Barn spray foam insulation in Olds is work on livestock buildings in a district that takes buildings seriously. The questions asked here are better than average and the answers have to be as well.
The hard question, asked here more than elsewhere
Somebody in this district will ask what happens to the moisture after the building is sealed, and they will not accept being told it is handled. It is a fair question and the answer is that sealing a livestock building without designing the ventilation makes it worse, not better, because the animals keep producing moisture and the building has stopped losing it accidentally through gaps. Anybody selling an envelope on a barn without that second half is selling half a job.
What the animals produce and where it has to go
Livestock put a large volume of water into the air every day through breathing and through what is underneath them. In an unsealed barn that leaves through every gap, badly and expensively. In a sealed barn with no plan it condenses on the coldest surface and comes back down onto the bedding, making the bedding wetter and putting more back into the air. The arrangement that works is a sealed insulated roof plane with deliberate continuous ventilation at a low rate.
Heating is almost never the answer
Worth saying because it is what people assume is being proposed. Cattle and horses are comfortable at temperatures people are not, and a heated barn in this climate is generally a wetter one, because warm air holds more moisture and there is nowhere for it to go. Almost every Olds barn that needs work needs the roof plane treated and the ventilation designed, and needs no heat source at all.
What a structure of that age will actually support
Before the envelope there is a structural conversation. A timber-framed barn may have a sound frame and a failing roof, sills gone at ground level, or a foundation that has moved under one corner. Foam on a building needing repair is money placed on top of a problem. On a fair number of these the recommendation is the roof and the sills first, and on some the envelope work is not justified at all. That assessment is worth having on its own, because it tells an owner what the building is going to need over the next decade rather than only what it needs this winter.
Barn Spray Foam Insulation Olds: Common Questions
What happens to the moisture once it is sealed? It has to be designed out with ventilation. Sealing without that makes a barn wetter, not drier.
Should we heat it? Almost never. The animals produce the heat and a heated barn in this climate is usually a wetter one.
What gets checked before any quote? The roof, the sills and the foundation. Repair comes before foam where it is needed.
Size the assembly with the R-value calculator, then get a free Olds quote. More on Barn Spray Foam Insulation Alberta.