How to attach polystyrene foam to a wooden surface

When it is required to insulate a wooden house from the outside, you can choose polystyrene foam as a material. It is more durable than polystyrene, absorbs less moisture, holds heat well, and is durable (guaranteed to stand idle for more than 50 years).

True, he also has disadvantages that make it not a very good option for wooden houses:

• Poor vapor permeability - moisture will have nowhere to go from walls insulated in this way. Consequently, condensation is likely to form on the wood, which leads to its rapid deterioration. A good ventilation device is needed;
• Rigidity - it can be placed in a wooden crate, but due to poor flexibility, the sheets can break and crumble;
• The need to close joints - after installation between the sheets there are joints that need to be closed manually. It takes a lot of time.

Mounting Methods

If these three conditions are met, extruded polystyrene can be used to warm a wooden house. There are several ways to fix sheets to walls.

Lathing - in this case, it is required to mount the frame for the heater in advance. To keep the sheets tight, the width between the uprights of the frame should be 0.5 cm less than the width of the sheets.

Installation of sheets on the wall is made from the bottom up. After installation, you need to check the joints, cracks and seal them with foam.

Special fasteners - without lathing, you can attach polystyrene foam to the tree with special fasteners. These are self-tapping screws and caps with a diameter of more than 5 cm. At the same time, the length should be sufficient for reliable fixation to the wall. The work is carried out according to the plan:

• First, the base of the wall is prepared - the cracks or recesses are smeared so that the insulation is most effective;
• The sheets are attached from the bottom up, and on each sheet you need several mounts. The consumption of screws is large. In order to save money, they use this option: the sheet is fixed in the middle, and four rondolas are attached at the corners. It turns out that one fastener holds two or three sheets at once, and this will significantly reduce the consumption of fasteners;
• When the work is completed, all cracks and joints are also filled with foam.

Glue - with the help of glue, polystyrene foam can be firmly attached to the tree, but the main disadvantage is the high price of glue. The technology is simple:

• Before mounting, the wall surface must be well leveled. Large differences will increase the glue consumption several times, and also affect the adhesion;
• You can glue polystyrene foam on a mounting foam or special glue. Such glue is sold in cylinders as foam, but it has more output. Holds sheets he is also better. Therefore, for fixing it is advisable to use glue;
• The working surface must be cleaned of dust and dirt, dried well, otherwise the glue will stick poorly. You can apply glue to the sheets in any convenient way: a wavy line, dotted or around the perimeter. This does not matter much, the main thing is that the sheets hold tight;
• The adhesive sheet is quickly applied to the wall and pressed tightly for a few seconds. Then the sheet can be released. He grabs for half an hour, but completely hardens only after a day.