Pink/Blue Foam - Fire Safety?

I'm about ready to build another Blue/Pink foam layout for a friend, and was reading up on the product on the mfg. website, and noticed the statement not to use inside without protecting with drywall on top. Since this will be located in my friends basement (same room as his furnace), do I have to worry? Or what do others do to minimize any risk?

My first layout, I just painted latex directly on top of the foam, and it turned out just great (http://www.ihoff.com/projects/train/train.htm)

What have others done? Advice? Do they make EPS (Blue/Pink) that is FR (Fire Retardant)? I did a quick search here in the forums, but did not see any related discussions.

Thanks -

 

To the best of my knowledge (and experience) neither the Dow nor Corning foam products are considered "fire" hazards since the foam melts but does not support combustion.

On the other hand, the fumes produced by the melting foam may be hazardous. Mixed opinions and the MSD sheets are ambiguous. When working with the foam and a hot wire cutter, take precautions. Better safe than dead!

In construction, building codes generally specify covering foam panels with a non-combustible material like drywall. In a home or office fire, the effects of the fumes from the foam melting would be magnified greatly. Covering the foam may prevent the release of fumes or at least delay it until the building is cleared out.

On a home layout, the quantity of foam used is usually not that great. When painted over, the risks are reduced (most paints now won't support combustion, either).

Safe use of foam in a room that contains a source of ignition (furnace, hot water heater) depends on how close to the ignition source the foam is. Just being in the same room may not be a problem.

Hope this helps.

Darrell

 

Although the foam we use is not designed for the purposes we use them, the simple answer for you is really don't need to worry about it from a fire safety stand point any more than anything else typically used in the train room. Of course if you deviate from what most modelers do or use extreme methods - say running your overhead 120v lights off speaker wire - then you would have reason to be concerned. But then again it wasn't the foam that caused the concerns.

I could see that the building material regs might cause some concerns, you really pose no additional risk than most anything else found in a typical home. The contents (Live loads is technical term) of a home have gotten smaller in volume of material used but have more energy released during a fire (British Thermal Units - BTU's) than ever before. This is due to the large amount of plastics used in consumer products and the basics for plastic is petroleum. Heck, your carpet is probably made from recycled soda bottles.

If you follow the typical methods used by today's modelers, common sense when using new methods, and sound workmanship when doing things like electrical work, turning off the soldering iron etc you should be fine. A smoke detector, fire extinguisher etc will get you more piece of mind too.

As a parting thought, in all the magazines, on line forums, books etc and given the number of folks using foam this way, how many times have you heard of a fire in the train room that foam made a difference? Heck, how many times have you ever heard of fire that was caused by the model? I'll grant you that ever year we hear someone's house had a tragic fire and they lost the RR but was the RR the cause of the fire or just a victim?

ratled