In the last little while, I've been getting a lot of emails about "what's the easiest way to clean foam after a job". There are a lot of things out there that look fancy and some expensive toys you can buy, but are they really worth it?
In my opinion, this is a case where sometimes the simple things in life and a little effort are the easiest. It all boils down to what you want to clean up and how much is there.
Whenever cutting back foam, always keep in mind where wires are. It's easy for the expanding foam to push wires out past the studs. If you are not careful, these wires are easily cut. The more aggressive cutting you do, the easier these accidents happen. With places being built with more and more technology, imagine what it would be like to try to repair a fibre optic cable, because it get damaged rushing a cleaning up!
Paint Scrapers
If you are an experienced sprayer, with good gun control (and proper sized chambers), you should be able to control the foam to the point where you are not over filling cavities (using closed cell) and get a minimum amount of over spray on your studs. Also try using our "TAILORMADE"TM adjustable end cap on your gun to not over fill cavities. In this case a simple two handed paint scraper (or a single handled flat blade) is the cheapest, easiest and a quick way to clean them. Simply run it up and down the stud and everything just falls off. Thicker spots you may have to use a little more elbow grease, to get clean.
In my opinion, this is a case where sometimes the simple things in life and a little effort are the easiest. It all boils down to what you want to clean up and how much is there.
Whenever cutting back foam, always keep in mind where wires are. It's easy for the expanding foam to push wires out past the studs. If you are not careful, these wires are easily cut. The more aggressive cutting you do, the easier these accidents happen. With places being built with more and more technology, imagine what it would be like to try to repair a fibre optic cable, because it get damaged rushing a cleaning up!
Paint Scrapers
If you are an experienced sprayer, with good gun control (and proper sized chambers), you should be able to control the foam to the point where you are not over filling cavities (using closed cell) and get a minimum amount of over spray on your studs. Also try using our "TAILORMADE"TM adjustable end cap on your gun to not over fill cavities. In this case a simple two handed paint scraper (or a single handled flat blade) is the cheapest, easiest and a quick way to clean them. Simply run it up and down the stud and everything just falls off. Thicker spots you may have to use a little more elbow grease, to get clean.
Ice Scrapers
Just like the paint scrapers, ice scrapers are great for scraping studs. They come in handy when for taller walls, and ceilings. When scraping walls they can prevent you from having to use ladders and steps, speeding up your clean up time, as well as saving you legs a little from constantly going up and down steps.
When end it comes to ceilings, you will still need steps, or a ladder to get the right angles, but the reach of them will minimize the number of times you have to go up and down steps!
Just like the paint scrapers, ice scrapers are great for scraping studs. They come in handy when for taller walls, and ceilings. When scraping walls they can prevent you from having to use ladders and steps, speeding up your clean up time, as well as saving you legs a little from constantly going up and down steps.
When end it comes to ceilings, you will still need steps, or a ladder to get the right angles, but the reach of them will minimize the number of times you have to go up and down steps!
Hand Saws
When cleaning off open cell foam they easiest thing to use is a simple hand wood saw, with the teeth all grinded off. This will create something that resembles a large razor blade. Getting a saw that is at least 18 inches wide will allow you to cut through a full 16 inch cavity and make it nice and flat. Using the saw will make clean up easy as well. The pieces you cut off will be nice big size pieces, easy to pick up, which drastically reduces your clean up time.
Saws like this can also be used for closed cell foam, but it will definitely be harder to do. For this you want to make sure it's as sharp as possible!
When cleaning off open cell foam they easiest thing to use is a simple hand wood saw, with the teeth all grinded off. This will create something that resembles a large razor blade. Getting a saw that is at least 18 inches wide will allow you to cut through a full 16 inch cavity and make it nice and flat. Using the saw will make clean up easy as well. The pieces you cut off will be nice big size pieces, easy to pick up, which drastically reduces your clean up time.
Saws like this can also be used for closed cell foam, but it will definitely be harder to do. For this you want to make sure it's as sharp as possible!
CI Cutter
If you are the type of person that wants the fancy toys, a CI cutter is for you. These cutters are basically a knobby metal wheel, attached to an electric chainsaw! These make cleaning off either closed cell or open cell foam (there are two different wheels for it, one for open cell and one for closed cell) extremely easy. Turn it on and watch the knobby wheel spin, then watch whatever foam you don't want disappear as soon as you touch it.
This sounds simple and amazing, but it does have a three major drawbacks (for most people)
1) The price - I'm sure once I started describing it you can see that it's not cheap. It's an electric chainsaw with a custom made head, and wheels that were designed just for foam removal. Anytime you have custom parts, it's expensive. You will be looking at a couple to a few thousand dollars for something like this (depending on where you live).
2) Clean up - as you can imagine, the piece which this breaks the foam into are not very large. These small pieces fly everywhere. These pieces can get a static charge to them, which causes them to stick everywhere. It may take little time to shave everything off the walls, but you can spend hours after trying to clean up all of the foam dust you create, make this whole process a lot easier, but taking longer to complete.
3) The Weight - for the average person this is a heavy tool. For someone to constantly lift and lower the tool, it can be tiring to work with. The weight of it is probably around 30 lbs. That doesn't sound like a lot, but pick it up over your head and put it down to the ground 100 times and your arms probably won't like you any more.
If you are the type of person that wants the fancy toys, a CI cutter is for you. These cutters are basically a knobby metal wheel, attached to an electric chainsaw! These make cleaning off either closed cell or open cell foam (there are two different wheels for it, one for open cell and one for closed cell) extremely easy. Turn it on and watch the knobby wheel spin, then watch whatever foam you don't want disappear as soon as you touch it.
This sounds simple and amazing, but it does have a three major drawbacks (for most people)
1) The price - I'm sure once I started describing it you can see that it's not cheap. It's an electric chainsaw with a custom made head, and wheels that were designed just for foam removal. Anytime you have custom parts, it's expensive. You will be looking at a couple to a few thousand dollars for something like this (depending on where you live).
2) Clean up - as you can imagine, the piece which this breaks the foam into are not very large. These small pieces fly everywhere. These pieces can get a static charge to them, which causes them to stick everywhere. It may take little time to shave everything off the walls, but you can spend hours after trying to clean up all of the foam dust you create, make this whole process a lot easier, but taking longer to complete.
3) The Weight - for the average person this is a heavy tool. For someone to constantly lift and lower the tool, it can be tiring to work with. The weight of it is probably around 30 lbs. That doesn't sound like a lot, but pick it up over your head and put it down to the ground 100 times and your arms probably won't like you any more.
CI Vac-Pac
The CI Vac -Pac is a great toy, which makes clean up a lot easier (especially if you use the CI Cutter)!
this machine is a vacuum that compresses all your waste into small pucks. If you have ever cleanedup an open cell job site, you know how much space all the scraps will take up. They can easily fill the back of your trucks. This fancy toy allows you to vacuum up the jobs sites, and it compresses all that's waste into little pucks, which take up not a lot of space. You can literally take a truck full of waste and reduce it down to a regular sized garbage bag.
The down side to this of course is the price. This kind of convenience doesn't come cheap... It's going to cost more than the average person wants to spend! If your main business is spraying open cell foam, it might be worth saving up for though!
The CI Vac -Pac is a great toy, which makes clean up a lot easier (especially if you use the CI Cutter)!
this machine is a vacuum that compresses all your waste into small pucks. If you have ever cleanedup an open cell job site, you know how much space all the scraps will take up. They can easily fill the back of your trucks. This fancy toy allows you to vacuum up the jobs sites, and it compresses all that's waste into little pucks, which take up not a lot of space. You can literally take a truck full of waste and reduce it down to a regular sized garbage bag.
The down side to this of course is the price. This kind of convenience doesn't come cheap... It's going to cost more than the average person wants to spend! If your main business is spraying open cell foam, it might be worth saving up for though!
What do I do when I get over spray where I don't want it?
The easy answer is simply, don't do it! Once the foam sticks to something, it always leaves a small stain, which will turn orange once exposed to daylight (uv Rays). Using poly to cover up things that can not be removed from a room is the best way to do this. If you have furnaces and window frames that are made of metal and are hard to cover, you want want to spray them down with some type of spray foam release, products like Cortez's LET-LOOSE spray foam release works perfect for stuff like this, as well as visors on masks, or really anything you do not want foam to stick to.
BUT let's say it's past this point and you have already got foam where it shouldn't be...
If its on glass. Time, elbow grease, and a brand new razor blade is the best way.
If it's on metal sheeting, or railings... try to paint it, or replace it.
If it's on brick or concert, wire brush works good.
If it's on cars..you can try clay bars if it's not a lot. If it's bad, then major detailing will come into play. Basically, removing the last layer of clear coat, and then reapplying it. Yes it gets pricey.
If it's on shingles, you can try to scrap them off, but chances are you will be replacing it.
If it's on a painted surface, sand it down and repaint it.
These are the common issues installers run into, and the most common ways to correct them. If you noticed, most of the time it ended up with something being replaced. If anyone has anything else that works well for them, please feel free to share it in the comment sections!
The easy answer is simply, don't do it! Once the foam sticks to something, it always leaves a small stain, which will turn orange once exposed to daylight (uv Rays). Using poly to cover up things that can not be removed from a room is the best way to do this. If you have furnaces and window frames that are made of metal and are hard to cover, you want want to spray them down with some type of spray foam release, products like Cortez's LET-LOOSE spray foam release works perfect for stuff like this, as well as visors on masks, or really anything you do not want foam to stick to.
BUT let's say it's past this point and you have already got foam where it shouldn't be...
If its on glass. Time, elbow grease, and a brand new razor blade is the best way.
If it's on metal sheeting, or railings... try to paint it, or replace it.
If it's on brick or concert, wire brush works good.
If it's on cars..you can try clay bars if it's not a lot. If it's bad, then major detailing will come into play. Basically, removing the last layer of clear coat, and then reapplying it. Yes it gets pricey.
If it's on shingles, you can try to scrap them off, but chances are you will be replacing it.
If it's on a painted surface, sand it down and repaint it.
These are the common issues installers run into, and the most common ways to correct them. If you noticed, most of the time it ended up with something being replaced. If anyone has anything else that works well for them, please feel free to share it in the comment sections!
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