Pole barn insulation advice

[scesnick]

I just finished building a 30x40x10 pole building. I decided to insulate it before I had it built. I used the bubble foil (poly,bubble,bubble foil) It is called Ultrafoil. It was much easier to insulate while it was being built. Just staple the bubble foil on and throw the metal right over it. all you need is a little longer screws. It cost me $1,100 more to insulate but that isn't too bad and it has an R-10 value. Not bad for such thin material.
i guess it would be possible to retro insulate it with the bubble foil. It is really easy to work with.

 

[TwinWillows]

We're nearing the end of building our new barn - 40x48x12-24tall. We put the "double bubble" foil insulation down before we laid the roof metal - used the washer nails to hold it in place before the metal went down. They have a special foil tape we used to seal the seams.

It was easy to work with - after the fact we decided to insulate the walls. That was a little harder but not much although we wish we'd done it before putting the metal siding on.

 

[jwstewar]

I'm not really going to give you advice one way or the other, I'm just going to say what I did. Don't know if it was right or wrong, just what I did. I just built a 30x48x10. You can see it here: Jim's Pole Barn Project - hopefully . When I got ready to pour the floor last summer money was starting to get pretty tight. I wanted some type of insulation on the floor and really wanted 2", but didn't have $1000. I did manage to scrape up about $450 and put down the 1". Is it as good as 2"? Probably not, but it was better than none. I know when we poured the floor it sure did send the heat up into the garage. At this point that is the only insulation I have. None in the walls or ceiling (and open ceiling at that with ridge vent) and even when it was down to 20 degrees here in Dec. I was able to go out with my little heater and do some work on the car. Was cold, but better than outside. I'm hoping this summer to be able to enclose the ceiling and use either traditional fiberglass or use the blown in. FWIW, I put the vapor barrier down, then insulation, and then finally the reinforcement wire. Again, right or wrong, I don't know, but that is what I did. So far the floor hasn't cracked. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[rswyan]

As of mid-December our barn was up. The slab will not been poured until later this spring when I can be sure of no freezing problems.

However in order to keep things moving along I'm going to stud in the walls (24" o.c) inbetween the poles and inbetween the trusses (16" o.c.) for the ceiling now.

The plan is to use R19 pink fiberglass (kraft-faced) for the walls and then put up 4 or 6 mil visquine on the interior as a vapor barrier. The cost of the insulation for the walls will be around $1000 for 42' x 72' building with two mandoors and three 12' x 10' overhead doors.

I plan on using 7/16 OSB as a wall covering, not sure what I will use as a covering on the ceiling .... I'd prefer not to use drywall ... but it may be the most economical. Probably use cellulose or fiberglass for the ceiling insulation.

 

[Cord]

In a wall installation, the vapor barrier needs to go on the warm side of the insulation. The warm side will depend on your climate. If you spend more time heating than cooling, then the warm side is on the inside. You can put the vapor barrier on the outside if you spend more time cooling than heating. Because the concrete slab doesn't care if there is condensation inside of it, you can put the vapor barrier above or below the insulation. It doesn't matter. Typically in Wisconsin we'll use 2" of insulation. Because you are not going to continuously heat your building, I'd reduce the insulation down to 1". This will help break the slab from the earth so you don't have to heat the entire world. The quickest and easiest way that I've seen to insulate a metal building is with metal. You install metal panel inside of the building. You then blow insulation into the cavity. It goes super quick and the blown insulation is cheaper than batt. The advantage of the metal panels is that they do not combust. The spray foam insulation is highly combustable and will generate a large amount of smoke. This is not a good product to use around sparks. If you will grind, weld or use a torch in your building, then don't use the spray foam.

 

[Darren]

Another option is to use the spray-on insulation. You can purchase the materials yourself and avoid a contractor. You can do as much or as little to make use of available funds. That allows you to start with the roof to avoid the drips associated with metal sided structures. As you have money available you can add to the thickness to get a higher R value.

You can even get fire-rated spray-on insulation.

 

[rvaitor]

Where do you find information on this - I have that in a 20 year old hanger and it is flaking off and leaves a dusting on my plane - bugs me to death. I've heard there are newer technologies that don't do this.

Thanks

 

[Heath568]

The company offered to roll out the thin radiant barrier but wanted way to much of a premium for the product that I could not see before they built the barn.

I had heard different things about the varied quality of radiant barriers, so I opted to wait. I do wish I could have added my own choice of barrier. But it was 10 degrees when they built and the winds were over 10MPH the entire time.

I'm leaning back to the radiant now with all the good tips.

Thanks guys....

Heath

 

[PineRidge]

This looks like an interesting solution for ceiling insulation TekFoil

 

[Darren]

Here's the info on the spray-on insulation.

http://www.fomo.com/