Expanded Foam Polystyrene (eps)

Expanded polystyterne (called also the expanded styrofoam) is probably the most important (from the roof insulation point of view) member of foam polymer family. It is solid, very light-weight insulation material with foam structure that contains 98% of air closed in tiny cells of the foamed material. There is not only one EPS, we know couple of types based on its volumetric weight. For the single ply roof insulation it is necessary to use the expanded polystyrene insulation with minimum bulk weight of 25 kg/cubic meter.

Advantages of expanded polystyrene foam

- has no impact on people´s health; - expanded polystyrene insulation installation is very easy; - can be molded or any other way shaped; - waterproof and resistant against all in water dissolvable stuff.

Disadvantages of expanded polystyrene insulation

- the foam polystyrene insulation is not resistant against organic solvents and therefor cannot be used in combination with MPVC hydro-insulation foils.

Expanded polystyrene installation

The EPS boards are laid free onto the underlayment and then are mechanically fastened with the clamp. EPS boards can be also glued to the underlayment with industrial glues on the base of polyurethane. One very importan information is that the expanded styrofoam cannot last higher temeperatures. For example it is impossible to lay the asphalt (bitumen) sheets onto the EPS board as the required temperature for such act is approximately 150 Celsius degrees - which is the temperature that dissolves (deteriorates the functionality of) the expanded polystyrene insulation board. This problem can be resolved glueing the sphalt sheet onto the EPS boards with the polyurethane glues (not very recommended from my side), cold asphalts or you can use the asphalt sheet segments with the sticky stripe on the reverse side (or the whole reverse side sticky).