Barn spray foam insulation in Acheson is acreage work rather than production livestock work. The parcels around the industrial area in Parkland County carry horses far more often than cattle, because this is commuting distance from Edmonton and the land has been divided into the sizes people keep a few animals on. So the barns are small to mid-sized, often with a tack room and a wash stall, stalls along one or both sides, and hay stored overhead or at one end.
A horse barn is a moisture building
Every barn is, but the arrangement in a horse barn makes it obvious. The animals breathe and sweat, the bedding holds urine, a wash stall adds liquid water directly, and hay stored in the same volume gives off moisture steadily as it cures and sits. All of that water enters the air inside a building whose cladding, in January, is within a few degrees of the outdoor temperature. It condenses on the underside of the roof, on the inside of the steel, on nail heads, on hinges and on anything metal, and it does so for months rather than for an afternoon.
What that water actually damages
Not the animals, usually. It damages the building and the tack. Frost forms on the underside of the sheeting through a cold stretch, then melts when the weather turns and comes down as what the owner describes as a leak in a roof with no hole in it. Fasteners and hardware corrode. Leather and blankets in a tack room go mouldy. Hay stored against a condensing surface wets at the edges. A barn owner's first complaint is nearly always the water, not the temperature, and that is the correct instinct about which problem is doing the harm.
Warm is not the objective, and that surprises people
Horses are comfortable at temperatures people are not, and a tightly closed, warm, humid barn is worse for them than a cool dry one. Respiratory health depends on air quality rather than on air temperature. So the aim in a barn like this is not to heat it; it is to remove the cold surfaces that water collects on and to make the ventilation deliberate rather than accidental. Foam on the underside of the roof sheeting does the first part. The second part is a design decision about where air comes in and goes out, and it is the half that gets neglected.
Sealing a barn does not stop it breathing
This worry comes up every time and it deserves a direct answer. An uninsulated barn on an open county parcel is ventilating constantly, through the eaves, the door tracks and every gap in the cladding, at a rate set by the wind rather than by anybody's intention. On a still day it barely ventilates at all; on a windy one it flushes completely. Sealing the shell and ventilating on purpose gives control over both the rate and the path, which is an improvement on both of those conditions, not a loss.
The tack room and the wash stall come first
If the budget is limited, these two spaces are where it goes. The tack room is where the valuable, moisture-sensitive property is and it is small enough to insulate properly for very little, so it can be made genuinely dry even if the rest of the barn is not. The wash stall is the largest single water source in the building, and foam on the ceiling and walls around it removes the condensing surfaces where the vapour concentration is highest. Doing those two first and the roof later is a defensible order on a barn.
Who does the work
Barn spray foam insulation Acheson is quoted, scheduled and sprayed by us. Our own installers are on the job, and the number you are given is the number we stand behind.
Barn Spray Foam Insulation Acheson: Common Questions
Our barn roof drips but there is no hole in it. Why? Because frost forms on the inside of the sheeting during a cold stretch and melts when the weather turns. The water is coming from inside the barn, not from outside.
Should we heat the barn? Generally no. Horses do better cool and dry than warm and humid. The goal is removing condensing surfaces and controlling the air, not raising the temperature.
Will insulating stop the barn ventilating? It stops it ventilating by accident. Right now the wind sets the rate; sealed, you set it, and the air comes in where you want it rather than wherever the building leaks.
How much does barn spray foam insulation cost in Acheson? It is priced per board foot over whatever gets sprayed, so the scope decides it. Doing the tack room and the wash stall alone is a small job; the full roof underside on a stalled barn is a considerably larger one.
How do I choose a barn spray foam contractor in Acheson? Ask what they would do about ventilation after sealing the shell. If sealing is the entire answer, they are solving half the problem.
Size the assembly with the R-value calculator, then get a free Acheson quote. More on Barn Spray Foam Insulation Alberta.