[Greenbuilding] Foam and Fire

Mon Dec 8 22:53:41 CST 2014

There was some discussion of protecting rigid foam in the last thread but I’d like some information on spray poly foam.  The building science people are telling us to spray the under side of the roof and rafters and bring the whole attic into the heated envelope.  Does this foam need to be protected from fire?  All the diagrams and photos I see do not include any protection.  How about a floor over a crawl space?

Steve Houlihan
On Dec 8, 2014, at 7:19 PM, ErgoDesk <ergodesk at gmail.com> wrote:

> You saw the LA apartment fire, nearly finished and now needs to be totally rebuilt, calculate that one. Mew Your only gets Flooded now and then, you saw what happened there, calculate that. Climate Change is altering all the rules and smart people will survive not the cheap ones.
> 
> http://about.me/StyroHome
> 
> 
> On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 7:12 PM, Gennaro Brooks-Church - Eco Brooklyn <info at ecobrooklyn.com> wrote:
> ok....Your first link says EPS has 28 times more embodied energy than cellulose, which is what I've read. It says wood is three times more than EPS. But this is per cubic meter and you would never use any where near as much wood as EPS in a home.
> Your other link is to the site that is selling EPS homes, the same site that fails to mention the high embodied energy of EPS, which either means they didn't do their homework or they are purposefully omitting that info. We know it is the latter. I don't trust people like that.
> Another point that screams greenwashing:
> If the salesman says it is recyclable, it's greenwashing.
> If the salesman says it is recycled, keep listening.
> 
> These guys say EPS is recyclable as one of it's green points. Everything is recyclable. It's a misleading comment.
> 
> I'm not bashing EPS homes. It's a great concept. I'm just saying I'm not going to start building homes out of it until I see how its huge embodied energy fits into the equation. Then I'm going to look into what it means to live in a plastic house. If those two things pass then I think we've got a winner.
> 
> Gennaro Brooks-Church
> Director, Eco Brooklyn Inc.
> Cell: 1 347 244 3016 USA
> www.EcoBrooklyn.com
> 22 2nd St; Brooklyn, NY 11231
> 
> On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 9:55 PM, ErgoDesk <ergodesk at gmail.com> wrote:
> Depends on who and how you ask, here are some of my refs. http://www.evernote.com/l/AAL5N-jyW1lP0J92qy-R7MAlck9u9cCR_OQ/
> 
> http://about.me/StyroHome
> 
> 
> On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 6:26 PM, Gennaro Brooks-Church - Eco Brooklyn <info at ecobrooklyn.com> wrote:
> Topher you beat me to it. I was going to mention the 700 year old house in Schwyz central Switzerland. Who is talking about OSB? Ergo before you go touting the magic of plastic all I am saying is that you need to take into consideration the massive amounts of embodied energy that EPS has. Have you done those calculations? I would be curious. I did read an authoritative article claiming that retrofitting an old house is definitely better than raising it and building new in terms of energy used (both in construction and life of the building).
> 
> 
> Gennaro Brooks-Church
> Director, Eco Brooklyn Inc.
> Cell: 1 347 244 3016 USA
> www.EcoBrooklyn.com
> 22 2nd St; Brooklyn, NY 11231
> 
> On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 7:37 PM, ErgoDesk <ergodesk at gmail.com> wrote:
> Funny dude, you can't build that same 250-year-old house from today's OSB crap, nor can you find a 250 year old house that energy efficient.
> 
> http://about.me/StyroHome
> 
> 
> On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 4:33 PM, Topher <topher at greenfret.com> wrote:
> On 12/8/2014 7:20 PM, ErgoDesk wrote:
> > Wood house needs rebuilding every 34 years
> 
> Funny, I audited a 250 year old house just the other day.  Can you point
> me at a 250 year old EPS building.
> 
> The big trouble with EPS is the global warming potential, it requires
> multiplying that embodied energy by roughly 1000.
> 
> Thank You Kindly,
> 
> Topher
> 
> --
> Topher Belknap
> Green Fret Consulting
> Kermit didn't know the half of it...
> http://www.GreenFret.com/
> topher at greenfret.com
> 
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