Need glue that will stick

[Ulophot]

My window blackout covers are insulating board. the thick, light green foam kind, covered with blackout plastic sheeting on the inside. Around the edges, where the board meets the foam edge wrap-around (Frost King gray insulating foam), I have difficulty preventing the sheeting from peeling from the board. I have tried gel superglue, craft glue, Liquid Nails. None of these stays stuck to the plastic; it might as well be Teflon.

One of you will know what kind of glue I need, hopefully something of which I won't have to buy a large amount.

Thank you.

[Roger Thoms]

This is supposed to compatible with foam, might work for your application. https://www.gorillatough.com/product/gorilla-spray-adhesive/

I should have a can in the garage and can test on some styrofoam if you like.

Roger

[Kevin Crisp]

A spray adhesive should work fine. The 3M variety usually works fine. Just use it like contact cement, wait until tacky then put the two materials together.

[Drew Wiley]

If your black sheeting is polyethylene, nothing will stick to it. Guess what kind of plastic containers glues are themselves packaged in, due to its inertness? No Gorilla glue, Super glue, or contact cement will bond it either. A simple test for bondability is to rub some acetone (not alcohol) on your plastic. If it dries without etching or attacking the plastic, glues won't work.

But if it's black velvet studio flocking with a vinyl backing, most "hot solvent" glues are going to attack it so aggressively that the bond might fail. A fast-setting adhesive caulking which is paint thinner cleanup rather than a hot solvent variety would be Lexel. It comes in both clear and white, and is sold in both caulking tubes and smaller squeeze tubes. It works with Styrofoam too.

I was in charge of the tech side of what was then the largest selection of glues and caulking of any retail dealer in the Western half of the US. There were big industrial adhesive dealers for highrise curtainwall construction and expansion joint sealants, or aerospace sealants, who carried more specialized varieties than we did, and held even bigger inventories; but in terms of walk-in, it's doubtful any other retail business in the country had a bigger selection at the time. We also had an industrial & military sales dept, so got familiar with a lot of options.

We were undoubtedly one of the very first places in the world to offer moisture-curing Gorilla glue to woodworkers, which was the only Gorilla product at the time. The samples were given to me personally by their representative, before they could be purchased anywhere. I was the guinea pig for testing all kinds of such things.

I had to resort to Lexel just two weeks ago to quickly glue down a number of asphalt roof shakes before the next severe wind and rain storm hit just eight hours later. Standard roofing products would have been too slow.

[malexand]

I use the foil backed pink insulation foam panels in the window of my darkroom. The foam is easy to cut, deforms easy to mold itself around minor bumps. The foil makes it 100% lightproof. It’s dirt cheap easy to find at any home center.
If you are taking them in and out I’d wrap the edge with foil tape.

[Drew Wiley]

Insulation foam can decompose and create dust if exposed to UV. For window usage, you do want any exposed ends covered.

[Ulophot]

Thanks, all. I'm going to guess the plastic is polyethylene, based on what what said above. Since I would like to stick with what I have, I'll have to see if I can create something that will act as a staple; I doubt this would hold in the foam, but maybe with some Liquid Nails. Alternately, some kind of strip to cover the edge areas from the face of the window frame. I'll chose other materials next time.

[Roger Thoms]

Philip, finally had a chance to investigate the Gorilla Spray Adhesive a little further. The can states that it is for foam, when you read the fine print it says not for styrofoam and to test it for other types of foam before use (it does melt styrofoam:) ). It also states that it’s not recommended for polyethylene, so of course I tried it. The only foam board I have in hand is styrofoam so I used a piece of cardboard for my test. I cut a small piece of plastic sheeting and cardboard roughly 4” x 8” and glued the plastic to the cardboard. I then cut the sample in half and after about 15 minutes pulled the plastic off the cardboard. It took a decent amount of force to remove the plastic and the glue itself separated leaving a layer of glue on both the polyethylene and the cardboard. Tomorrow evening I’ll try tearing the polyethylene off the other half of the sample, want to give it 24 hours to dry. I attached a photo of when I was about halfway through pulling the sample apart. I also did a quick and dirty test with a water based contact adhesive that I had on hand and it didn’t work nearly as well as the Gorilla. When I separated that sample some of the adhesive separated from the polyethylene sheeting and it was much easier to separate than the Gorilla Spray Adhesive. Now in all fairness to the water based adhesive, I didn’t have the proper rolling for applying it and it is also much slower to tack up than a solvent based product so I may not have let it dry long enough before adhering the polyethylene. I also used a piece of styrofoam and it doesn’t harm it at all. I might mess with the water based contact adhesive a little more but it doesn’t look to promising.

Roger

[Duolab123]

I use the foil backed pink insulation foam panels in the window of my darkroom. The foam is easy to cut, deforms easy to mold itself around minor bumps. The foil makes it 100% lightproof. It’s dirt cheap easy to find at any home center.
If you are taking them in and out I’d wrap the edge with foil tape.

This is the way to go. These are most polyurethane or something similar, 3M metal foil tape on cut edges. Foil helps to protect the foam board from the effects of hear and sun on the board. When aged In uv this foam can become quite friable and crumble.

Printing on polyethylene is a engineering marvel involving corona discharge (a little foggy here) have to prepare the surface to accept special ink.

[Ulophot]

I have had the insulation sheets in use for more than five years; so far they are doing fine. One window faces north and gets no direct sun; the other gets it only from late afternoon on. One has nearly an inch-thick gray "sponge foam" (the Frost King stuff) around the edges and has shown few issues with light leaks.The other has only about a 1/4-inch thick border. Sometime soon I will trim latter and install a new foam border, which may also help.

Someone above asked, implicitly, if I take them in and out. Yes. I had a different, permanent solution years ago, which was a big mistake. It's an old house with original windows. Moisture built up and mold grew. I put my new light blocks in only when using the darkroom. On the very cold winter days, moisture is likely to precipitate on the glass overnight and need wiping off.

[jp]

If you have neighbors, a black colored window covering will look like you have a marijuana grow room in the house. I'd probably avoid that attention and have it white on the exterior and cover it with black on the interior.

[Drew Wiley]

Red "Builders Tape" will stick to polyethylene sheeting, and then in turn to something else more cooperative, but it's ugly. Liquid Nails is a cheap neoprene product unsuitable for poly. Contact cements? - what an unnecessary mess.

[Roger Thoms]

Not sure exactly what Red “Builders Tape” is. Is it the same thing a “Stucco Tape”, which is also red and sticks fairly well to poly? The only reason I thought of contact adhesive is because the OP was looking for glue to adhere his plastic sheeting to his foam board.

Roger

[John Kasaian]

I just use a piece of thick cardboard with a flange cut into the edges and jammed into the window frame.
It seems to work well enough.

[Drew Wiley]

Back when I needed to black out a window or two, I made a tight fitting wooden frames with black felt or rubber weatherstripping around it, and held the black poly in place by air stapling wooden strips over that. The whole thing could simply slide inside or the window frame, or be removed, as needed, and was inexpensive to make.

[Ulophot]

If you have neighbors, a black colored window covering will look like you have a marijuana grow room in the house. I'd probably avoid that attention and have it white on the exterior and cover it with black on the interior.

The foam faces out; the black side of the poly sheeting is against the foam, white side facing the room.

Drew, your tape suggestion gave me an idea. I'll have to see if this or something like it will work.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Scotch-1-in-x-1-33-yds-Permanent-Double-Sided-Extreme-Mounting-Tape-414-48/205532219

Cancel that -- I just looked it up further. However, Gorilla tape advertises that it sticks to polyethylene. I have some to experiment with.

[Havoc]

Using alu foil?

[Roger Thoms]

Red "Builders Tape" will stick to polyethylene sheeting, and then in turn to something else more cooperative, but it's ugly. Liquid Nails is a cheap neoprene product unsuitable for poly. Contact cements? - what an unnecessary mess.

Is this the tape you’re thinking of? https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/1480927O/3m-constsruction-seaming-tape-8087cw.pdf

Roger

[Drew Wiley]

The 3M rated version of red tape is the best if you can find it and afford it. Few places actually carry it. Note that it's meant to be used relatively fresh just like masking tape, not after being left on some warehouse shelf several years. Generic brands like Intertape are relatively common in lumberyards and probably in Home Depot too - dunno (I hate big box outlets), and will be about a third the price as 3M, and will probably be sold as red Builders Tape. This kind of red tape product works, but may need to be doubled up for sake of strength. It's thin. By contrast, duct tapes, gaffer's tape, and even Gorilla Tape might stick at first, but will soon fail to reliably cling to polyethylene. In my shop, the Gorilla tape failed in about two months; but at least it's black, thick and strong.

[Paul Ron]

Thanks, all. I'm going to guess the plastic is polyethylene, based on what what said above. Since I would like to stick with what I have, I'll have to see if I can create something that will act as a staple; I doubt this would hold in the foam, but maybe with some Liquid Nails. Alternately, some kind of strip to cover the edge areas from the face of the window frame. I'll chose other materials next time.

use hi lo screws. the threads are larger than normal screws. these screws are used for screwing sheet rock to sheet rock..

there are also a type of screw used to pin insulation to fiberglass insulating boards used in curtain wall construction that have large washers with a countersunk screw also used by roofers to pin insulating boards down.

they come up n all sizes n flavors
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=roof+insulation+fasteners&id=EEFA7AD45D82CE8D0901308B876A928E073EBEA5&form=IQFRBA&first=1

[Willie]

You might try BARGE Infinity cement. Says it will work on vinys, PVC, Polyurthane and other material.
Don't know if it will work for your project. Might contact the maker and see what they say.

[Drew Wiley]

Barge Cement is a classic slow setting flexible shoe glue high in hot solvents - not a good thing to breathe! It's also quite flammable.

[BKP]

Lots of good advice above. What worked for me, was to cut a "door skin" to fit into the window space perfectly but 1/2" longer on the horizontal dimension so it holds itself in tight by the springiness but also notch out a finger access hole in one corner for easy removal. I also have a rubberized fabric made for that purpose years ago. The door skin blocks most of the light, I use the Styrofoam panels, sandwiched between coreplast with a 1x2 furring strip perimeter for other purposes but would work there too. bkp

[Ulophot]

Thanks again, all. I have opted to purchase some more (Frost King) air-conditioner surround foam, which comes as a 40+" length of 2-inch-square foam. I have cut it into four 1"-square lengths and will replace the current, thin foam around the edge of the insulation with this, after trimming the insulation board appropriately.This, as mentioned above, has worked fine with the other window. If still needed, I'll spend for the double-sided tape Drew recommended.