New Styrofoam Fiberglass/Epoxy Coated Martin House

[Bernie Nikolai]

As some may remember, last year I experimented with styrofoam houses, and learned the martins found them extremely attractive. At one of my sites, 5 of 10 compartments were used, and some pairs fledged 6 young. This is pretty good for a new house and a new site up north here in Alberta. I also made some styrofoam chalets and sent them for testing to friends in Texas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee last year. Also a friend in Texas built an experimental styrofoam house with 6 compartments. The bottom line was 5 of the 6 styrofoam chalets were used and fledged martins, and 5 of the 6 units in the apartment house were used, and also fledged martins. So the styrofoam houses work as well in the blazing heat of the south as they do in the cold of prairie Canada.

Last year I glued vinyl house siding on the outside, which works, but is a real pain. You need to clamp the siding on the styrofoam for 12 hours while the ppca adhesive sets. Plus the siding is surprisingly heavy, and more than doubles the weight of the house.

So this year I applied fiberglass cloth and epoxy to the inside and outside of my 2006 model. This doesn't add any weight, yet gives a very, very tough and hard coating to the inside and outside. I'm confident no amount of hail would harm the house, and no bird inside could peck through or scratch through the floor or inside walls. This fiberglass cloth/epoxy coating is so tough, I think you could shoot at the house with a BB gun, and the BBs would just bounce off. Plus it is totally waterproof, and very durable as it has been used on boat hulls for decades.

You can buy the epoxy (you mix part A and part B together, easy as you just pump each can, similar to using a pump to get soap out of a soap container) and the cloth at a boat kit sales place. Just look in the Yellow Pages in your area under "boat manufacturers" or "boat repairs" or "boat kit manufacturers". For a tutorial on how to use epoxy, just do a search on "West System Epoxy" and view their web pages.

The advantages are that the entire 10 unit house only weighs 7 1/2 lbs, yet is as sturdy as wood in my opinion with the coating. The insulation of the Dow blueboard is rated as R5, or as good as 5 solid inches of cedar. The inside compartments are very large, great for the birds, about 8"x13". And the only tools you need are a straight edge yardstick, a box cutter knife, ppca adhesive, and scissors and a paintbrush to apply the epoxy and cut the cloth to size. You don't need a winch, just a pulley at the top of the pole and some arm power, as the house is so light. Lastly it is very inexpensive to build. I spent about $20 for the styrofoam, perhaps $10 for the fiberglass cloth, and maybe $20 worth of epoxy.

You absolute MUST use SREH or else you will get instant starling problems with these houses. Don't worry one second about not being able to attract martins with a 100% SREH house. Alberta martins EASILY scooted into them, and actually chose them OVER round holes at one of my test sites. And if martins easily use SREH up here, on the extreme northwest part of their range, they will surely use these entrances everywhere else.

I think styrofoam houses, with the epoxy/fiberglass coating inside and outside, have now "come of age", and offer a lot of advantages to the martins. While currently only a "build your own" project, I'd guess it won't be too long before they are commercially available. I have found the Dow blueboard to be the best, but the pink sheets made by Owens Corning will work just fine, expecially with the coatings. If you have the time and inclination, build one. You won't be disappointed.

[Guest]

Really nice. How do you do nest checks? This would work well down here in south Louisiana. I am going to give this a shot. I noticed last year my martins were Really hot even with all the ventilation holes. Great Job Bernie, Ken.

[Bernie Nikolai]

Thanks Ken. You have a couple of choices in building the house with regards to nest checks. In the house in the photo, the top two compartments in the roof are accessed via the S&K access ports. The bottom two levels separate, so you look down on all 4 compartments at once. You could easily glue the levels together, and access the bottom 8 compartments by adding more access ports as in the roof.

The advantage of the separating levels is you can add an insert box trap for sparrows. However, if you go the access port route, you can just rip out the sparrow nest, bait a ST-1 double trap with the nest and mount it on the martin pole under the house. Within one hour you will usually catch both the male and female sparrow, as they try to remake the nest using the same material you just removed. The PMCA sells these traps in the "PMCA shop" section, as well as the access ports and the WDC entrances used in the house.

[Joe Zorn]

Good Idea, Bernie. South Louisian could sure use some relief from the heat.

If the two bottom compartments are seperate, how are they held together on the pole?

Joe

[John Miller]

Bernie

Many folks who have tried various styrofoam housnig techniques say "martins love styrofoam." I've insulated interior walls of several aluminum houses with thin sheets, even unpainted pink martins readily used it.

With your idea for epoxy on the walls will get more styrofoam up in the air!

John Miller

[jonkertb]

Well, Bernie, Looks good.....I"m just finishing up a T 16 that I've made from heavy gauge flashing and it's taken a ton of pop rivets and time. The swing up doors took as long as the rest of the house!

I've always enjoyed your posts and experiments.....good thing we don't live too close together....nothing else would get done around the house as we tried new ideas!!

I like your styro home.....what are the floor outside dimensions??

as for the fiberglass/epoxy coating....I've considered going to a friend who does Scorpion truck bed spray liners and just have a thin coat put over it so as to not raise the weight too much but that stuff is pretty tough and it has the advantage of being a little flexible.

Well, hope to get closer to finished on mine today...going out on a search mission for the pole....trying to find some 2" square tubing.

Tom....anxious but patient in Indiana

[Bernie Nikolai]

Joe, there is an eye bolt coming out of the bottom of the house, epoxied into about a 2" square of epoxy. This is where you attach the rope to pull the house up. A great pole system is a 16 foot 4"x4" pressure treated post ($20 up here) mounted with two 1/2" bolts onto a 6 ft, 6"x4" post sunk about 3 ft. into the ground. With a 8" post hole digger, one bag of instant cement has the base post firmly installed in 20 minutes, or you can cram gravel down the hole and around the base post.

So you mount the 16 ft. post a foot up on the base post with the two bolts. You now have a "tilting pole" when you remove one of the bolts. The top of the 16 ft. post has a plastic pulley installed in the very top into a groove you can cut with a chain saw or other saw, and attached with a bolt through it. So the top of the pole where the pulley is, is now about 17 ft. off the ground. The top of the 16 foot post has a cap on it, about 6"x6". You just pull the house to the top, the cap is snug against the "chimney" of the house, and the rope on the bottom snugs the entire house nicely, no problem at all. And this post system is very strong, easily able to hold up heavy wooden houses in a strong wind. I've enclosed a photo of the "2005 Model" styrofoam house with the vinyl house siding on, which may give you idea. This year's model doesn't have the peaked roof, which makes it a lot easier to snug to the top.

Tom, I get the 1" thick Dow styrofoam sheets at a Canadian big box store called "Rona". It comes in 2'x8' sheets. I have it cut into 4 sheets of 2ft by 2 ft. , so this is the outside dimension of the bottom. I just cut a 2'x2' sheet with a box cutter knife and straight edge into four, 6" boards of foam for the walls. Once the ppca dries, the foam rips first before the walls come off, ppca is that good of an adhesive! Plus once the fiberglass cloth/epoxy is on the walls inside and outside, the house becomes about as sturdy as a wooden house.

Oh and your good idea about trying truck bed liner on styrofoam won't work, I've already tried it. It "eats" the styrofoam and dissolves it. Of all the experimental coatings I've tried, epoxy and cloth is by far the best. The epoxy has no noticeable fumes or smell, does not irritate the skin (although wear those disposable medical gloves anyway), and can be applied with a roller or brush, just like paint.

[Guest]

Has anyone tried to make a T14 out of styrofoam?

Just velcro the front panels on it.

Does using a saw give you squarer corners to work with?

Thanks

[Guest]

WHAT DID YOU USE TO " GLUE " THE PARTS IN PLACE PRIOR TO GLASSING IT OVER?

I LIKE THIS IDEA AND WILL BE USING IT TO MAKE A NEW BOX TO REPLACE THE PIECE OF CRAP HEATH HOUSE I CURRENTLY HAVE UP.

DID YOU GLASS ALL INSIDE SURFACES OR DID YOU LEAVE SOME UNFINISHED?

YOUR IDEA SEEMS TO BE A GREAT ONE TO ME!
THANKS

C.D.

[Bernie Nikolai]

CD, The glue I used to put the house together before the fiberglass cloth/epoxy is called ppca (polyurethane premium construction adhesive) It comes in a tube like silicone, is brown in colour, and costs $3.97 a tube for the best quality "premium" kind up here. Its available in any big box store in the country. If you do a search on the forum on "ppca" you will get lots of information about it. Its really good stuff to use on styrofoam, just don't get any on your hands (I wear those disposable medical gloves). If you do, you can't get it off for 3 days, and your fingers will look like you just overhauled a carburator and forgot to wash. And yes, I applied the cloth/epoxy to the entire inside, but the most important part would be the floor, especially under the nest area.

Min Martin Gal, yes, you could use a table saw and get nice square corners on the cut styrofoam. Since I don't have one, I just cut the foam with a box cutter knife. You make about 4 cuts, each one in the same channel, and a bit deeper each time, to cut through 1" foam. If you try to cut through all in one pass, you tend to "snag" the foam. If you are careful, it is possible to get a pretty straight cut with a box cutter knife.

I haven't tried to build a T-14 with styrofoam as I believe the design is inferior to the one I am working with that scatters the entraces around the house. I know many folks do well with a T-14 and some have a full house in rich martin country. But up here we only seem to be able to fill up a T-14 perhaps 60%, vrs 100% with the design in my photo. I think this is because you get a zealous male martin who will protect "his tower" on a T-14, and not allow others to nest in "his tower", even if you try to stagger the entrances as much as possible in the towers. I'm not at all knocking the T-14 as its a very good house. Its just that up here you won't get one filled up 100% in the same way you can with the "one entrance per side with each level staggered" kind of design as per the photo.

[Guest]

Bernie once again you are on to something. I noticed last year even with porch dividers the males would fight to keep others out of the other compartments on that side of the houses. Eventually they gave up and the other martins did set up shop. Still staggering the entrances makes good sense, Ken.

[jonkertb]

Bernie,
Two thoughts.....
Do you think the fiberglass should have some kind of UV blocker to keep the sun from destroying it and the styro board??? maybe some other chemists can give us a heads up on that....

Do you think a vertical divider down each exterior side to "block the view" from each entrance would help further in male dominance??

engineering in the hear for the "next one"
tom (finishing up a t16)

[Guest]

Bernie,

This is great. I believe the West System Epoxy is UV protected. I used this system, to build and restore white water canoes. The West System can be pigmented, to eliminate painting.

I would think four ounce glass material would be enough. That's all we put on stripper built canoes.

I would be a little careful suggesting BB's would not hurt the house. Guarantee anyone my better quality gun at 900 FPS will shoot BB's or pellets through the house. Better quality BB Guns shoot at the lower end of 22 cal. rifle ammo power.

Your posts need, to be cleaned up and archived as an option for home builders. That's my opinion.

[~Patrick~]

Very nice house! Exactly what kind of styrofoam is used? What name is it marketed under and is it readily available at home improvement stores? Thanks in advance for any further info.

Patrick

[Bernie Nikolai]

Tom, the epoxy can have a uv blocker added. However, the technical advisors at West System told me the very best uv blocker is simply to cover the dried cloth/epoxy with a good paint, which offers excellent uv protection to both the styrofoam and the epoxy covering. I use Behr Premium Plus Acrylic Latex, the premium house brand from Home Depot. The technical advisors told me epoxy is an excellent base for latex paint, so good they didn't think I needed any primer, just a light quick sanding before painting. They said oil based paint isn't quite as good at covering over epoxy.

Regarding the vertical divider to help stop male domination, this might help. But the very odd male can be very pretty protective. Even a 3 or 4" porch around each level doesn't help, as all they do is perch on the edge of the porch, giving them a great view of the compartment above and below. This is why gourds or chalet houses on racks work so well. Martins love to be close, but not "too close" when they are nesting. So for an apartment style house, the "one entrance per side with each level staggered" is the very best I've come across so far.

Its not uncommon to have a full house of 12 for 12 pairs of martins using this design. The Buskas Northstar, made here by Bob Buskas in Alberta, uses this design and is hugely successful in attracting martins in a tough area without a big population of martins. And Bob ONLY uses SREH entrances, and the martins have no problem at all starting new colonies in his houses. Up here round holes need to go the way of the dodo bird. Unless you are retired, and can sit on your deck all day with a pellet gun, you will certainly be plagued with starling pair after starling pair attempting to nest in large compartment wooden or styrofoam housing if they have round entrance holes. This is ESPECIALLY true if you are trying to start a new colony. With a large colony, round holes can work, even up here, as the martins themselves discourage and harass starlings, enough to partially discourage them from nesting (long enough to get off a shot or have the starlings enter a Controller Trap) But all in all, from what I have seen up here, SREH is the ONLY way to go.

Docgipe, while you can add white pigment to the epoxy, they told me the end product tends to "yellow" in the sun after a few years. They suggested a couple of coats of latex paint as being the best uv protector over the long term. And you are right, I may have been a bit over enthusiastic suggesting a BB will bounce off. I think one of those cheap spring loaded BB guns will bounce off, but not the more high powered stuff.

But if we REALLY want to get carried away, we could coat the houses with Kevlar fibers, the same used in police bullet proof vests. I'm not sure how many folks would want a "bullet proof styrofoam martin house", but I suppose if you are a lousy shot, but enjoy shooting starlings and sparrows with your gun and want to avoid pock-marking your house, this would be the ticket

[Guest]

Point well made, on latex painting instead, of coloring the epoxy, with an additive. All epoxy will yellow, in time. My canoe experience is, on an item, that does not stand out, in the sun all 7/24.

I am a newbee. If my rather elaborate offering is not accepted this year I shall have your box offered next year to add to the attraction. We are in a perceived martin scarce area. Not sure about that claim but there are no known active colonies anywhere near me.

I am most appreciative, of all the folks, that chat here and who have created the almost endless archives.

[Bernie Nikolai]

Exactly what kind of styrofoam is used? What name is it marketed under and is it readily available at home improvement stores? Thanks in advance for any further info.

Patrick

Patrick, foam insulation sheets of 1/2'" to 2" thick are commonly available at any big box store or home improvement/construction store. Usually they are 2 ft. x 8 ft. sheets, but can be other sizes as well. The key to look for is the COMPRESSION of the foam. For example, the foam that comes in a cardboard box that holds in a new tv or stereo is usually low compression, one or two lbs. per square inch. This means that a two lb. weight applied over a square inch of this foam would dint it inwards.

The blue coloured styrofoam sheets I have found best are made by Dow. The other main styrofoam sheet commonly in the stores is pink and made by Owens Corning. Both will work well with the epoxy/cloth inside and out, but if you have a choice, I'd suggest the Dow product, as it is 15 lbs per square inch in compression resistance, or about 7 to 15 times tougher to dent than the white foam that you can crumble with your fingers. The pink foam is almost as good, and should be no problem to use. You can use either 1/2" thick foam, or 1" thick foam, the thickness I have experimented with.

I'm also experimenting this year with a 4 unit, 2 lb. low compression foam house with fiberglass cloth/epoxy on it. Will it still be tough enough? I'd guess "yes", but I'd still suggest using the highest compression foam you can find. The main thing is how the foam with the coating will hold up in a very severe hailstorm. Since even natural gourds are blasted away in a really bad hailstorm, perhaps my standards are too high, but we'll see.

Since these styrofoam houses are still experimental, I'd sure like to see a lot of other folks try them this year, and report back the good, the bad, the successes, and the failures. And lastly you don't need to get fiberglass cloth if you don't want to, although this has proven to be the best for boat applications over the decades. The technical support folks told me for a birdhouse application, ANY cloth, even an old tee shirt cut to size, will work to hold the epoxy and form a very hard protective layer.

[Joe Zorn]

Bernie,
I've been watching this discussion with interest, and something struck a cord for me from the first.

Are you familiar with that Radiant Barrier material that is sold to reflect the Radiant heat from a home? It became well know in the 80's, and several companies were selling their highly reflective aluminum foil-like product to be used in the attics over the standard insulation, on outside walls during construction of a home, over the Celotex (black) materials that they used to use then. These days, they use that styrofoam material that you talk about.

But at those Big Box stores, they sell an aluminum foil covered styrofoam (Both sides, which in not necessary), in 4 x 8 sheets. It's the only size I saw of any type at my store.

The idea of a Radiant Barrier is to reflect the Radiant heat that goes right through the wooden building materials, as well as even the Pink attic and wall R-factor stuff. Radiant energy then heats up the Items in you home, such as your furniture, walls, floors, etc, creating even more heat in your home. The more reflective the RB is the better it works. The color white acts as a RB to a large extent, but not like shiny aluminum foil. A good RB really does work, and save home owners hundreds $ a year in heating and AC bills. That stuff keeps Radiant Heat out, but also keeps Radiant heat in. In the winter, you lose much less of your home's heat that you paid the oil companies for.

I went by the HDepot today, and saw they do have that foil covered styrofoam material in 1/2", and that it's a dollar or so cheaper than the pink styrofoam. They only had the 4 x 8 size, in any color or Brand at my store here in Baton Rouge.

I am certain it would have great results in your project, but wonder about glueing and painting it. It would be just like putting glue or paint on Reynolds Wrap. Would your PPCA do the job for you?

Just a thought.

Joe

[rickluc]

Bernie
Just wondering if the birds scratch or pick at this material? I know its pretty soft. Is it OK for the birds to ingest this material? Thanks

[Guest]

Bernie,

The wheels are turning. I am very interested. I do not see or understand the bottom hook up for the up lift support. Can you picture this functional design?