April 30, 2007
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Exit Quik-R, enter Stucco-Mate
Okay, Quik-R is simply and inexplicably unavailable on the west coast. They won't even ship it to us.
Something called Tuff-R was a possibility, but the cost seemed exorbitant.
Multiply this price by 300 and you'll see why we didn't go with it. No, we did not find a significant discount elsewhere.But we found something with less frills (unlined) and half the size (2x8 sheets rather than 4x8) but probably the right stuff for the job. It's also reasonably priced, and we got a volume discount. Called "stucco-mate", it's a one-inch-thick extra-dense styrofoam panel, tongue-&-groove so it fits tightly together and forms its own moisture barrier, and with weep channels on the inner side to let any condensation or moisture penetration drain down and out the bottom, rather than establish mold and mildew colonies against the concrete wall. Contractors who know about it call it "blueboard". I was so eager to get the stuff up I failed to have someone model a piece of it for a photo, sorry.
Six hundred sheets of Stucco-mate is a LOT of styrofoam. Since we were going to store it in the garage, I had it delivered through the alley. From one direction the approach was blocked by low-hanging electrical and telephone wires, so the driver came at us from the other direction. This flowering tree blocked his approach.
The driver and I had to break off branches to get the load past. I cut the bigger ones back with my trusty Leatherman's saw blade.We carried it in through here (following our cheerleader Joy):
...and stacked it to the ceiling, nearly filling the garage with it!
The driver was a GREAT help-- together, he and I unloaded the entire shipment in less than an hour.THANK YOU, sir! I wrote down your name to properly honor you and can't find that anywhere. Comment here and remind me.
