foam keeps falling off of the walls!

[parlormusic]

I purchased some studio foam on eBay last fall. It came with some cans of "Camie 300" general purpose spray adhesive. I sprayed both the foam and the walls where they were to be stuck to and let the adhesive get tacky before slapping the panels up. Well, it didn't last. Every few days I'd have to re-glue a few panels that had come loose. That was annoying enough, but over the past few weeks practically every foam piece has fallen to the floor!

What brand of spray adhesive do you people recommend? I was going to grab the stuff that Auralex has, but I thought I'd better hear from actual users first.

[nystrec]

The aurlex stuff is pretty expensive and didn't work for me at all. I went to the hardware store and bought some plain old caulk. The same same kind you put around the bathtub for like 2 dollars a tube. When I moved, I had to use a puttyknife to get it off the walls. Worked for me.

[hammertime]

I use a staple gun. You can hardly see the hole when you pull the staple out, and at the very worst, you could cover it with one layer of paint. I had the auralex stuff, and it was a royal pain. It didn't work, and it took a painter a couple of days to scrape it off. They didn't even notice the staples at my last apartment when I pulled them out. Another thing you could do, which I've done, is tie the foam onto old bed sheets with pieces of yarn, and staple the bedsheets to the walls -- great for covering windows. You only have to put a couple of tiny holes in the wall, and you can easily move your foam sheets to another room.

[Cyan421]

used screws most of the time. If it was just loose peice of foam. Better idea to mount it to some 1X2 you get all kinds of better acoustical properties that way. I allways though a naked peice of foam looked really lame i.e CHEAP.

[MASSIVE Mastering]

Another vote for the staple gun.

And lots of bass trapping - But that's for another thread...

[farside]

I used a staple gun. Worked great.

[Professor]

I have had fabulous luck with the Auralex stuff. In most places, particularly for foam bass traps and for mounting the metal spike plates for the fiberglass panels, I used the caulking-gun stuff because it gave me a little more time to work on lining up the material before leaving it to set.
I've also used their aerosol spray adhesive which is fabulous for sticking foam to foam for clean seams, and sticks mercilessly to painted & bare drywall, metal, and even cement. It's just very gooey and sets up pretty quick so be careful.

-Jeremy

[parlormusic]

I guess that I should also explain that 2 of the 4 walls are plaster over brick. Nails and staples have a tough time sinking into the brick. Plus, when the nail is removed, it tends to pull out a chunk of plaster with it.

I may try fastening the foam to plywood panels and hanging the plywood.

[digitaldrummer]

I attached foam to wood like you said to make gobos. Home Depot and the like sell Liquid Nails "foam edition" (or something like that) and it works great. doesn't melt the foam and doesn't fall off either. You actually only need a small suface 3" x 3" or so to mount some picture hanger hooks if you want to hang it on the wall. Or just glue it straight to the wall?

[klangtone]

oh, and by the way. the Auralex Temp Tabs don't work either:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/TempTabs/

That's what I tried at my place. They pretty much all fell off even after putting more on and using more velcro per yellow thing.

I have had success with velcro mounting, however. I first glued a piece of cardboard to the back of the foam. Then I put long strips of 3M velcro on said cardboard, along each edge. Everything done that way has stayed up fine.

Roy

[Matthew Allthetime]

As a renter in an old (pretty pretty plaster) building, I mounted my foam on small pieces of wood and hung them as if they were pictures. Seems to have worked well, and I can take them off the wall and put them somewhere else pretty easily.

I do have a tendency to overbuild, though.

[Albert]

Plywood is going to be extremely heavy if you need large sections. Much better to use something called "gatorboard" (I've sometimes seen it as two words "gator board"). Gatorboard is found at art supply shops and is extremely light yet rigid.

[Hee-man]

You can also thread a string straight through the foam and hang it like a picture frame on a thumb tack.

[stuntbutt]

For direct application to brick or plaster I would use 3M "Super 77" spray adhesive. You can get it at Home Depot/Lowes.

[parlormusic]

Plywood is going to be extremely heavy if you need large sections. Much better to use something called "gatorboard" (I've sometimes seen it as two words "gator board"). Gatorboard is found at art supply shops and is extremely light yet rigid.

I was thinking about luan 1/8" plywood, but I like this idea better.