Spray foam insulation in Westlock

Westlock is grain country north of Edmonton, far enough north that the heating season runs long. About 80% of dwellings here were built before 1991, one of the highest shares in the province.

Grain handling and storage

The distinctive building problem in this part of Alberta is stored grain, and it is a moisture problem before it is a temperature one.

Grain carries moisture, and it respires. In a storage structure with a cold roof and a warmer mass of grain below, moisture moves upward through the air and reaches the underside of the deck, where it condenses. That water then falls back onto the top of the grain.

The consequences are not a comfort issue. Wet surface grain spoils, crusts, and can heat.

What matters is that this is driven by air movement and condensation, not by the R-value of the roof. Adding insulation without controlling the air and vapour path can make the deck colder relative to the air reaching it, which does not help.

A continuous air and vapour seal against the deck, so that moist air never contacts cold steel, is the thing that addresses it. Ventilation and aeration still matter and are not replaced by sealing - they work better once the uncontrolled leaks are gone.

If you are insulating storage, tell us what goes in it and whether it is aerated. That determines the specification. See agricultural spray foam and stopping condensation in a metal building.

Shops and machine storage

The other constant is the farm shop. Heated when someone is working in it, left to cool afterwards - the cycling condition that repeatedly loads the air with moisture and then condenses it on the deck as the building cools.

See machine sheds, pole barns and the sweating metal roof fix.

Tell us how the building is heated and how often. A shop warmed daily and one warmed occasionally need different answers, and the occasional one is where mistakes happen.

Houses and farmyards

A long northern heating season changes the economics of sealing. Heat loss accumulates in proportion to how long the temperature difference lasts, so the same leak costs more here than it does further south, and the payback on fixing it is shorter.

Most farmhouses around Westlock have also been added to over the decades, and the junctions between original structure and later additions are where air moves. Foam handles those irregular junctions in a way batt insulation cannot be cut to match.

If the property is off natural gas service and running propane or electric heat, say so - it changes which jobs are worth doing first.

The usual order: attic sealing before depth, then the rim joist, then the crawlspace if floors are cold. Cold floors explains why that last one matters.

What we do

We are a referral service. We do not install. We connect you with vetted installers and check certification, insurance and WCB standing first.

No price without a site visit. Get a quote, and list every building you want looked at - one trip covering three buildings costs less per square foot than three separate visits.