Just Filling Up Space

December 21, 2012 by Taylor Studios in Professional & Industry Tips

Taylor Studios has built a good reputation for our ground forms. These are the artificial, full-scale environments we create for exhibits. A wetland at your feet? Ground form. A cut away into a World War I trench with sandbags and mud? Ground form. While the real impact of a ground form comes from the surface, where our fabricators do all the texturing, painting, and addition of plants and animals, the structure underneath is crucial. In the olden days, the ground form’s structure was a creation of wood, metal lath, and plaster. It was heavy and somewhat fragile, with disastrous consequences if someone stepped on it.

Fortunately, as building technology has advanced, so have our choices for how we build ground forms. The bulk of the structure is made from carved EPS bead foam, the same kind of foam used in those white, flimsy, throw away coolers. The bead foam is available in different weights, which indicate how much of a load they can carry. These carved blocks are stuck together using the other foam in our toolkit: insulation spray foam. This the industrial version of the “Great Stuff” you can buy in a can, except that you are combining a Part A and a Part B as you spray. The end product of this two-foam tango is a rigid, lightweight structure that can be carved as needed but can handle a load.

While insulation spray foam is the go-to fixit for us, it has a much bigger role to play. It is one of the best insulation technologies on the market today, and it has many green aspects. It has a high insulation value for a layer much thinner than fiberglass batts or sprayed cellulose. Since it adheres to just about any surface and expands after it is sprayed, it seals holes and gaps that allow air to infiltrate other types of insulation. It acts as a vapor barrier, which improves indoor air quality by reducing the likelihood of mold growing in insulated spaces. Spray foam doesn’t settle or shrink over time, which can reduce the insulation value of other products.

While spray foam has a lot of positives, it’s not all roses. The Part A is derived entirely from petroleum, and most formulations of Part B use toxic chemicals as fire retardants. The application of the foam involves a blowing agent using hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Some companies are innovating by using bio-based ingredients (like soy, sugarcane, or castor oil) for the ‘polyol’ portion of Part B, or recycled plastics. There are even products available that use water as the . Like many products touted as ‘green’, the full story is often a little more involved. No matter what it’s shade of green, spray foam is a valuable tool at Taylor Studios.