Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Greetings,

I'm now on the "Definitely building it, and trying to get everything purchased ASAP" stage of my foamie and have reached a hell of a snag:

Apparently people in Southern California don't use Extruded Polystyrene because I can't find any. I've checked multiple Lowes and Home Depot stores. I was able to find Expanded polystyrene (beaded styrofoam) and Polyiso (the stuff that falls apart easily), but I'm only finding extruded polystyrene in small hobby sized pieces.

I found the stuff online at lowes.com and ordered some 13 sheets of 1" thick board and got a call today from some guy indicating that the manufacturer of the foam will only sell 4 pallets at a time so Lowes, while they have access to send the stuff to me, won't do so unless I order like 48 sheets.

Anyone have a source in Southern California (Orange County) or online where I can buy some foam and get it shipped here?

Bleh, the more I dig into this, the worse it gets.

Turns out the reason why I can't find any freaking foam over here is because California has banned XPS as a building material for homes.

Guess my first attempt at building a foamie is going to make creative use of the more crumbly polyISO foam. Here's hoping that my choice to go with fiberglass keeps it all nicely held together.

What about driving over to the next state with your HF trailer, and picking up as many sheets as you need?

But why doesn't CA allow EPS in homes?

Mike...

Not a clue.

I need to go and register my trailer before taking it on any long trips. I've been dreading the DMV so far, particularly since they're only open on weekdays while I'm working.

I think I may have found a supplier about 20 miles away. I'm going to call them tomorrow and see

Sips houses are built primarily with eps. I'd consider it if you can't get xps.

I know what EPS is... extruded polystyrene.

What is XPS?

Mike...

mikeschn wrote:I know what EPS is... extruded polystyrene.

What is XPS?

Mike...

XPS is the extruded stuff. EPS is expanded polystyrene, the compressed white balls that get everywhere.

Glenn's Foamstream is built with EPS. It works fine.

Try a commercial insulation company or a building material supply company.

Some of the flame retardants used in XPS and other products have been banned by Gov Brown (bill AB127) that makes it illegal to sell XPS and many other products in California.

http://forums.jlconline.com/forums/show ... Retardants

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blo ... ants-homes

http://www.thebuildingcodeforum.com/for ... dants.html

MtnDon wrote:Some of the flame retardants used in XPS and other products have been banned by Gov Brown (bill AB127) that makes it illegal to sell XPS and many other products in California.

http://forums.jlconline.com/forums/show ... Retardants

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blo ... ants-homes

http://www.thebuildingcodeforum.com/for ... dants.html

Gotta love California laws! If there's a chance something may be bad for you (and someone stands to make a profit banning it), you can rest assured that it'll get banned. It looks like I missed the ability to get some by only a few months.

Oh well, EPS it is then! I was planning on using some 1x2 planks for framing anyways so it'll probably still be plenty strong. The good thing is this means I can get started as soon as tonight since my local home depot has plenty of EPS foam available. The only thing holding me back now is that I ordered a door, window, and fan and need to get the physical dimensions of the cutouts if I'm going to build before they arrive

Find a commercial roofing contractor and ask about their products.
This type of sheet insulation is used in all flat roof installs I've
dealt with here in N.Y.S.