Quonset spray foam insulation in Lacombe is sprayed directly onto the inside of the arch. There are a great many of these buildings on yards around this town, most of them put up decades ago, and the shape itself is the reason foam is the assembly that suits them.
A curved shell with nothing flat to fasten to
Everything about insulating a quonset follows from the geometry. There is no stud, no girt and no flat plane, so there is nothing to fasten a batt to and nothing for a rigid board to sit against without being cut into strips and fitted with a gap behind every piece. A sprayed application does not care about the curve. It goes on in continuous contact with the sheet, follows the corrugation, and leaves nothing behind it for air to move through, which no fitted material can do on this shape.
The end walls are where these buildings actually leak
The arch is usually the sound part. The end walls are framed conventionally, they carry the doors, and they have been altered over the years to fit whatever needed to go in and out. That is where the gaps are: around the door frame, at the junction where the flat end wall meets the curve, and around anything somebody cut through. On a Lacombe quonset the ends are worth as much attention as the whole of the arch.
What is underneath, and whether it was ever sealed
Older quonsets frequently sit on a low concrete curb, or on nothing more than the ground with the sheet turning down to meet it. That bottom edge is a continuous opening running the length of both sides, it is usually hidden behind whatever is stored against the wall, and it undoes a good deal of what the rest of the building does. It gets looked at before anything is quoted, because the fix is cheap and the omission is expensive.
Whether the building is worth doing at all
It is worth asking plainly. Some of these are sound structures with decades left in them and they justify the work. Others have significant corrosion at the base, a sheet that has worked loose, or a foundation that has moved, and on those the money belongs in repair before it belongs in insulation. Foam applied to a shell that needs fixing is money placed on top of a problem, and an honest assessment sometimes ends with a recommendation not to proceed.
Quonset Spray Foam Insulation Lacombe: Common Questions
Why not use batt or board? There is nothing flat to fasten to. On a curve only a sprayed application stays in contact with the sheet.
Where do these buildings leak? The end walls and the bottom edge, far more often than the arch itself.
Is ours worth insulating? That gets assessed first. Where there is corrosion or movement, repair comes before foam.
Size the assembly with the R-value calculator, then get a free Lacombe quote. More on Quonset Spray Foam Insulation Alberta.