Is LePage Tite Foam a “low expanding” or “high expanding” foam?
I installed a window recently and first used a can of DAP ‘Touch ‘n Foam” Home seal which DAP says is a minimally expanding foam (and was sold to me by the same guy I bought the window from). I didn’t like the way the DAP stuff came out of the can, somewhat runny and seemed to cure poorly, stayed gummy and not really expand. A lot of air came out of the can at first before the stuff started flowing. Anyways, I switched to a can I had used before (Lepage Tite Foam) and I really liked how it came out and set quickly. I can find no info about whether this is a “high expanding” or “low expanding” foam. Any ideas? (BTW the DAP date code was 9C011 which seems to be March 2019).
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I think “tite foam” is made by loctite? It is NOT a low-expanding foam. The loctite product is dense and sets up with a feel closer to two part closed cell spray foam. It expands a lot. It’s a good product and I like it, I just wish it wasn’t so expensive.
Tite foam weathers about the same as great stuff, turning yellow and getting crunchy. My guess is tite foam will be more critter resistant due to its density. In my experience, tite foam and great stuff take about the same amount of time to cure, but tite foam gets a little more solid. Tackiness wise they’re about the same.
I did just see that there is now a “window and door” version of loctite’s tite foam, which IS a low expanding version, but I’ve never used it.
Bill
Loctite and LePage are both owned by Henkel. In Canada, TItefoam is branded under the LePage name.
Yea I'm in Canada so that's why its Lepage Titefoam. It does say 4x denser on the can, which to me indicates that it *is not* a high-expanding foam. If there's some marketing or technical documents that says if it's high or low expanding I'd like to see it. I bought a can of Great Stuff Windows and Door to finish the job. I put on my reading glasses and held a strong light to read the label on all these cans, and they *do* say to shake vigerously for 30 to 60 seconds (!). So presumably I'd have a better result with the DAP if I did that. The several cans of Titefoam (that I used for other non-window projects) always worked great without shaking the can. Funny thing - the Titefoam is made in Estonia (and yes I see the Henkel Corp on it also). The Great Stuff is made in (or at least marketed by) Dupont de Nemours (?) Midland Michigan.
In my limited experience, if the product is low expanding, it will say so. I've never seen anything labelled as "high expanding". I think there's just standard, and low expanding. The fact that Tite Foam expands to fill up to 1" gaps is another sign it's not low expanding foam.
Ah, the different name in Canada makes sense.
I can assure you that it IS high expanding foam. I’ve used it. It’s a good product and I like the stuff. I haven’t seen a version of it for foam guns, which are WAY nicer to use than the can+straw disposable method. It’s also quite a bit more expensive than great stuff. Because of those two issues, I only use tite foam for a few things where I think it it superior.
Great stuf was originally made by the Dow chemical company which is headquartered in midland, Michigan. Dow has plants all over the place, a friend of mine who worked for them was working in a facility in Belgium for a while, for example. DuPont bought Dow chemical a few years ago.
Henckel is also a pretty big company. All the chemical companies seem to be pretty big and very diversified.
Bill
For what it's worth, after applying some Great Stuff Window and Door (GSWD) to the same gaps and the same amount as I was with Tite foam, I'm seeing the same amount of residual expansion and "puffyness" out of the gap opening several hours after application. This is maybe 15 C temp, maybe somewhat dry relative humidity conditions (these products seem to want to cure in the presence of water or humid air). But in any case the Tite Foam is not labelled as a "big gap filler" which to me would indicate high-expanding. Like I said, comparable to GSWD. I wonder if low humidity leads to slower cure (and more flow, lower pressure).
BTW, I shook the GSWD like hell for a few minutes and could still sense that there was a liquid and air space in the can (something was still sloshing around in the can after all the shaking). No difference in the "feel" of the shake when I started vs when I stopped. It came out of the nozzle and foamed itself just fine. Still some air came out at first. I'm not sure how you're supposed to hold these cans when spraying. Seems that sideways is best if you want the product and not air.
The window and door version of great stuff remains a little spongy after it cures. Tite foam and regular great stuff get pretty hard when cured. There is a very noticeable difference between the window and door variant and the “regular” stuff.
Tite foam sets up a little harder than regular great stuff and is NOT anything like the window and door version of great stuff. There IS a window and door variant of tite foam now though, but I have not tried it.
Bill