Dirty Metal Building Insulation; Can it be cleaned?

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

I am looking at the purchase of a large metal building that has the "white-plastic lined" insulation sandwiched between the purlins and the exterior sheetmetal. The former auto repair building is about 15 years old and the insulation is very dirty & grimey where the insides now just looks dingy & dark. The walls are 16' tall, and the the length of the building is 150' and the width is 80'.

Needless to say, this will likely be a major undertaking with any direction I go but what are some options that would give me the 'best bang for the buck' as far as a fresh(er) looking interior?

TIA!

 

[sailcat]

I like that '57 you have in your shop right now.

 

[jimindm]

The machine shop I use has a metal finish inside. Same kind of metal you would see on the exterior of any metal building. The current owner bought it about 6 years ago. Last summer he started to wipe down the inside walls. The walls wiped down pretty easy. Basicly used a mop and soapy water solution. The ceiling was a whole nother story. Nothing like the walls at all. I think he used super clean at full strength, and elbow grease. Literally had to wipe every part of the ceiling by hand. In the beginning, he joked about just replacing the metal on the ceiling. A little more than half way through the job, it was not a joke anymore.

I do not know what the differnce was between the ceiling and the walls. It was the same material. Even in the corners, the ceiling required work to come clean. The wall would just come clean with the lightest of work.

 

[Red Goat]

I bought a building that looked like this several years ago and tried to clean some of it. It becomes brittle and does not clean well. I ended up spraying it with white paint. Probably not the perfect solution, but it looked MUCH better and was pretty inexpensive.

 

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

I like that '57 you have in your shop right now.

It would nice in your new shop!!



Thanks for the thoughts everyone. We'll see what the future holds for this. Kinda on the fence whether to buy or build.