Closed-Cell Polyurethane Spray Foam (OT)

This is so off-topic. Sorry.

But it's quite interesting. After watching the insulation go into my shed on Friday I read up on closed-cell spray foam insulation and watched a few videos. It's pretty fascinating stuff—at the high end of insulation materials for performance, but also for cost.

To begin with, it's very good insulation, coming in at at R7 or R8 per inch. It also expands to fit the cavity it's sprayed into such that it becomes a very good air seal. It's good at keeping out insects and rodents. It's fire-resistant, although not as good in that respect as Rockwool (formerly known as Roxul); it won't fuel a fire, but it will burn in a fire. Although it will age—the trapped gases near the surface will gradually be replaced with air and the R-value will drift downward slightly—after a couple of years it stabilizes and the R-value won't change further.

Its most interesting property is that it's remarkably tough, and grabs on to whatever it's sprayed on like glue. Actually, it essentially is glue—it's somewhat similar in composition to polyurethane glues such as Gorilla Glue. So it can increase the shear strength of a structure like my shed by up to 300%. In fact they use it in the American South to help hurricane-proof houses, and one builder online recommends spraying it on the underside of staircases just to keep the staircase build nice and tight. I asked the electrician what they do when there's a wire failure in a wire embedded in the foam. He said it's not something they see.

Lighting
We put a quad outlet on every wall, plus there's a GFI (ground-fault circuit interrupter) outlet next to the breaker panel per code, plus there's a double outlet on a separate circuit for the future window air conditioner. So there are 20 outlets in the room. That's got to be more than enough.

I wanted to say a little more about the plan of simply painting the unfinished ceiling dark gray. You might think this would be ugly and intrusive, but I'm not sure it will be. Think of what kind of lighting the room is getting—there is no general lighting except for the windows during daylight hours. There are two light circuits. The pool table light (I'm going to build my own) hangs at about eye level and brightly illuminates the table surface below it. So when it's the only light being used, especially at night, the table will be brightly lit and nothing else will be. The ceiling will more or less disappear, as it does in many pool halls. (See for example Ernie Barnes' painting "Pool Hall.") The other lighting circuit will be for the track lighting, which will also be directional, aimed at the photographs and artifacts on the walls. I don't know how it will work out—I'll have to see it—but it's quite probable that when I'm using one lighting circuit I won't be using the other—depending on who's visiting, we'll either be playing pool or looking at photographs, not both at once. As with the pool table light, the track lights will direct your attention to the finished walls and the dark ceiling will not be in your field of view or much in your consciousness. You also see this in many galleries, where all the focus is on the walls and pipes and ducts on a ceiling will be painted black or dark gray and will recede for most people.

Here's the color scheme for the interior (approximate, given the vagaries of color reproduction over the Internet):

Ceiling, floor, walls

Seating
There are going to be five bookcases, two 4.5-footers and three 6.5-footers, each with two shelves, for a total of 57 running feet of shelving. That won't hold all my books, but it will improve the situation from the severely limited shelving available in the house. I could fit a bit more if everything were made custom, but it's easier for Andrew to build multiples of a standard design, and smaller units will be more easily repurposed to different spaces in the future. Whether for me or for someone else.

As far as seating goes, I'm planning on having four seats, one in each corner (the geometry of a cue to a rectangular table in a rectangular room means there's more room available in the corners). At the door end there will be two bar stools without backs, and at the other end will be two nicer bar chairs with backs. That's because there will mostly be only one or two people playing. Now, when there are two people playing pool, you'd think you only need one chair, because at all times one person will be playing and the other will be watching. While that's true, most players like a place to put their stuff—to keep their other cues, set down their drink, put their coat in Wintertime, whatever. So I think it's more hospitable to have two seats, with a couple of extras for when four people are playing.

Is that enough about the shed for a while? I've been designing the bookcases, but you might recall Andrew's "Current Lead Time" clock in the post about the spice rack—I've got to get in line.  :-)

Mike

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Richard Parkin: "How can building a photo gallery be off topic?  :-)  "

MikeR: "I'd say that you're having some fun with this. Enjoy!"

Brian Stewart: "It contains photos, therefore it's on-topic."

robert e: "I have to admit, I rarely even notice ceilings, unless they're remarkably pretty or remarkably ugly. Even if you end up changing your mind, a coat of gray paint will have been a very low-cost detour. This project is going quickly!"

Mike replies: There's been a lot of waiting in between bouts of activity, but it's going quickly (and well) in recent days, yeah. I feel grateful.

marty knapp: "Very nice choice of colors and thinking about the dark ceiling re; the focus on the pool table and or the gallery walls. Personally, I favor dark walls for my gallery as when you turn on the lighting the prints are not glared out by a bright background. We used to call that non-image light in photography and have taken great lengths to shield it from our lenses with lens hoods. That Pewter Green you are using for the floor would be excellent for the walls.... Just my two cents. Best of luck on this great project. (I'm envious!)"

Mike replies: I hear you Marty, and I know Ansel preferred middle-gray (Zone V) for walls; he felt a white mat against as middle-gray background made the tones in the photographs look nicest. But there will be all sorts of things on these walls, not just B&W photos, and it's a multi-purpose room, not a single-purpose gallery. But I do get what you're saying and I don't disagree. I just don't want the whole room to feel small and dark.

John Krumm (partial comment): "I take it they sprayed under the shed as well? Or is that insulated a different way?"

Mike replies: Yes, the underside of the shed got spray foam insulation at the builder's, before delivery.

Comments

[John Krumm]

I take it they sprayed under the shed as well? Or is that insulated a different way?

What kind of music device will you have out there? I suppose a simple bluetooth speaker might be nice.

[Robert]

Interesting, thank you. I recon the foam does not breathe. What do you plan against moisture?

[Tom]

In timber frame construction it is normal to construct a cavity on the inner surface with battens and plasterboard which accommodates all electrical wiring. Wiring contained within the insulation can be subject to overheating and not allowed or recommended. When you get round to fitting a ceiling install a MF ceiling which can be suspended from the existing collars and levelled easily and most importantly dry lined so no wet trades.

[DavidB]

Looks like you are going with Sherwin Williams paint. I took out my SW color strips (we just had our house exterior painted and I still have the strips) and compared what I see on the screen with the color of the strips. Wow! What a difference reflective vs. transmissive makes on the colors.

[The match looks pretty good on my monitor, at least if I put the swatches by the window and don't hold them up next to the monitor. But then, color matching across the web in general has got to be a crapshoot. --Mike]

[robert e]

P.S. I just realized that your interior color scheme is a lot like your blog's color scheme! :)

[speed]

... closed-cell spray foam insulation ... is pretty fascinating stuff—at the high end of insulation materials for performance, but also for cost.

Better living through chemistry.

[Dan Khong]

Mike

This sealant sounds like something that can turn your shed + hide-out or cocoon into sort of a bunker. Suitable for hibernating through the long winter ahead.

Butters and Lulu will love it.

And we won't be able to hear you snore nor bellyache, not that we are looking forward to it.

Dan K.

[Bryan Geyer]

Looking forward to a photo (+ dimensions) of the bookshelves. My preferred source (Hale) doesn't sell traditional "library style" custom bookshelves anymore.

[T. Edwards]

How about cream for the walls and ceiling and software for the rafters only?

Will make the space feel bigger and will make the rafters pop out nicely - if they are going to be exposed, might as well embrace them.

[Nope, that's the opposite of what I want to do. I don't want to draw attention TO the ceiling, I want to draw attention AWAY from the ceiling. I've certainly seen ceilings one would want to draw attention to, but this isn't one of them! --Mike]

[Andrew Sheppard]

Twenty power outlets in a shed?? That's got to be clipping on for the total built-in downstairs in our house... I guess someone felt outlet-deprived in their younger days, much like I always worry about headlamp brightness after my dark days in a 1978 Mini [in the early 90s]. Loved the car - hated the lights! Every car since has come with 'we're going to have to get some brighter bulbs!'.