At the time of construction, my house was insulated with polyurethane foam. This included foaming the air spaces between my window jambs and the 2 x 6 framing members.
Last week, in tearing out my
old windows, the insulating foam had to be removed. The foam came out in a zillion chunks,
ranging from the size of a pea to the size of my hand.
Once popped free, the pieces of
foam took on strong static electricity charges. The charges, I discovered when
trying to clean up the foam, adopted one of two distinct behaviors. Some, immediately clung to my clothing, my
ladder, the walls, or nearby furniture.
Other foam bits were sharply repelled by the plastic waste basket and
plastic bags I used to collect the mess—they flung themselves away from the
trash if I tried to drop them inside.
My cleaning developed into
something of a rodeo. I found myself
either chasing foam or trying to detach myself from it. A vacuum cleaner worked pretty well at
sucking up the smaller pieces and neutralizing the trash-rejecting
charges. Nonetheless, I chased foam
around for the better part of a couple days.
Even now, many days later, I am finding random flecks of foam roving around
inside my house.
— Mitchell Hegman
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