I could do that! Expanding Foam Filler and Double Glazing

Expanding Foam Filler. You might have seen a tradesman use it, when installing windows, (or a bit of plumbing through a wall). Great! It comes in a can, you spray it. What could be easier? You could easily do that, couldn't you?

And those people who have never done a stick of mechanical or building work, would play one of the dumbest games that London people play. A monkey could do that! Any Sun reader could do that! What's the fuss, and why should I have to pay you any money for it at all! Indeed, I'm so much better than you, I drive a BMW and I'd never ever dirty my hands, but if I had to, doing what you do would be a piece of cake! So lick my ass or I'm not even going to pay you!

Even the use of Expanding Foam Filler has to be learnt as a careful skill. You have to be aware of ambient room temperature and moisture conditions, you have to know how much water with which to spray the substrate and the foam itself. This you have to know to predict how much the foam will expand until it finally sets solid, and therefore determines how much you apply it, how quickly etc. You have to know how close to the surface you place the nozzle, and then the perfect trigger pressure and movement to get a perfectly adhering bead. And all this affects how much foam you get out of a can. You might get 5 times more final expanded foam volume out of a single can when you know how to use it economically.

I was wondering why my window glazing company had been a bit stingy with the foaming around my new windows. ALL window installers in the double-glazing business are self-employed contractors. Even the overpriced ones like Anglian, BAC, or Everest which so wonderfully manage to extract as much money as possible from prissy Chelsea Housewives and the many other varities of precious middle-class snobs, and then successfully give as little as possible of that money to the window installer. No, it mostly all goes to prosperous office managers, salesmen, executives, and owners. So your window installer, being a contractor, has to economize on the amount of expanding foam he uses. Because it isn't cheap, as building materials go, and these guys are not expense-accounted suits who are lunching at a hotel by the M25. They have to pay for most of their own tools and consumables.

GRRR!. Some of the worst aspects of the English class society live on in the hearts and minds of the middle-class people who happily exploit those who do all the work for them, yet constantly refuse to acknowledge it. I really hope their ignorance one day earns them their just desserts.