The Peace Country uses containers hard, and for two different industries at once. They are oilfield and service-sector storage on lease sites and in yards around the city, and they are farm storage for equipment, parts and chemical out on the land. Shipping container spray foam insulation in Grande Prairie is usually bought to stop the contents of the box being ruined by the box itself.
Distance is part of the problem
A container out on a lease or a quarter section is not somewhere anyone checks daily. Condensation runs down the walls, sits on the floor and works on whatever is stored there for weeks before it is noticed. The failure is slow and expensive rather than dramatic, which is exactly why it gets ignored until something valuable is written off.
Why the steel sweats
Steel has effectively no thermal resistance. When the air inside is warmer and damper than the outside - which happens any time the sun hits the box, any time it is heated, and any time warm equipment goes in - that moisture condenses the moment it touches the cold skin. The remedy is to remove the cold surface, not to cover it up.
Closed cell, directly to the skin
Two pound closed cell is sprayed onto the interior steel with nothing between. There is then no cold surface for interior air to reach, and no cavity behind the insulation for air to circulate in. Batt fails on both counts. Closed cell also acts as its own vapour retarder at the thickness this job needs and stiffens a structure that often gets moved.
What it is being used for around Grande Prairie
- Parts and tool storage in service yards, where the contents are the value.
- Farm storage for equipment and chemical, out where nobody is checking it weekly.
- Site offices and dry shacks on lease sites, occupied and heated, which is the hardest duty.
- Workshops on acreages, heated intermittently through the winter.
Every wall is also the outside
A container has no cavity and no framing to work with, and the steel skin is both the structure and the exterior. Foam applied directly to the inside face is the only assembly that insulates and seals without building a second wall inside and losing the floor space to it.
Shipping Container Spray Foam Insulation Grande Prairie: Common Questions
Everything in my sea can goes damp - is that condensation or a leak? Usually condensation, and the giveaway is water on the walls and ceiling rather than only under a specific spot. A leak drips from one place; condensation wets everything.
Does it need heating afterwards to work? No. It reduces the heat moving through the wall and removes the condensing surface whether or not you heat the box.
Closed cell or open cell? Closed cell, for a container. Open cell is vapour permeable, which is the wrong property against cold steel.
What is used to cover it? Normally drywall or an approved panel. On a Grande Prairie container that thermal barrier is part of the fit-out and is priced with the work.
Estimate your job, then get a free Grande Prairie quote. See closed cell spray foam and spray foam insulation in Grande Prairie.