styrofoam

Hi There

New to this garden site  so my question is l am in the process of building a base for my green houses 6 foot x 10 foot two of them.

l have read in a book that its a good ldea to put sheets of styrofoam two foot deep around the outside edge of the greenhouse to stop the cold soil comming through into the greenhouse soil.

ls this safe to do would any chemcials leach from the styrofoam into my soil?
Has anybody done this before?


Many Thanks

zoee

Hi Paul

Thanks for your reply , l can't find anything that says its not a good ldea but also can't find anybody that has done this either!


Zoee

I agree with Stompy (it appears to be a "solution" to a problem which doesn't actually exist.) 

If you're still keen on using foam, look at this first for the R factors of plain styrofoam vs rigid insulating styrofoam. You'll see that styrofoam has a very low insulating factor due to its low density. True insulating styrofoam has well over double the R factor, and often more.

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/green-basics/rigid-foam-insulation

If you want to go to the trouble of insulating, you might want to do a good job versus what is only cheap and less effective. You'll also find that the building foam takes work to break it down, whereas styrofoam will crumble for any reason.

Thanks Trillium and to all the other posts

l think now l will not bother it seems to do it right l would need to spend a bit more than l havd planed and would think there are much easier and cheaper way to keep the heat in.


Thanks again

Zoeee

A good decision (in my humble and all that...). Here's wishing you warmth where you want it.