Does squirty expanding foam damage pvc cable? Specifiaclly wickes foam on pvc T&E?
Plan is to use it to seal the gaps around celotex, some of which are quite big, but there's cables running through.
thanks, NT
The foam will be thermally insulating so use it in limited thickness. Extensive dollops formed around heavily loaded cables could have local overheating problems, however not many domestic cables run at full rated load for extended periods so some latitude may be assumed. If you are concerned you may have to derate the cable per info in the on- site-guide
PU is ok, and I think the blowing agent is pentane?
Make the cable contact something non-insulating such as the wall or stud, ie, avoid surrounding the cable in insulation.
If you look on the destructions on a can of Wickes foam it specifically says that its ideal for sealing gaps around electrical cables.
I thought this was still controversial - certainly when I Googled it for myself a while back (after using foam for this purpose), I found some documents suggesting that it could deplasticise PVC, and a picture of some old, hardened, cracked cable that had been extracted from some foam. I can't say I've really worried about it since, though.
Cheers Richard
All foams are not the same, it is polystyrene foam (usually sheet or granules) which leaches the plasticiser from PVC cables, not polyurethane.
Despite that, I've had a BCO get pissy about it.
What was even more remarkable were the jerry built bodges he _didn't_ care about.
A length of heatshrink tubing, polyolefin, should be ok as a sleeving and might even make it easy to replace assuming a simple straight run.
Thanks folks, job done. I realised that even if it did leach the plasticiser, thats only happening where the cable is locked solid in foam.
NT
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