Attaching basement pole covers with "Great Stuff"?

[Mike]

I bought some nice looking octagonal oak surrounds for my basement poles. I've glued them up and they look pretty nice, albeit a bit

70's (but I'm not looking for decorating advice). How do I attach these things to the posts? I thought about using an expanding foam, but experience suggests that this could be a PITA (Great Stuff is very good at pulling glue joints apart). What kind of expanding foam is well suited to this? Any other suggestions?

[Art]

Urethane glue/sealant?

[Robert Allison]

How wide is the gap between the pole and the surround? If it is small, then construction adhesive. If it is larger, then use construction adhesive to attach blocks to the pole, then glue the surrounds to the blocks.

I wouldn't use foam for this, but if you must, then look for minimal expanding foam.

[Joe]

There are several brands of LATEX foam on the market that are routinely used in construction, by window installers, etc. IIRC, DAP is one brand and is widely available. It has zero effect on glue joints, so squirt away all you want and the results will be just fine. Allow at least a day or so for the foam to cure before trimming off excess. Water cleanup is also a great advantage. HTH

Joe

[DerbyDad03]

1 - Cut 3 (or more) octagons from some 3/4 stock. The outside dimensions should equal the inside dimensions of your oak surround. 2 - Cut these octagons in half. 3 - Cut a semi-circle into each half, the same radius as the radius of the pole. 4 - Pre-drill and screw these octogons around the pole at the top, bottom and in the middle. Use construction adhesive where needed to hold them in place. 5 - Place your surrounds against these octagons and glue/screw them to the supports.

[Mike]

[sylvan butler]

I agree. Try foam. Avoid DAP latex, it has no stick and very weak body strength -- it won't do anything for you except cost money and make a mess. Most any polyurethane foam will have adhesive properties.

I'd probably try the low expanding ("for windows and doors") version of Great Stuff. Don't fill the cavity full, but only injecting foam at top and bottom will likely be fine even with regular foam since it will have plenty of room to expand vertically.

sdb

[DerbyDad03]

How much space between the covers and the pole is there, and how were the sections attached to each other? If you glued the pieces together all the way around, removing them could be difficult, if not impossible. If that's the case, then perhaps foam is how you should go.

However, if you could get them apart, I would still use some type of blocking system, either the full octogon I suggested earlier or maybe just some blocks on 4 sides of the pole.