Staples for Foam Insulation

Bill Jirik,

Malco tools just came out with a stapler for attaching pex to foam board, haven't tried it yet as it just came out, still waiting for my dealer to get one in, but it may be worth looking at.

Mike C_3

Staples for Foam Insulation

Hello I am looking for help on a faster more efficient system of tying down 1/2" pex to 2" blueboard insulation.
Currently we use a 6-6-10 wire mesh and tie down with wire with the loops and a little twisty dealy bobber. The concrete guy said that he has seen people use the plastic staples and he said sometimes the volocity of the cement pulls them out. Any comments would be awesome!!!
Websites, links and pics would be cool thanks
My E is mjcromp@msn.com

kevin coppinger_4

I have used...

the staple. No problems. BUT you need to use the LONG ones. Wirsbo makes a shorter version...don't get mixed up. The other helpful thing is to not go light w/ them. put them in a plenty...kpc

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Ed_26

foam fasteners

How about the twist clips that screw into the styro? Made by Rehau? Or the "railfix" by rehau & others.

Kevin O. Pulver

Some guys a lot sharper than me

won't use them because they pulled out and caused a lotta heartache for them. But I've never had any problems and will continue to use them. My back loves them! I think the difference may be in the pump truck or concrete truck operator. You CAN CERTAINLY blow the staples out, but with a little care it doesn't have to be that way. I would lay a piece of plywood or cardboard down over the tube where the chute was shooting- if necessary.
With a pump truck, if the hose is down closer to the ground instead of several feet in the air it seems to make a big difference also. Make them slow down the delivery a bit.
An extra few minutes to empty the truck isn't going to hurt anything. If it does, the load is too hot anyway.
For the record, I'm using short staples in the flexible foam rolls. The first time was 17,250 feet of tubing with R-foil and and noone could tell us if the staples would hold in that stuff. It did. Ridgid foam should hold the staples much better. Kevin

Royboy

I made this transition

last year after years of tying with to mesh with wire and then plastic zip ties. I highly recommend the staples! The best thing is that then the mesh can be pulled up higher in the slab, where it can do its structural job properly - an the tubing is safely at the bottom of the slab. Of course the fact that it takes about half the time to put down the tubing is not to be overlooked, either - pays for the stapler pretty quick.

Watts sells a stapler, I got one that's german - can't remember the name, here's another one via google:

http://www.blueridgecompany.com/radiant/hydronic/275

[Deleted User]

Safely at the botttom of the slab...

Gobbling up more btu's than are necessary to do the job, and suddenly puking them at terminal velocity, into the same room that the sunshine just recently popped up in...

Safely...at projectile vomiting speed. Safely.

Until you've had to stand there and watch all your tubing being blown out by shear hydraulic force, you don't know what to do, and the rolling cement guys just kind of kick it around, hoping it lays flat and straightens itself out and smiles at you. I asked them to stop. He laughed at me and kept moving. :-)

I have a 20K square foot home with tubing at 8" on center, and the GC wants it to be in the upper third of the slab. Said he'd place the chairs. It's his money, and I gotta do it his way, and he's paying me to do it. Can't do that with the foam board/staple package. THis is all going down on commercial beam and pan construction. Can't EVEN use the foam board on this stuff. Has to be insulated with preformed EPS foam jackets after the fact.

Safely yours :-)

ME

hr

If you staple to foam

may as well skip the 6X6 10-10 mesh. It really doesn't add much to a slab strength or crack resistence.

Rebar does, and I think the fiber mesh in the mix does the best job.

No matter how you slice it mesh is a hassle to load, haul, install, and keep in the mid slab position.

I too have tried continous strip chairs under the mesh. Unless you place them every 3 feet or less the mesh still sags down to the bottom of the pour between them.

I don't know of any way to assure every foot of pex stays mid slab. Concrete just happens too fast, and it's so final

Personally I'll take the small performance hit having it at the bottom of a 4" pour, as opposed to having the SoftCut saw hit tubes that floated a little too close to the top

The chairs give that flying mud an incentive to over lift the tube. It also catches the feet of the concrete gorillas and they REALLY hate that

Homeowners notice patches in a new slab a lot more than they do tube a little to deep!

hot rod

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S Ebels

That's all we do anymore

Viega has 'em. Stapler is P/N 21-432 and the 2 1/2" staples are 15-312. Need a set? I can have 'em UPS'd to you tomorrow.

I agree there is a small penalty paid in having the tube right at the bottom of the pour but the advantages far outweigh that concern in my book. It's fast, it's as safe as you can make it from the cement monkeys, ram setting 2x4 walls over top is seldom a problem and unless someone is really careless, sawcuts are non existent.

Mike C_3

Also E-Z Floor?

Has anyone used this and liked it? or not?

Bob Gagnon plumbing and heating

would you use

pex or aluminum core pex with foam and staples. will the staples hold down regular pex? Bob

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hr

With PAP

the bends are much easier to hold in place. Regular pex seems to really tug sideways on the foam staples at bends and loop ends.

Loop ends are really prone to lifting out of the pour, if not held down securely.

PAP tube just plain stays where you put it much better.

It also forms and stays better where up come up out of the slab at the manifold.

hot rod

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