Garage spray foam insulation in Drumheller is mostly detached-garage work, because that is what this town's lots have. Housing built for mining families along the valley got a separate garage off the lane, or a later shed converted into one, rather than the attached double that came with subdivision building in the 1990s and after. A free-standing building has no warm neighbour on any side, which changes both the problem and the order of the fix.
The coldest building you own
A detached garage on the valley floor is in the coldest air in the municipality during the hours it matters. Cold air is denser than warm air, so on clear still nights it drains off the prairie above, flows down the coulees and settles on the bottom of the valley, and it sits there until the sun clears the valley wall. The garage has no heat coming through a shared wall, no ground warmth under a slab poured directly on cold earth, and six surfaces exposed. That is why a car left in an unheated garage here can be harder to start than one left in the open on the rim.
The door is most of the loss
Whatever the walls do, the overhead door is the biggest single panel in the building and in the older garages here it is usually a bare steel or wooden door with no insulation at all, hanging in an opening with daylight visible along the bottom and sides. Insulating the walls and ceiling of a garage and leaving that door alone produces a disappointed owner, because the heat goes out through the largest and leakiest surface. The door panel and the weatherstripping around all four edges are a genuine prerequisite, and they are not our work, but we will say so before we quote the rest.
A slab on expansive clay
The valley is cut into bentonitic shale and clay, which swells with moisture and shrinks as it dries. Garage slabs on that ground move, and the typical result is a slab that has lifted or dropped relative to the frame walls sitting on it, opening a gap at the bottom plate. That gap is where the cold comes in and it is where a rigid board stops sealing. Closed-cell foam sprayed along the bottom plate and up the stud bays bonds to both the plate and the sheathing, so it seals the joint rather than bridging it, and it keeps sealing when the slab moves again.
Heating a garage without wetting it
If the garage is going to be heated, even intermittently, the assembly has to handle the moisture that comes with it. A vehicle driven in with snow on it releases a surprising volume of water, and a warm garage holds that water in its air until it finds a cold surface. In a leaky garage it condenses inside the walls where it cannot be seen. Closed-cell at roughly R-6 to R-7 per inch becomes its own vapour retarder past about two inches, which keeps the dew point inside the insulation. If the garage is a workshop with a heater on a thermostat, that detail is what keeps the sheathing dry over a decade.
What we do and in what order
Ceiling first if there is an attic above it, because that is the surface with nothing above it to slow the loss. Then the bottom plate and the wall cavities. Then the man door and the service penetrations. A thermal barrier over exposed foam is required in an attached garage and is a sensible idea in a detached one that will be used as a shop. We quote the job, schedule it and stand behind it, and pricing follows the sprayed area against a target R-value.
Garage Spray Foam Insulation Drumheller: Common Questions
Why is our garage colder than outside in the morning? Because cold air pools on the valley floor overnight and the building has no heat source and no warm neighbour. The slab also holds the cold through the day.
Do we have to deal with the overhead door? If you want the rest of the work to show, yes. It is the largest panel in the building and usually the leakiest edge.
Will a heated garage cause condensation problems? It can, because vehicles bring water in. Closed-cell past about two inches acts as its own vapour retarder, which is what prevents that water ending up inside the wall.
How much does garage spray foam insulation cost in Drumheller? It follows the sprayed area and depth, so a single detached garage is a small job. Whether a thermal barrier is going over the foam, and whether the ceiling is open, are the items that change the number.
How do I choose a garage spray foam contractor in Drumheller? Ask whether the quote mentions the bottom plate and the overhead door. A scope that only lists wall cavities has skipped the two places the cold actually enters.
Size the depth with the R-value calculator, then get a free Drumheller quote. More on Garage Spray Foam Insulation Alberta province-wide.