Insulation options for metal buildings?

[phantom309]

Howdy.

Wanting to gather ideas on options for insulating metal buildings. I know that the pro's put up tin over insulation over chicken wire, but I'm confident that that is often used because it's quick, easy and cheap, not because it works particularly well with it being pretty thin at best and squished to nothing between the frame and tin.

Granted, for a "rough" shop, the above would probably be fine. But what if you were going to put up interior walls inside the metal building? If I'm going to go to the trouble to put up 2x4's and sheetrock inside for a living quarters, I want better insulation. I'm thinking of just going with traditional rolls of insulation, but wonder if there are any new options that I should consider.

Spray in? I've seen insulation that will adhere where it is sprayed like on the inside of a Q hut.

What about insulating a garage door? Are the styrofoam blocks worth the trouble of putting them in?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Mark

 

[RCannon]

Go with the highest R-value you can afford??

If you do insulate the garage door, be sure you go to heavier duty springs. The styrofoam will add quite a bit of weight.

 

[DavidJ]

Spray in insulation will be the best. It will fill the voids and seal to the members. Here's a link that showed up in the related link section Foam Insulation.

I know a couple of people that hace had the cellulose material sprayed in and it works wonderfully.

 

[bgott]

I've got a friend that runs a body shop out of a building with sprayed in insulation. It's amusing to watch the temper tantrums when a big chunk of the stuff falls off the ceiling on to a car with a fresh paint job. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif I think I'd pass on the spray on.

 

[Alan L.]

I have living quarters in a metal building. They gave me two choices - either the spray in, which only gives you about 1.5 inches of insulation, or vinyl backed fiberglass. I went with the fiberglass. It is 3.5 inches thick and is installed on the outside of the frame, under the skin. Of course it is pulled together everywhere the skin is screwed into the frame, but it does a good job.

I insulated the living quarters inside again as though there was no insulaton in the building, so it is WELL insulated. The shop building outside the living quarters is always slightly cooler than outside in the summer, and 20 degrees warmer in the winter, with no heat.

The only complain I have is it is somewhat fragile when you hit it with stuff - the vinyl will tear. Plus it seems some of the insulation that has seen some sun with the big doors open is getting a little brittle in only two years, so I'm afraid it might start deteriorating. The stuff that is not in the sun is fine.

Our doors are fully insulated also.

 

[KenNTx]

A neighbor has just put up a building and had the shop area with the foam sprayed on..He didnot have any electric outlets run yet, and it looks like it will be a messy job when he does that..I would elect to go with the fiberglass..

 

[BubbaJr]

I have a metal skinned pole barn, and I went with fibreglass batts. I got 12' long metal spears with 2" square flat metal mounting pads perpendicular to the spike. I screwed these to the 2x4 horizontal framing, then speared the fiberglass over the spikes, stapled the paper on the batts at the top, and also stapled the batts together vertically. Then I ran horizontal 2x4's that covered the spikes and used them to mount the OSB to. This seals the walls up pretty nice. I also installed styrofoam panels above the sidewalls in the attic. This keeps the blown in insulation from settling down the side walls.

My garage door has a styrofoam insulated interior that works pretty good.

I have a friend that has the spray in foam insulation that is about 10 years old. He has chunks missing all over inside that have fallen down over the years. He said it was one of the dumbest moves he ever made to have it put in.

Good luck! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[kc5dlo]

I have a 30 x 50 metal building with my living quarters built inside.
I opted for the sprayed on polyurathane foam insulation for the building itself. It's a closed cell foam and is very durable although more expensive. I stood my stud walls up about an inch from the 6-inch purlins and filled the void with fiberglass bat insulation. That gives me about 10 or 11 inches of insulation on the outside walls. I used 12 inch lamenated beams on the ceiling filled with fiberglass batts.
The whole thing has turned out very energy efficient as it will only get about as high as 82 degrees in house part with the air turned off. Not bad for Texas. Winter temps go down to about 52 degrees.