Self storage spray foam insulation in Picture Butte is bought by operators who have no intention of heating the units, and that is the right decision. The useful thing to understand is that an unheated building is the easier version of this job rather than a compromise, provided the objective is set correctly.
The objective is not temperature, it is dew point
Nothing in a storage unit is damaged by being cold. Furniture, tools, records, equipment and most household contents sit at minus twenty for a winter and come out unchanged. What damages them is water, and in a storage building the water does not come from a leak. It forms on the inside of the roof deck and the inside of the door, and it drips.
Bare steel cladding has almost no thermal mass. On a clear night it radiates to the sky and drops below the air temperature inside the unit, and whatever moisture that air is carrying condenses on it. Then the sun comes up, the sheet warms, and the whole thing dries - except for what has already landed on a cardboard box, a mattress or a toolbox lid. Repeat that through the shoulder seasons and the result is damp contents, mildew and rust, in a building that has never leaked a drop of rain.
Heating the unit would solve it. So would removing the cold surface, and that is achievable without a heater.
Why foam suits an unheated building
Closed-cell foam sprayed to the inside of the cladding replaces a surface that tracks the sky with one that does not. It is adhered, so there is no gap behind it where humid air could reach the steel. It is a poor conductor, so its interior face stays close to the air temperature in the unit. And it seals the laps, the eave line and the door head in the same pass, which stops moist outdoor air being exchanged into the unit every time the pressure changes.
The unit is still unheated. It is simply no longer producing a condensing surface, and that is the entire mechanism. No mechanical equipment, no running cost, nothing for a tenant to leave switched off.
Where to start on an existing site
Most sites here are several buildings of different ages. The order that usually makes sense: the building with the highest-value tenancies first, then whichever building has the worst complaint history, then the rest. Within a building, the roof deck before the walls, because the roof is where the condensation forms and anything that forms there falls on everything underneath.
The doors deserve their own line. A roll-up door is a large uninsulated panel and in most buildings it is also the largest air gap, at the head, the jambs and the floor. Foam does not go on a moving door, but the perimeter around it can be sealed and the header above it can be treated, and that is worth doing in the same visit.
The partitions and the covering requirement
Demising partitions between units are not part of the building envelope and spending on them achieves little. The shell is the envelope. And the foam needs an approved protective covering over it, which on a storage building also has the practical benefit of giving tenants a surface that will not be gouged by the corner of a wardrobe.
Who you are dealing with
We do self storage spray foam insulation Picture Butte ourselves. We scope and quote it, we book it, and our own installers spray it -- one company, one point of contact.
Self Storage Spray Foam Insulation Picture Butte: Common Questions
Our units are not heated. Is insulating them pointless? No. The problem is condensation on the steel, not cold, and foam removes the condensing surface without any heating at all.
Why are contents damp when the roof does not leak? Because the water is forming on the inside of the roof deck overnight and dripping. It is condensation, not rain.
How much does self storage spray foam insulation cost in Picture Butte? Priced per board foot over the sprayed area. Doing the roof deck across a building and leaving the partitions alone is the usual way to keep the scope proportionate.
Best self storage spray foam insulation contractor in Picture Butte? Ask whether they would insulate an unheated building and what they expect it to change. If the answer is about warmth rather than condensation, they have the wrong objective.
Size the assembly with the R-value calculator, then get a free Picture Butte quote. More on Self Storage Spray Foam Insulation Alberta province-wide.