I’m getting ready to add industry to the Dirty and Dusty.
What have you found to be the best materials for larger walls?
I’m considering using cement board but a little concerned about how cutting for doors and windows can be done neatly. I do think it will hold up good in our dry climate.
I really like the Sintra PVC foam board. It’s made for outdoor use, and is very easy to cut, drill, sand, texture, paint, or glue. So far the 6mm thick stuff (about 1/4") has worked fine for even my largest buildings.
You can get it in a variety of thicknesses and sheet sizes from this source:
http://www.foamboardsource.com/sintra-pvc-foam–sintra-pvc-board.html
Sintra, Coroplast, Lexan, clear plexiglass, all work well with larger buildings, though the plexiglass and lexan can be rather pricey. If I use coroplast I’ll back it up on the corners and along the top and bottom with 3/4" strips of PVC board just to add some strength and weight.
Yeah, I pretty much agree with Ken and Ray. I have not heard any good stories about cement board, but I have had very good luck with acrylic and the foamed PVC (Sintra, whatever). My largest building is 24" x 42" x 24" and is acrylic covered by Precision Products brick sheets. It has held up VERY well over the years (8+ and counting). Reinforce all of the walls and roof, no matter what material you use.
My feed mill that I have been working on and off again is made up of 1/8" and 1/16" styrene. I bought a couple 4’x8’ sheets of each size, and the 1/8" stuff seems to work fairly well. The 1/8" sheet doesn’t really ‘score and snap’ but it goes through the table saw fairly well. The yellowed building in the background is 1/8" thick roof, with cast resin walls. I placed it outside before painting so I think the UV rays yellowed it. The flat roof of the feed mill has vertical supports of 1/8" styrene but it’s quite light and fairly strong.
Guys
I have found that the heat effects 1/16" and 1/8" thick PVC expanded foam board (Sintra, Kometex. Trovcel, etc.) like warping if the buildings are left out for an extended period of time. The 1/4" and the 1/2" works the best. For 1/2" Komacel is an exterior grade with a hard, high gloss surface. Komatex is an interior grade with a softer matte finish. I have used both but always paint Komatex for outdoor use. Komacel can be used as is if you want it to stay white, but the glossy finish isn’t what you see in buildings anywhere. I have worked with these products extensively in my sign business.
You can get the 1/4" sintra in a light or dark gray mate finish.
Scott
I would never put ANYTHING outside that wasn’t painted with some sort of exterior quality paint.
Bruce Chandler said:
I would never put ANYTHING outside that wasn’t painted with some sort of exterior quality paint.
Yep I learned that one quickly. Surprisingly I left the building out all summer and never noticed any cracking, or other signs of UV damage, then one day I pulled it back into the garage and realized how much it had yellowed. Interesting experiment to say the least.
I think with most plastics, wood or metals you actually do good by letting it “Pickle” a little in the sunshine. I think you will get a better traction surface for the paint to stick to.
Scott Suleski said:
Guys
I have found that the heat effects 1/16" and 1/8" thick PVC expanded foam board (Sintra, Kometex. Trovcel, etc.) like warping if the buildings are left out for an extended period of time. The 1/4" and the 1/2" works the best. .
Scott
Yes I agree and the 1/4" will wrap as well
To avoid warping, make sure you reinforce the long pieces. For me, I have been successful just putting a 2" wide strip of acrylic perpendicular to the wall or roof piece.
For my gas station platform, I ended up gluing some metal angle pieces to the base since the base was too big to be reinforced by the little office.
I just realized that I received no replies in my email because Bob’s computer didn’t tell me! Thanks everyone!