Edmonton runs on containers. They sit in industrial yards across the north end and out through Nisku and Acheson as storage, site offices, tool cribs and workshops, and a growing number are being converted into buildings people actually spend the day in. Shipping container spray foam insulation in Edmonton exists because a sealed steel box in this climate has a condensation problem long before it has a comfort problem.
The sweat is the real enemy
Steel has effectively no thermal resistance. When the inside of a container is warmer and damper than the outside - which is most of an Edmonton winter the moment anyone works in it or runs a heater - the moisture in that air condenses the instant it touches the cold steel skin. It runs down the walls, pools on the floor and rusts the box from the inside. That is not a comfort issue. That is the container failing.
Why closed cell and why sprayed directly to the steel
Two pound closed cell is sprayed straight onto the interior steel so there is no gap between the foam and the skin. That is the whole trick: eliminate the cold surface that warm air can reach. Batt cannot do it, because batt sits in front of the steel rather than bonded to it, leaves a cavity for air to circulate behind, and does nothing about the corrugations. Closed cell also adds structural stiffness and acts as its own vapour retarder at the thicknesses used here.
What Edmonton's winter does to the maths
The deeper the cold, the larger the temperature difference across that steel wall, and the more aggressively it will sweat whenever the interior is heated. A container used for cold storage only, never heated and never occupied, sweats far less than one somebody works in for eight hours a day. Tell us which you have, because it changes the specification.
Corrugations are why foam suits the job
A container wall is not flat. It is a series of ridges, and every rigid board or batt product either bridges them - leaving air channels behind the insulation - or has to be furred out at real cost in labour and interior space. Spray foam conforms to the profile and bonds to it, which is why it is the standard answer rather than a premium one.
Shipping Container Spray Foam Insulation Edmonton: Common Questions
Will this stop my container dripping in winter? That is the main reason people call. Foam bonded directly to the steel removes the cold surface the moisture was condensing on.
Inside or outside? Inside is far more common and costs less. It does take up some interior width. Exterior application needs cladding over it, because foam degrades in sunlight.
How much room does it cost me? Some, at the thickness the job needs. On a container being used as a workshop or office that trade is usually worth making. On pure storage it may not be, and we will say so.
Is storage treated differently from an office? It is. An Edmonton container used only for storage may not need a thermal barrier, but one with staff in it does.
Estimate your job, then get a free Edmonton quote. See closed cell spray foam and spray foam insulation in Edmonton.