The post-frame buildings going up on the acreages around this town are frequently doing two jobs under one roof. There is a large open bay nobody intends to heat, used as a riding arena, a hay store or indoor turnout, and a smaller enclosed bay at one end that is a shop, a tack room or a workshop. The temptation is to quote the building. The correct job is nearly always the wall between the two halves, and that wall is usually not on any drawing.
The partition that was never designed as an exterior wall
Where the heated bay meets the open bay, there is a partition. On most of these buildings it is a sheet of steel or plywood screwed to the posts, and it is treated as a divider rather than as part of the envelope. It is in fact the largest exterior wall of the heated space, because the air on the other side of it is at outdoor temperature.
Sealing and insulating that partition properly, with closed-cell adhered to the posts and the sheeting and taken all the way up to the roof plane, turns a shop that cannot be heated into one that can. Leaving it as it is means the heated bay is open to the volume of the arena through the gap at the top of the partition, and heating the shop means heating the arena.
The gap at the top is the thing to look at. On a post-frame building the partition commonly stops at the bottom of the trusses and the space above it is wide open. That single opening defeats everything else.
The open bay, and why insulating it is not the answer
An arena or a hay bay will not be heated and does not need to be insulated for warmth. There is one reason to touch it: the underside of the roof. In a building with a sand floor that gets watered, or with hay stored in it, moisture rises and condenses on the cold steel overhead, and it drips. On sand that makes a hard, patchy surface. On hay it makes spoilage.
A sprayed layer on the underside of the roof deck of the open bay is a thermal break that stops the deck going below the air temperature on a clear night. It is not insulating a heated space, it is removing a condensing surface, and it is quoted as a roof plane rather than as a building.
Post-frame geometry does not suit anything cut to size
The structure is posts at wide centres with girts running between them, and the cladding screwed to the girts. There is no uniform cavity. A batt cut for a stud wall does not fit, and a board leaves a void behind it at every girt. Foam sprayed to the inside face follows the whole irregular surface, bonds across the girts rather than being interrupted by them, and seals the laps and fastener lines in the same pass.
The bottom of the wall and the posts in the ground
The lowest part of a post-frame wall is where the cladding meets grade, and on most of these buildings there is a gap, a skirt board that has shrunk, or a line of light. That is the biggest single air leak in the heated bay and it is at floor level where it is most felt. It is also where rodents come in.
Foam at the base of the wall, taken down to the slab or the skirt and sealed against it, is a small item with a large result. Where the posts are in the ground, the foam is terminated above grade with the detail decided in advance rather than improvised at the end of the day.
Who quotes it and who sprays it
You are dealing with the contractor directly on pole barn spray foam insulation Coaldale. We quote the job, we schedule it, and our own installers do the work.
Pole Barn Spray Foam Insulation Coaldale: Common Questions
We heat the shop end and it never holds. Why? Because the partition to the open bay usually stops at the trusses and the space above it is open. You are heating the arena through that gap.
Should the arena be insulated? Not for warmth. The underside of the roof is worth doing to stop condensation dripping on sand or hay, and that is a different and much smaller scope.
Why not batts in a post-frame wall? There is no uniform cavity to put them in. Girts interrupt the plane and anything cut to size leaves voids behind it at every one.
How much does pole barn spray foam insulation cost in Coaldale? It is priced per board foot over the sprayed area, so the partition, the heated bay and the open bay roof are three separate scopes with three separate numbers. Most owners buy them in that order.
How do I choose a pole barn spray foam contractor in Coaldale? Ask them where the heated bay's exterior walls are. If the answer does not include the partition and the space above it, they have not understood the building.
Size the assembly with the R-value calculator, then get a free Coaldale quote. More on Pole Barn Spray Foam Insulation Alberta province-wide.