With the onset of winter, many owners are thinking about heat protection at home. In winter, the size of utility bills grow and it is unreasonable to give money for heating the street.

Thermal insulation of the house with foam helps to solve the problem of heat loss. You can hire a team of specialists to carry out the work, but their services are expensive. Therefore, if you have basic construction skills, then it is better to do it yourself.

Which method of thermal protection to choose?

Thermal insulation can be internal or external. When self-insulation it would be more correct to dwell on the external method, since with insulation from the inside, the slightest mistakes in technology will inevitably lead to critically high humidity in the house. Due to the high vapor permeability of the insulation, moisture is actively condensed in it.

Internal thermal insulation is possible provided that active ventilation is installed between outer wall and insulation. It is expensive and troublesome.

At the same time, outside evaporation is impossible, since the temperature of the outer wall in the cold season can go down to minus 20 ° C. This is fraught with constantly fogging windows and mold on the walls.

It is important to choose the right material. The most demanded heat insulators are expanded polystyrene (foam). It is very technologically advanced and has a lot of advantages. Expanded polystyrene is a budget material, lightweight and with a minimum density can withstand significant mechanical stress. In addition, it does not absorb moisture, does not rot, is durable, has a high coefficient of thermal resistance, and is suitable for all types of buildings.

How to properly insulate?

The process of insulating a house with foam is divided into several stages. Let's consider each of them in more detail.

We prepare the walls for styling foam

If the facade has been painted, it is better to knock off the paint. We level the wall as much as possible, any irregularities in the surface will complicate the laying of the foam and can lead to a violation of its integrity. After that, we apply a primer to the facade - a special solution that reduces the porosity of the wall and protects it from moisture penetration.

It can be primed with a roller or with a brush. It is preferable to use a brush, as this will additionally clean the surface.


We glue the insulation

Begin gluing correctly from the bottom. The first row must be fixed with a starting bar, which will give the bottom row a solid support and prevent it from slipping during the drying process of the special (glue) mixture. A high-quality adhesive mixture must have a high plasticity, a fast curing rate and a high degree of adhesion (ability to adhere to the working surface). You need to prepare it before use.


Cooking and applying the composition

Apply the glue mixture directly to the wall with a tile-type trowel. At the same time, we can additionally level the wall surface by adjusting the layer thickness. If the wall is perfectly flat, then you can apply the glue mixture with a special notched trowel. But an even wall is a rarity, therefore, usually insulation with expanded polystyrene occurs as follows:


  • several (usually 8-9 per sheet) portions of the adhesive are applied to the wall, while their volume is adjusted to maximize the leveling of the relief by filling all the depressions;
  • a sheet of polystyrene is attached to the islands of glue, carefully pressed and gently (so as not to form dents) slammed with the palm;
  • the sheets should adhere to each other so that there are no gaps between them, through which heat loss will occur;
  • the foam is glued in rows from bottom to top, and each next row must be displaced so that T-shaped joints are formed.

We fix the plates with dowels

For fixing, umbrella dowels are used for thermal insulation (they are also called "dish-shaped mushrooms"), consisting of a wide plastic cap and a core into which a fixing nail made of plastic or galvanized metal is hammered. Plastic nails are better suited because they have low thermal conductivity and do not form "cold bridges" that condense moisture on themselves.

At least 5-6 dowels should be used for one sheet of insulation, one in the center of the sheet, and the rest at the joints. The number of fasteners can be increased, it all depends on how smooth the wall is.

We process the joints between the plates and level the surface of the insulation layer.



Fill small gaps between the sheets (about 5 mm) polyurethane foam... We put thin strips of foam into large ones and also foamed. We start trimming excess foam after 5 hours, after its final solidification. We cut the protruding parts of the foam with a hacksaw on a tree, and putty the caps of all the "umbrellas" with an adhesive mixture.

The time gap between gluing the foam plates and fixing them with dowels should be at least 3 days. Otherwise, if the adhesive does not completely harden, bends are possible after nailing. expanded polystyrene plates and their lag from the wall in the future.

We glue the fiberglass mesh

A plaster mesh should be chosen that is intended exclusively for outdoor use. Mesh for internal works suitable only for using gypsum plaster, it will creep from the mixture with cement. We start pasting from the corners of the building, then proceed to pasting the planes.

You need to glue the mesh in small pieces, about one square meterbecause the adhesive dries quickly. The edges are overlapped and carefully glued. An ideally installed mesh should be completely sunk into the adhesive mixture and slightly visible on its surface.


In the corners window openings glue the mesh in small pieces (30 × 70 mm) with an angle of 45 °. These are kerchiefs. Their task is to protect the thermal fur coat from cracking in the corners of windows and doorways.

After drying, the wall must be rubbed with emery until the surface is as flat as possible.

Apply decorative plaster

We complete the house insulation by applying decorative plaster. It will give the entire insulation system a luxurious appearance... To do this, 48 \u200b\u200bhours after gluing the mesh, we apply a leveling layer of a mixture intended for foam plates.


When the layer is dry, we rub it, then proceed directly to the application of decorative plaster. Colored plaster need not be painted. If you use the usual gray, then you need to paint in two layers facade paint... This will protect the thermal coat.

Correctly insulating a house with foam is a completely doable task and therefore do not be afraid to do it yourself.

It does not matter in which house you live: it can own vacation home, cottage, apartment in a high-rise building and other structures. You always want to live in warmth and comfort, for which you definitely need to take care of the cladding of the house insulation materials... If the walls are properly and efficiently insulated, you will not have to worry that they will freeze in cold weather, the heat in your home will remain to the maximum.

How to insulate a house with styrofoam?

Especially you cannot do without insulation, if your house is built of beams, because they are not able to save heat, as a result of which you will have to pay decent sums for heating the house in the winter cold.

So that the insulation of the house does not cost a pretty penny, it has become popular to use foam. Polyfoam is not only cheap, but also has the following advantages:

  • light weight;
  • unobstructed breathability;
  • able to suppress noise;
  • has a high level of thermal resistance;
  • not afraid of moisture;
  • easy to work with and decorate.

Because warm house - a pledge of a properly performed installation of insulation material, further in the article we will tell you how to insulate a house with foam, doing everything with your own hands quickly and efficiently.

What is Styrofoam?

We insulate a private house with foam

First of all, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that foam is a material in which there is no vapor permeability; it is strictly forbidden to use it for cladding a room from the inside.

The density of the foam is also very important. Most suitable option density should be about 25. If you decide to insulate the walls with a less dense material, there will be a possibility of surface injury, and too dense material will lead to unjustified financial waste, because excessive density will not affect the thermal insulation characteristics.

The third, no less important point is the thickness of the foam, which directly affects the quality of surface insulation. It is best to use penoplex with a thickness of 50mm, but you can purchase thicker material, no one forbids you, and a thickness of 100mm also has a right to exist. By using thicker foam, be prepared to see a higher price point. To avoid rash and unnecessary financial investments, you can attract experienced craftsmenwho will hold correct calculations and pick up the best option exactly for your climatic zone. When calculating, they will take into account the following indicators:

  • average temperatures;
  • the thickness of the walls that you plan to sheathe;
  • the material from which those walls are made and much more.

Comparative characteristics of conventional foam with extruded are shown in the table below.

As you can see from the table, it is more appropriate to insulate the house with extruded foam, technical features which in many respects is superior to conventional foam sheets.

What can you not do without when working with expanded polystyrene?

Do-it-yourself home insulation with foam plastic

Before insulating a house from the outside with extruded foam, it is necessary to acquire building materials and devices, which cannot be dispensed with in such a matter. When working with expanded polystyrene you will need:

  • puncher;
  • sharp knife;
  • several different spatulas;
  • plastic dowels with a wide head;
  • glue;
  • reinforcement;
  • rule;
  • putty for work outside the house;
  • priming;
  • metal spacers;
  • decorative material for facade decoration.

Home insulation technology

Insulating the house with foam on your own

Warming wooden house foam, like any other building, requires high-quality surface preparation.

It is very important to properly prepare the surfaces:

  • remove the old finishing material;
  • clean the surface;
  • close up depressions and clean out bulges;

Of course, you absolutely do not need an ideal surface, but severe damage and defects are also not acceptable, because they will not allow the surface to be properly sheathed and cold bridges may form.

Then, as the surface is properly prepared, you can start impregnating it with a primer solution. The primer must be of deep action, which will increase the level of adhesion with the assembly adhesive.

At the next stage, you can directly insulate the surfaces with extruded foam.

For such work, you need to dilute the glue mass with water following the instructions. The mass should be well mixed without dry breasts, and the consistency should be uniform, not too thick, but not too liquid - it is better that the density resembles the consistency of sour cream.

You can use a spatula with teeth to apply assembly glue with your own hands, but do not rush to cover the entire surface with it. It can dry out very quickly and you may not be able to handle the area properly.

So that the cladding of the building outside with your own hands with expanded polystyrene was done correctly, follow the following sequence of actions:

  1. cover the wall with glue (the wall area should correspond to the size of the foam sheet);
  2. lay out the insulation;
  3. apply glue underneath the second foam sheet, and so on.

This sequence suggests that it is very important that the sheets are laid gradually, and the joints of the canvas are carefully greased with glue.

So that the insulation of the house outside with penoplex with your own hands was done correctly, control the evenness of the plates.

So that the sheets are as firmly attached to the walls as possible, they can not only be pressed tightly to the surface of the walls, but also fixed with special fasteners. For these purposes, it is better to choose dowels that need to be inserted into the wall 50 mm, or even deeper.

So that the fasteners do not fall into the insulation, it is worth getting metal spacers. Before screwing in the dowels, holes must first be made in the foam with a punch or drill.

Please note that you do not need to press down strongly on the foam, because it can crack from your excessive exposure.

When the insulation of the building from the outside is completed, you will need to attach reinforcement to the wall. To do this, you better cut it into strips of the same size that correspond to the length of the walls. Then, with a wide spatula, spread the glue over the surface under one strip of mesh, lay it on the surface and level it with a spatula to avoid hitching. Apply the next strip of reinforcement with an overlap to avoid cracking of the material at the joints.

Sheathing the house with penoplex requires finishing, because an untreated reinforced surface does not look very attractive, and the constant impact of natural disasters on it will damage the integrity and quality of the finish.

As a finish outside the house, you can use decorative plaster or paint. But, before applying them to the surface, the wall must be plastered.

Before you start sheathing your house outside with insulation materials, read the following recommendations for work:

  • in order to sheathe the house with high quality and save as much money as possible on utility bills during the heating season, pick up foam with a density of 25 and a thickness of 40 mm;
  • if you were unable to buy a special glue, you can use ordinary glue-cement, which is used for ceramics;
  • purchase a reinforcing mesh with a mesh size of 5mm;
  • so that the foam is more firmly fixed on the wall, before applying the glue mass, the surface can be treated with a needle roller, which forms an additional perforation;
  • to increase the level of adhesion of the foam to the reinforcing mesh, it is worth priming the surface before laying it.

In conclusion, I would like to add that by observing the above technology for installing foam plastic, you can get warm housing without disturbing its microclimate. Thus, in your work you will not make any mistakes and reduce the amount of heat loss in your home.

As you can see, such home insulation does not take much time and your family budget will not incur large financial waste if you carry out the work on your own, without the involvement of expensive specialists.

Foam insulation of walls outside is very common. This material will serve as an excellent insulation and its installation can be completely done by hand, therefore the price of the work will be much lower. Today we will consider how to insulate the outer walls with foam, you will have complete information, and the video in this article and photos will help you do everything in a short time.

Do-it-yourself wall insulation outside with foam plastic is quite simple, even a beginner can easily cope with it. The essence of the technology is to thoroughly clean the surface treated with a primer (see. Types of building primers and their scope), and pieces of foam are attached to the prepared wall end-to-end.

In any work, it is important to follow the technology, including do-it-yourself insulation. Although it is believed that foam is a simple material that does not cause difficulties in installation, it also has its own specifics.

To make sure it is easy to attach to the surface, just read step by step technology... But, in addition to the instructions, it is recommended to comprehensively study all aspects of working with foam as a heater.

So:

  • It is important that the old surface is pre-treated, that is, there are no crumbling layers of old putty left on it (see. How to remove putty from the walls and how much is needed) and other mixtures. Insulation sheets are attached to a solid and well-primed surface.
  • They work with polystyrene with a special adhesive composition intended for this insulation. In addition to adhesive fixation, I fix the sheets in the corners with dowels for finishing - with mushroom or umbrella caps.
  • It is necessary to glue the foam carefully so that the composition does not come out to the ends, since these smudges and influxes form "cold bridges".
  • The applied insulation is additionally covered with an adhesive to reinforce it with a mesh. It helps to hold the sheets of insulation in a monolithic layer, on top of which the finishing solution is applied.
  • The facade reinforced with a reinforcing mesh is protected from cracking and other defects. Visually, it looks like new for longer.

Attention: The choice of fiberglass mesh is a crucial moment, since it is fixed to an alkaline medium, which contributes to the destruction of the reinforcing mesh. Over time, it crumbles to dust, not performing the bonding function in full. Facade reinforcement mesh must contain special compositionwhich impregnates the fibers, preventing destructive processes. Do-it-yourself choice of plaster for wall insulation with foam outside

On top of the fixed mesh, the entire outer wall is primed for finishing plaster or other type of finish.

Since insulating the house from the outside with polystyrene foam will be the right and correct decision, especially if the walls of the house allow heat to pass outside, then we will consider how to do this.

The walls of a house, no matter what they are made of, can allow heat to pass outside and it will be cold in the house, and heating bills are large. To eliminate this kind of deficiency, you can insulate the structure. It is important to understand what is better to insulate with foam or mineral wool, because in fact these are two different material... In construction, in addition to insulation, it is imperative to use good bricks from the best factories of manufacturers kirpich.expert, choose high-quality construction Materials is very important for the future home.

How to insulate a private house with foam

Polyfoam is a foamed heat insulator. Due to foaming and subsequent solidification, the air in the pores clogs the space and does not allow the heat from the walls to come out. Styrofoam has many advantages:

1. Moisture resistance - rigid fibers do not absorb moisture.

2. Holds its shape well - it is convenient to work with the material due to this.

3. Due to its inorganic origin, animals such as rats and mice do not grow in it, and microorganisms such as fungi or mold do not live in it.

4. Due to its light weight, it does not load the structure.

5. Not subject to temperature extremes or combustion due to the presence of fire retardants in the composition.

Due to the fact that the foam is not afraid of water, it is most often used if it is necessary to understand the best way to insulate a house with foam or mineral wool. After all, the latter is afraid of water and it is necessary to install it only after carefully isolating the mineral wool from moisture. Also, rats and mice can live in mineral wool, due to the soft fibers of this living creature it is warm there and this does not prevent them from walking on the walls in the literal sense.

Another disadvantage of mineral wool is the need to lay it not in one, but in two layers. Mineral wool is a soft material, it has the ability to shrink, opening the way for heat to come out.

If you decide to use mineral wool, then you should be prepared for possible problems with this heat insulator.

Preparing the walls

To insulate the walls of the house, you need to prepare the walls, for this they are cleaned of dirt and dust. After that, you need to prime all surfaces on which the insulation will be laid. This is a necessary moment if it is important how to properly insulate the house with foam outside. Thus, a good adhesion of the walls of the building to the heat insulator is achieved.

It is better to level uneven walls before applying insulation. For this, the cracks and recesses are filled with mortar and allowed to dry well.

Also, many people wonder if it is possible to insulate wooden house foam? Yes, of course you can. But in this case, you can do without glue, as well as a primer, and you will need to mount a special frame, where the insulation will be laid. But installation on mushrooms is best done for the reliability of fastening.

How to insulate a wall outside with foam

After priming, the wall must be allowed to dry, it takes a little time. During this time, you need to prepare the glue, since it does not matter what kind of foam plastic you use to insulate the house from the outside, it is important to stick it on the wall. This is necessary so that the insulation does not roll down. Therefore, in this regard, it is more convenient to work with foam, due to its rigidity it is easy to glue it to the walls, and it does not roll down, like mineral wool... If the question is what is better to insulate the walls with polystyrene or mineral wool, then no doubt it is better to opt for polystyrene. Since the work will progress faster and the quality of the wall is much higher.

After preparing the glue and insulation, it is necessary to attach a metal starter bar to the lower edge of the walls. This will help keep the bottom layer of the heat insulator in place.

Since it is impossible to insulate a house with foam plastic without glue, you need to correctly apply the glue. It can be applied in different ways:

1. If the wall is uneven, the glue can be applied directly to the wall, it is better to do this gradually so that the glue does not dry out. Thus, the composition will fill in the irregularities.

2. It also makes sense to apply the glue directly to the heat insulator. This method will be advantageous if the question is how to properly insulate walls with large irregularities with foam plastic.

3. You can apply special glue from a spray can. It is applied directly to the foam and pressed against the wall.

After fixing the heat insulator to the glue, it takes time for the glue to dry. According to the technology of how to insulate the facade with foam, you need to screw the foam plates onto special dowels-fungi. They have a large cap and with this cap they press against the wall.

For dowel nails, you need to drill a hole equal to the thickness of the foam plus 45 mm from the recess into the wall plus 1 cm. The hole diameter must be equal to the diameter of the nail. After that, the nail is driven in.

According to the number of dowel-nails, the following values \u200b\u200bare taken: for each corner of the plate, one nail plus 1 nail in the center of the insulation. For corner elements, you need to take 6 pieces for each plate. After screwing in the nails, you need to glue all the joints, as well as the places of the nails, with special aluminum tape. In the technology of whether it is possible to insulate the house with foam outside, this is not, but this step will remove the cold bridges that arise at the joints and places where nails are driven. After these works, the house can be finished with external cladding.

Is it possible to insulate the house with foam

There is still debate about whether it is possible to insulate the walls with foam, because it has a low value of steam conductivity. This means that the walls of the house can become damp and start to rot. To avoid this, it is necessary to leave small areas that allow the wall to breathe. But, when gluing, this option is not possible. This means that it makes sense to leave unfinished areas that give access to the wall from above. In this case, it is necessary to ensure that water does not get into these areas. It is in this way that the question of how to properly insulate the wall with foam is decided.

For wooden or frame walls making a gap between the wall and the tree is simple, just build a double crate.

The use of a vapor and windproof membrane is also a stumbling block for many builders in the question of how to insulate walls with foam. One says that the additional waterproofing that comes with the use of the film will not hurt. Others believe that this is superfluous, since the technology of how to insulate walls with foam plastic does not provide for the use of windproof membrane vapor.

Foam thickness

When insulating a house, you should choose the thickness of the insulation. This point is very important because:

1. Too thin layer will not provide the required insulation.

2. Too thick layer will increase the load on the structure by its weight, and also, it will simply not justify the spent expenses.

Therefore, it is important to understand how thick the foam is used to insulate the house and choose the best option. If the house is insulated according to a project that was made by knowledgeable people, then this indicator will be found in the documents. With an independent decision on how to properly insulate a house with polystyrene, you will have to look for special laws regulating this indicator. But you can do easier and ask around experienced specialists. As a rule, many builders note that a 10 cm thick foam is enough for high-quality house insulation. For frame house it is better to double this indicator, especially if they plan to live in the house permanently.

Additional pluses and minuses

When insulation walls can not be noted and the appearance additional qualities... Polyfoam is also a good sound insulator, which means that the insulated house will not let outside noise from the street into the house.

Also, polystyrene is not afraid of temperature extremes, which is very important in the northern regions, where frosts reach strong marks. But open insulation is afraid of the action of the sun, since ultraviolet rays destroy this material. Therefore, immediately after insulation, it is necessary to make its facing.

Polyfoam, due to its moisture resistance, can be used to insulate the walls of the steam room. The sheets from the side of the room need to be glued with a special metallized tape, it will reflect the heat inward, due to which the room will stay warm longer.

These are all the pros and cons of Styrofoam. In any case, it is only for the owner to decide whether to insulate the house with this material, but the number of advantages shows that insulation with foam will not hurt.


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