Go

Search:

The Monolithic Dome
 
Site Index
 
Homes
Schools
Sports
Churches
Commercial
Nonprofit
Storages
 
Foam
Airforms & Coatings
Equipment
 
Disaster Resistant
 
Planning & Design
Construction & Training
 
President's Sphere
 
Dome News
 
Bulletin Board
Builder Listings
Insurance
Lenders
 
Workshops
Conference
 
Marketplace

The Polyurethane Foam Book

Introduction

by David B. South

Urethane Foam: Magic Material -- Insulations Best Kept Secrets

My first look at rigid polyurethane foam was at a beautiful, hand- carved statue. My secretary handed this statue to me in 1970, while I was working in Chicago. The statue appeared to be hand-carved of oak. But the weight was wrong. It was only half as heavy as oak. I examined it very carefully but could not identify the wood. My secretary laughed and said, "It was cast out of plastic." I was immediately and enormously intrigued.

For fifteen years before that experience, I had been trying to find a way to build dome buildings economically and quickly. I thought that this plastic material just might be the answer. If I could cast it into panels and fasten the panels together, I might have a simple method of building a dome.

I learned that a three-day seminar on the uses of polyurethane foam was in progress in town. I had missed the first day, but two days remained. So, I took two vacation days and went to the balance of the seminar. The seminar was predominately about casting panels of urethane. It turns out that much of our modern, hand-carved furniture and carved cabinet doors are made from cast or molded urethane foam.

During the last day of the seminar, they showed pictures of polyurethane foam sprayed as insulation and extolled its insulating qualities. I stayed after the meeting to talk with the presenters about the amazing qualities of sprayed polyurethane -- water proof, bug proof, fire proof and more. (Note: I want you to remember that I said “fire proof.” At that time, fire did not seem to be a problem -- at least it was not an apparent problem as it became shortly thereafter.)

Two days before that seminar, I had turned in my resignation as computer operations manager for Chicago Northwestern Railway. I had made up my mind to move back to Idaho and find employment there. I didn't know what I was going to do, but I did know that my family and I were leaving the Windy City.

Finding out about polyurethane seemed to be foreordained. When I returned to Idaho, my first objective was learning more about the product: where it could be purchased, what kind of equipment it took to apply it, etc. I had recognized immediately that this foam was an ideal insulation for the potato storage industry -- a major market in Idaho.

From then on my life was destined to intertwine with this magic, super-insulating building material known as polyurethane foam. Very possibly, yours may become intertwined with it as well.

Download the whole book as a PDF

Table of Contents:
 

177 Dome Park Place - Italy, TX 76651
Tel (972)483-7423 - Fax (972)483-6662
mail@monolithic.com