Hail is a fact of life on this side of the province, and it changes the arch conversation in two directions at once. Quonset spray foam insulation in Calgary makes a building dramatically more pleasant to be in during a storm and simultaneously makes the shell harder to inspect afterwards. Both of those are true, and a contractor who only mentions the first one is not giving you the whole picture.
What foam does during a hailstorm
It damps the panel. A bare arch under hail is close to unusable and can be genuinely alarming; the same building with foam bonded to the inside face is a different experience entirely, because the steel can no longer ring freely. That is a real benefit in a place that gets hit as regularly as this one does, and it is often what people notice first.
What foam does not do
It does not make the steel stronger and it will not stop hail denting or perforating the shell. The impact happens on the outside and the material is on the inside. Anyone implying that insulation is impact protection is selling something the physics does not support.
The trade-off worth knowing before you commit
On a bare arch, a puncture or a failing seam usually announces itself, because light comes through and water arrives inside where you can see it. Once the inside face is foamed, a breach in the steel is hidden. Water can enter, travel between the foam and the shell, and show up somewhere else entirely or not at all until it has been going on for a while. That is not a reason to avoid the work. It is a reason to inspect the outside of the building after a significant storm rather than waiting for the inside to tell you.
Fix the shell before covering it
Anything already damaged should be repaired before the foam goes on rather than after. The same applies to active rust, which continues underneath and does not bond properly in the first place. A shell that gets sorted first is a building that stays sorted; one that gets covered while it is failing is a problem deferred at some expense.
Why a curve rules out batt and board
There are no stud bays and no flat planes. Batt has nothing to sit in, and rigid board cannot lie against a curve without leaving voids behind it - and a void against cold steel is where condensation collects, out of sight. Foam follows the arch and bonds to it, so it is the insulation and the air barrier in one pass. It goes onto clean, dry steel.
Quonset Spray Foam Insulation Calgary: Common Questions
Will foam protect my quonset from hail? No. It damps the noise considerably and makes the building far better to be in, which counts for something in Calgary where hail is a routine part of the summer, but the impact is on the outside and the material is on the inside.
Does insulating make damage harder to spot? Yes, and that is worth knowing. Inspect the outside after a serious storm rather than waiting for water to appear inside.
Should existing damage be repaired first? Always. Covering a damaged or corroding shell defers the problem and the foam will not bond properly to it anyway.
Estimate the thickness with the R-value calculator, then get a free Calgary quote. More on Quonset Spray Foam Insulation Alberta province-wide.