Anyone with knowledge of working with 2” foam have a preference of Lowe’s vs HD? They are my two choices and am wondering if there’s a difference. Thanks
well, there is a difference, not in the actual structure of the foam, but the manufacturer... you can get it in three colours, pink, green and blue, depends on who made it ... ps: don't use the white unless you have no choice, it's really messy, lol
Make sure to get the Extruded Polystyrene stuff. Usually comes in pink, green and blue. "Styrofoam" is the white stuff (beadboard), and looks like a cork board, with the small voids and visible beads; doesn't work well for scenery unless you're using a hot knife/wire cutter. The fumes from either can be toxic. Cutting with a steak knife to carve scenery is safer, but WAY more messy with white beadboard. At HD look for (pink) Foamular ($25/sheet). At Lowes, look for (blue) Dow ($29/sheet) or (green) Kingspan Insulation ($35/sheet). At the end of the day, between the two stores, price probably will be the determining factor.
Hemi pretty much hit it spot on there. Not any noticeable difference between those 3 other than price. I used the pink on my layout. It was gifted to me but I know it was from a order of several pallets worth that came from HD.
White foam is perfectly fine if all you're doing is making rolling hills, are not relying on the foam for detail, or for non-supporting structures (i.e. no track resting on it). It's not messy if you use a hot wire foam cutter. If you use white foam for scenery features in conjunction with sculptamold/joint compound, plaster cloth and plaster rock castings, your results won't look much different than extruded styrofoam. But by all means use extruded foam as your scenery base.
I've used white foam for some things including a scenic divide that will be on the current layout. It can be messy but not so much when using a hot wire or hot foam knife. A note of caution with this. If you use white foam and a hot wire cutter. Be in a well ventilated area and avoid any fumes as much as possible. Not only are they toxic but they have a semi foul odor as well. Speaking from experience.
Metro Red Line is RIGHT. Careful carving ANY foam with a HOTKNIFE. Fumes aren't doing your LUNGS any gone. If you can, do the carving outside. Around here[So INDIANA] foam is used for insulating buildings. Watch if the crew is using foam boards and cutting pieces. Ask FOREMAN if you can have the scraps? Maybe offer a little lot cleanup. Pickup on WEEKEND, when crew is NOT working=FREE FOAM. Go to company that sells PIANOS, many are packed in white foam. They will be happy for you to take packing=FREE FOAM. White foam works great when you just need to fill space, between base and flat foam panels. I don't about you, but I'm NOT made of money. I try to save wherever I can. Buying blue, pink, red and green foam panels can get expensive when all I'm going to do is make scenery with it.
I used the 1" green from lowes, and i discovered the hard way that it's not uniform height, with some parts being a tad higher or lower. It's especially apparent in scale, and can cause track issues even with unitrack.
I bought some last week. You are content sir. I worked hard at making my bench work joints smooth and the I put some of this down and have an 1/8” difference. I’ll be putting another 1” down so I’ll go with the pink boards.