Polystyrene foam insulation board is one of the best tools to reduce your energy costs. Install it anywhere from the roof to the foundation. You can even place it under the foundation slab. Polystyrene foam insulation board provides high R-values. They keep your home at a comfortable temperature without the need to crank your heat.

Types of Polystyrene Foam Insulation Board

Choose from three types of insulating foam core boards for wall insulation. Products with a higher R-value have a higher cost but have an increased capacity to resist heat flow, and therefore provide greater insulation. Each type comes with unique advantages:

● Expanded Polystyrene. Also called EPS insulation, this is the least expensive material. It provides R-values that range from 3.6 to 4.2 per inch. Some products have reinforced facing to make them sturdier.

● Extruded Polystyrene. Choose this option for areas that need a good amount of strength and water resistance. It provides about R-5 per inch.

● Polyisocyanurate. This material offers the highest R-values—about R-6 to 6.5. Products with foil facing help the panels resist moisture vapor.

Working with Home Polystyrene Foam Insulation Board

Polystyrene Foam Insulation Board typically come in 4x8-foot sheets. Smaller sizes are also available. They’re much lighter and easier to work with than plywood sheets. Install them using panel adhesive or screws.

For new construction, use rigid boards to insulate slabs and the outside of foundation walls. For a basement remodeling project, consider insulating basement walls with foam board. Use a premade kit for this type of project. Attach the tongue-and-groove insulation boards to the concrete wall with adhesive. Follow with a 2x4 frame wall and insulate it with batt insulation. Keep in mind that any interior rigid insulating panel must be covered by a barrier. A common choice is drywall.

Insulated foam sheets are also used as an insulated sheathing underlayment for exterior siding. The panels provide a continuous energy-efficient surface. This eliminates thermal bridging, which is the energy lost through wall studs. The studs conduct more heat than the insulation between them.

Because of its resistance to moisture, polystyrene foam board insulation is a great choice whenever and wherever there is a chance it could get wet, such as an exterior foundation, inside a basement against the foundation, and on the outside of a house beneath a house wrap. The following are the pros and cons you should know when choosing the EPS insulation board.

Advantages of Polystyrene foam insulation board

1. Light. In Europe, people only use the EPS board with a density of 15kg/m3;
2. Low thermal conductivity. Because of the air-filled hole group structure, the spread of air and the heat conduction coefficient can be prevented under 0.039;
3. Good anti-impact ability. 98% of foam insulation board space is filled with air, then it has sufficient capacity to buffer the impact of the outside world by changing the shape;
4. Low water absorption. Studies have shown that humidity will affect the thermal and mechanical properties, and the low water absorption of EPS insulation board helps to maintain excellent properties;
5. Recyclable. Polystyrene foam insulation board has the highest recycling degree among the plastics;
6. Freon is not used in the production process;
7. EPS insulation board has the lowest energy consumption of the entire plastic life cycle.

Disadvantages of polystyrene foam insulation board

1. EPS insulation board needs to be hung, and the construction is complicated and the cycle is long;
2. Flammable & toxic. Ordinary polystyrene foam insulation board is easy to burn, accompanied by toxic fumes;
3. Poor material strength. Polystyrene foam insulation board is prone to cracking and shedding.
4. Limited strength and load-bearing capacity.
5. Unstable quality. The EPS insulation board needs to be placed in the factory for a period of time before it can be used. If it is not processed thoroughly, the quality will not be guaranteed, resulting in foam shrinkage and cracking.

GREENMAX Polystyrene Recycling Machine

In comparison, the polystyrene foam insulation board has more advantages, but the disadvantages are more fatal. At present, the trend of eliminating polystyrene foam insulation boards has gradually appeared in the market. If EPS foam waste is not handled properly, it is easy to cause white pollution.

GREENMAX is a veteran of recycling waste polystyrene foam insulation board. The polystyrene recycling machine APOLO Series can compact waste polystyrene foam insulation and the tight compacted EPS blocks. With the help of the polystyrene compactor, the EPS waste is much easier to handle and the storage space and transport costs can be greatly saved.