A DIY experience with InSoFast insulated panel installation. I'm not a carpenter or builder, just a regular Joe working on an old cinder block house in Central Texas.
I’m a single lady with no real construction experience and thinking of making a den in my basement you did such an awesome job explaining this! Thank you!
I'm planning on doing this too. But you don't need to do the corners that way because the entire foam board sits flush against your block wall. It's already rigid enough. You can just put the glue in the corner where the drywall sits. Another thing on their website, if you cut out the foam to pull the wire through, just spray some foam or glue in there and reinsert the foam square you took out. No need to fill the entire square with spray foam.
I too am considering this product so thank you for sharing ur experience! I watched video from start to finish. My brain love love details and I can tell you're very thorough so so so much appreciation!! As we are in the year of 2020, and, as tech advances so fast, there's more options than enough. Which in the end...is good for everyone! I wish you could have shared cost 😉. I'm doing this project for a house I put hashed for my daughter. Imma renovate and surprise her. So if it doesn't give me the results I'm looking for.....well, I guess I'll rip it out and start over hahaha. Thank you so much! I've shared your video to Facebook for consideration
Thank you for your kind comments on the video and thanks for sharing. As far as cost, I purchased 30 boxes of UX 2.0 for $2,682.00, three cases of PL 3X glue from Lowe's for about $500, and a couple of dozen cans of spray foam for another couple hundred bucks. I ended up with about 5 extra cases of InSoFast because I didn't deduct window and door openings from my area calculations, something to keep in mind because it all adds up. As a rough guess from my own experience, I would figure the cost to be about $2.00 per square foot of living space. The house I installed the InSoFast in is just short of 1,500 sqft.
Great video! Now that some time has passed since you installed this product are you still happy with the decision? I’m considering this as an option in a basement.
Short answer, yes! Longer answer, there are some challenges that aren't immediately obvious early on. The biggest is finding the plastic studs in the wall after sheetrock installation. You'll need to be very diligent during installation to make sure you know where every stud is and should be. Currently, I'm installing cabinets in the kitchen and it's been more difficult than I thought to find the "studs". My problem was partially because I got cheap and thought I was going to be clever and use some "cut-offs" to fill an area on the wall. Though I kept the 16" center spacing from each end of the wall, there was a spot in the middle where I used the cut-offs that messed up the spacing. HUGE mistake! But not rip the sheetrock out and start over kind of mistake. I purchased a Zircon Studsensor A100 because it was supposed to find anything behind sheetrock. It will get you in the neighborhood but's it's still a lot of measuring and guessing to find each stud even though they are 16" centers. You'll also want to mark your water lines and wires on the InSoFast (a Sharpie will work fine) and take pictures before sheetrock is installed so you can be careful around those areas with long finishing nails or screws. Which brings me to my next point, baseboards. I'm not sure how well the plastic studs will take finishing nails since finishing nails are so smooth. I'm a little concerned that over time they will slip out of the plastic studs since there isn't much to hold them in. The plastic studs aren't solid, they're more of an I-beam design, so you're only nailing into a 3/16" thick plastic "wing". Some construction adhesive on the back of the baseboard will probably solve this, I just hate to do that. All that being said, my advice on this side of the purchase is to take lots of pictures and try to think 4 or 5 steps ahead to keep yourself out of trouble.
I'm planning to do this for my garage and I'm wondering if this means I can simply nail down the plastic to the 2x4 and I basically don't need to put in any insulation in the wall?
Nope, I just used a snap-off blade utility knife with the blade fully extended to get all the way through the panels. Buy some extra blades because once they get dull, they will start tearing the styrofoam instead of cutting it clean.
I’m a single lady with no real construction experience and thinking of making a den in my basement you did such an awesome job explaining this! Thank you!
Wow, thank you!
Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm considering this product for my basement.
I wouldn't think twice about. It's good stuff!
I'm planning on doing this too. But you don't need to do the corners that way because the entire foam board sits flush against your block wall. It's already rigid enough. You can just put the glue in the corner where the drywall sits. Another thing on their website, if you cut out the foam to pull the wire through, just spray some foam or glue in there and reinsert the foam square you took out. No need to fill the entire square with spray foam.
Thanks for taking the time to do this! Very helpful information!
I too am considering this product so thank you for sharing ur experience! I watched video from start to finish. My brain love love details and I can tell you're very thorough so so so much appreciation!! As we are in the year of 2020, and, as tech advances so fast, there's more options than enough. Which in the end...is good for everyone! I wish you could have shared cost 😉. I'm doing this project for a house I put hashed for my daughter. Imma renovate and surprise her. So if it doesn't give me the results I'm looking for.....well, I guess I'll rip it out and start over hahaha. Thank you so much! I've shared your video to Facebook for consideration
Thank you for your kind comments on the video and thanks for sharing. As far as cost, I purchased 30 boxes of UX 2.0 for $2,682.00, three cases of PL 3X glue from Lowe's for about $500, and a couple of dozen cans of spray foam for another couple hundred bucks. I ended up with about 5 extra cases of InSoFast because I didn't deduct window and door openings from my area calculations, something to keep in mind because it all adds up. As a rough guess from my own experience, I would figure the cost to be about $2.00 per square foot of living space. The house I installed the InSoFast in is just short of 1,500 sqft.
Thanks for sharing
Good review! I'm thinking about using this in my basement
Go for it!
Great video! Now that some time has passed since you installed this product are you still happy with the decision? I’m considering this as an option in a basement.
Short answer, yes! Longer answer, there are some challenges that aren't immediately obvious early on. The biggest is finding the plastic studs in the wall after sheetrock installation. You'll need to be very diligent during installation to make sure you know where every stud is and should be. Currently, I'm installing cabinets in the kitchen and it's been more difficult than I thought to find the "studs". My problem was partially because I got cheap and thought I was going to be clever and use some "cut-offs" to fill an area on the wall. Though I kept the 16" center spacing from each end of the wall, there was a spot in the middle where I used the cut-offs that messed up the spacing. HUGE mistake! But not rip the sheetrock out and start over kind of mistake. I purchased a Zircon Studsensor A100 because it was supposed to find anything behind sheetrock. It will get you in the neighborhood but's it's still a lot of measuring and guessing to find each stud even though they are 16" centers. You'll also want to mark your water lines and wires on the InSoFast (a Sharpie will work fine) and take pictures before sheetrock is installed so you can be careful around those areas with long finishing nails or screws. Which brings me to my next point, baseboards. I'm not sure how well the plastic studs will take finishing nails since finishing nails are so smooth. I'm a little concerned that over time they will slip out of the plastic studs since there isn't much to hold them in. The plastic studs aren't solid, they're more of an I-beam design, so you're only nailing into a 3/16" thick plastic "wing". Some construction adhesive on the back of the baseboard will probably solve this, I just hate to do that. All that being said, my advice on this side of the purchase is to take lots of pictures and try to think 4 or 5 steps ahead to keep yourself out of trouble.
@@Mrpaint06 thank you for such a thoughtful response! This was information will be extremely useful in making my decision.
How are the electrical boxes attached? I haven’t found any videos on that. Did you glue them to the cinder block wall?
Just uploaded a video on this exact subject!
I'm planning to do this for my garage and I'm wondering if this means I can simply nail down the plastic to the 2x4 and I basically don't need to put in any insulation in the wall?
I'm sorry, I don't really understand your question.
I just dont understand why you put wood in before the insofast. Isnt the entire point of this stuff, is to get rid of wood studding entirely?
We are planning to do this in our basement in the coming weeks. Did you need a hot knife?
Nope, I just used a snap-off blade utility knife with the blade fully extended to get all the way through the panels. Buy some extra blades because once they get dull, they will start tearing the styrofoam instead of cutting it clean.