Insulating a old barn/workshop build?

[Tedious]

So I'm looking at a place with a barn and barn-aged garage, the plan would be to turn one or both into workshops both have wood in pretty bad shape for the bottom foot or so of the structure (pic attached below)


We're in NY so the main concern is heat, it doesn't need to be perfect, I just need wind to not whip through the building, and for my tools to not rust
I would "like" to have some of the beams and such exposed, because its cool, but not necessary,

The plan was:
Since the outer hull of the barn isn't solid, I was thinking of screwing some 1x2 or so wood spacers to the outer walls and then a plastic to that (on the inside), the idea being the spacers would give some airflow for the barns outer wood and avoid trapping mosture, and block wind, i'd probably nail down a ground contact 2x4 at the bottom where the walls are most worn out, my goal is to not trap moisture and compromise the barn.

step 2 would be to fab some work benches with a built in "back wall" that i'll insulate (or smaller studded sections like you'd construct theatre walls), make them to fit between two pillars, and finally anchor them and add some seal between them and the pillars. At some point I can insulate the ceiling of the first floor above the work area if needed.
I should theoretically be able to unanchor and pull out any wall segment to get behind it if the outside needs to be looked at from the inside
anyone see problems with the plan? my biggest fear would be trapping moisture with the plastic against the beams and rotting them out or all my tools rusting because it was a **** idea to begin with.

 

[iagsxr]

I have a similar structure I've been thinking about making my "dirty shop". As in a place to do projects I don't want to in my main, clean shop.

Spray foam is about the only way I see going about it. Air intrusion is your biggest enemy on a building like that.

I actually don't see much wrong with your plan other than I don't think you'll ever get it tight enough and until the ceiling's insulated it will be unheatable.

 

[Metal-Marc]

it doesn't need to be perfect

If you don't plan to do the insulation the right way to cut down on air drafts, just leave the building as is and don't waste your time.

 

[jollygreengiant]

You are right to be concerned with your plastic trapping moisture and rotting out the beams. If I understand correctly, you are going to install a layer of plastic on the inside of the wood siding to prevent air intrusion, and then add insulation over top of that?

I would not recommend that. Moisture impermeable plastic in the middle of a wall cavity is asking for moisture problems. What I would do, and did on my building, is install a housewrap product like tyvek on the outside underneath your siding. That means you either need to take off the existing siding, or patch the existing siding so that it is all one plane and treat it as your "sheathing" and put housewrap and new siding over top of that. The housewrap will keep water and air out, provided you install it correctly, and being on the exterior side of the wall you can make your housewrap control layer one continuous plane from eave to the ground. That way you won't have to worry about moisture and rot around your framing beams. Then I would work away at insulating the wall cavities on the inside, put on whatever vapour control you need, and then your interior wall surface.

I did the above described process on my old building, or at least part of it. I haven't done any insulating work yet and the fact that I haven't is really bugging me. With the building sealed up it actually holds heat really well, but that's also causing issues with rust on some of my tools. Since the building holds its temperature really well when we get those first few really warm days in the spring everything really sweats, including my tools. I really need to get some heat in there but alas there are other priorities.

Anyways, this is a pic of my building so you can see what I'm talking about. Underneath the tyvek is the old wood siding that I patched and treated as my "sheathing".