Blue-42! Hut-hut-hike!
The 2014 football season is upon us and in honor of the Green Bay Packers’ pre-season home opener this weekend, now is the perfect time to talk about a major project the organization undertook a few years ago. Yes, believe it or not, there IS a connection between expanded polystyrene (EPS) and America’s favorite sport!
As all Wisconsinites (and most NFL fans) agree, Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin is a special place to play football. So special, in fact, that the stadium has been sold out on a season-ticket basis every season since 1960. So in order to provide more fans with the chance to see games, a two-year expansion project went in effect in 2002. The project aimed to add 11,711 seats to the bowl stadium and you guessed it…. EPS rigid foam insulation was chosen to play a big role in the expansion.
The method used for the expansion was EPS sheathing, one of the most basic and most commonly used applications for rigid insulation in residential and commercial construction. It is commonly used because it helps create an envelope around the structure by covering wall cavities and studs to increase resistance to heat transfer and moisture penetration. Sheathing is used as an interior and exterior insulator, below and above grade, but it can also be used throughout the structure in the roof, floors and ceilings. This design outperforms other competing insulation systems by about 14 percent.
Specifically in the Lambeau Field project, the product that was used was Gold-Wall Insulation Panels. The panels are factory-made with galvanized steel furring strips embedded directly in the product and a polymeric laminate applied to each panel face. The interior insulation work was done in the winters of 2002 and 2003 and the renovated stadium had a grand opening in 2003. In the end, the Gold-Wall Insulation Panels were easier to install than the typical Z-furring process and saved a significant amount of cost savings (about 20-25%) compared to the traditional methods.
So the next time you are lucky enough to see a football game at Lambeau Field, take a closer look at the exterior walls. We can’t guarantee that EPS foam can keep you toasty warm in the frozen tundra, but perhaps notice a little extra warmth when you go for a tasty bratwurst at the concession stand. EPS continues to prove time and time again that it can be used for a variety of different venues, and we are even more honored it was chosen for a special project like Lambeau Field.
Go Pack Go!!
