Metal building spray foam insulation in Red Deer runs into a question that rarely comes up on an owner-occupied shop. A great deal of the steel-frame stock along the corridor and through Gasoline Alley is leased, and the person feeling the cold is not the person who owns the envelope.
Who pays for the envelope is the first conversation
A tenant heats the building and sees the bill. A landlord owns the steel, the roof and the walls, and sees a building that is already rented. Neither party is being unreasonable, but the work does not proceed until it is clear who is paying and what happens at the end of the term. It is worth raising early rather than discovering it after a scope has been drawn, because it decides the size of the job more than the building does.
Buildings put up quickly for whoever was moving in
Much of this stock went up fast on a spec basis, insulated to whatever the first tenant needed and no more. A shell that suited a cold storage yard is now a fabrication shop; a building sized for unheated storage now has an office in the corner and a heater running. The envelope was never revised to match, and that mismatch, rather than any defect in the steel, is what usually brings somebody to look at it.
The frame conducts no matter what is between it
Steel moves heat hundreds of times faster than the framing in a house, and in a steel building the frame is continuous from inside to outside. Insulation placed only between the members leaves every purlin and girt as a direct path, which is why those lines show first as frost, then as staining, then as rust on the fasteners. Foam applied to the inside face covers the members themselves instead of stopping at them.
What failing blanket insulation looks like
Vinyl-faced blanket sags between purlins, tears at the fasteners and holds moisture against the steel once the facing is broken. It is the most common existing system in these buildings and the most common reason for a call. It has to come out before anything is sprayed, and that removal is a real line in the scope rather than an afterthought.
Metal Building Spray Foam Insulation Red Deer: Common Questions
We lease the building. Can this still go ahead? It can, and it starts with the owner. Who pays and what happens at the end of the term should be settled before a scope is drawn, which on the leased Red Deer corridor stock is the first conversation rather than the last, because it changes the size of the job.
Why do frost lines show up along the purlins? Because the steel frame is continuous from inside to out. Insulation only between the members leaves the members themselves as a direct thermal path.
Does the old blanket insulation have to come out? Yes, where it is being replaced. Torn facing holds moisture against the steel, and nothing should be sprayed over it.
Is this checked on a retrofit? Yes, and on a retrofit it is easy to miss. The thermal barrier over new foam in a Red Deer building is part of the same scope.
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