his fork lift unloaded from the back (it is a Moffett). It has three wide big tread tires, and it is a good thing, since he had to deal with mud and loose gravel to deliver up to the house. First he delivered the pallet with my plastic sheeting, right into the garage.

The Hobbit watches the waterproofing for his hole being delivered.

The forks could slide forwards and backwards. He used that to deliver the plastic into the garage, even though he couldn't drive the Moffett into it. That also allowed him to drive the Moffett up to the garage, and then slide the forks forward and get the insulation pallets positioned over the roof, where we could lift them off.

Here comes the foam up the drive

Can you get it closer? We can't reach it out there!

Dad and Newt discuss the plan

We started getting the pallets stacked up on the roof so we could get some work done. We had him leave some down on the ground, where we could take them in to the saw to trim up the smaller pieces we would need in places. It was going on 3 before the delivery was all finished, then we went and got lunch. We came back and worked the rest of the afternoon, getting the first layer started.

We started by gluing down some narrow pieces that dad cut. These went on top of the concrete wall on the north side. I used more than two tubes of the contractor size liquid nails, to make sure we would have glue in contact with the uneven concrete, and the foam boards.Actually the concrete is quite level and even, but with the metal plates that are sitting in it that the joists are welded to, it makes the surface uneven. Then I finished off the third tube laying down a bead on the first layer of foam, to help adhere the second layer of narrow pieces. We also put nails down through the top foam pieces into the lower pieces to help them stay in place. The roof has a very low slope, but we wanted to try to provide a good start at the bottom of the slope. One that would resist sliding out of place. With the second layer of narrow pieces we were now pretty much even with the top surface of the steel roof deck. Now it was time to start laying the full sheets.

For the first layer, on each row we put down 7 whole sheets, and then a half sheet. We started them in a little from the west side, and they overhang on the east side. They will be trimmed back later, and insulation will be put in under them to fill the spaces on the east and west sides, between the concrete, and the top of the steel deck. We put tape on the seams between the sheets, with the idea that this would hold them together as if they were all one big sheet. We thought this would also prevent rain getting down between them, and coming through the seams in the roof deck. While I think the taping of the seams will be good, it had problems where the steel sheets overlapped, and made for an uneven top surface level.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of our progress. As it got dark we moved the remaining pallets up onto the sheets we had laid down, to hold them in place. We knew there was a chance of thunderstorms, and I worried that even some of the pallets might get blown off the roof and damaged. As we headed for dinner, we could see lightning flashing off in the distance. Then we drove into the rain. As we got back to my apartment, the heavens opened up, and sent forth a torrent of water from the sky. The sort of downpour where you are soaked in seconds. The storm abated, but I took a look at the radar, and it was ugly.

Saturday, we went out after lunch to see if everything was still in place, and to see if it was dry enough inside to cut some of the foam pieces. We got there, and the foam was all still in place, but we had a lot of water inside. The tape had places where gaps had opened up, and certain spots had water just running in. We decided that it would be a waste of time to try to get any work done there in those conditions. We packed up stuff that dad was going to take back home, and left some things there so we wouldn't have to haul them out the next time.

Sunday it was still drizzling the whole day, we didn't even stop out at the property. Today was at least dry. Tomorrow, we are supposed to actually have some sun, and I am hoping to get out after work and lay some more of the first layer of foam. Later in the week, I am hoping to get some help laying the foam and hopefully by the end of next weekend, we will have the foam in place with the tarps over it, so the inside will stay dry and I can then do some work on the inside, while I wait for a good opportunity to get the waterproofing layers on.