Foam Core Floor Repair. Epoxy?
I’m looking to repair some soft spots in my floor. It is not water damage, but where the foam has compressed in heavy use areas. I’ve seen a couple of YouTube videos where they drilled a grid of h...
Forum Discussion
carringb wrote:
I’ve done epoxy injection on many composite structures, and I world regardless of core. Most 5-min epoxies are compatible with polystyrene, and it makes a good filler when added to resins. I wouldn’t go any shorter than 5-min set because it’ll probably start to set before it’s all injected.
That brings up an important point, you do want some idea of the void size. Epoxy setting is an exothermic process.
In large enough quantities, it gets hot...I've had to throw a mixed cup onto the grass while working on the boat because it was too hot to hold. Usually it just solidified too quickly and I wasted a bit of epoxy.
If there is a large void and you fill it all at once, you get a snowball effect. Because the heat can't escape and epoxy cures faster at higher temps, it generates more heat with even less time for the heat to escape, it cures even faster...in extremes, it can melt the foam or even potentially burn the plywood. See the link...they were measuring temps in excess of 400F.
https://www.epoxyworks.com/index.php/controlling-exotherm/
