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Insulation Curtain

Car54

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 31, 2006
Messages
106
Location
Tampa, FL
You know the flaps that hang near a freezer room? They keep the cool in and the hot out?

http://www.pvcstrip.com/logo.html

Anyone out there make their own? My cost would be over $1k to fit out my shop.

I have one side 1/4 - other side 3/4 sideways slider doors on both ends of the shop. It leaves me about a 1/2" gap around the door and I'm looking at options that will seal it up tight to hold in the AC.

Here's a shot to see the type of building.
DSC00816.jpg
 
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jtbinvalrico

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 2, 2010
Messages
1,375
Location
Tampa FL
....that's a very, very nice website......if you look really closely, you can barely distinguish something about weather stripping there :drool:
 

bookman51

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 6, 2006
Messages
820
Location
Kearney, Nebraska
I have looked at dividers for my shop. Can be done somewhat cheaply with plastic, but one concern is fire. I do not know how fire resistant the commercial dividers are available through this website. Yep, if one looks closely and is not distracted by the scenery, there is something about insulation, dividers, etc. If one looks closely.

Bookman
 
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Malaga

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 30, 2010
Messages
64
Location
Atlanta, GA
I have installed, repaired, and taken down many of these doors and here's what I can tell you.

You can do it yourself. To save money, purchase the vinyl strip material by the roll and not as a kit. In addition to the website you found, the vinyl strip doors and rolls can be sourced through Grainger and McMaster Carr. You can make your own hangers using perhaps the door header, depending on its construction, or drilling and tapping some angle (aluminum would be the easiest to work with). The roll of vinyl strip material I would use would be the products with the ribs in them. They stay clearer longer. This is especially true with the relatively light use your personal building will have as opposed to an industrial application where 100 forklift trips are made per day. Now don't me wrong, the strips will eventually cloud up but yours will last a good while. If one strips is torn down, it is easily replacable. Make sure you don't cut the strips too short when they are installed. Also, the ribs let the vinyl not stick to one another as easily as the solid material. And yes they will stick some but that's good because its keeping the hot side hot and cold side cold. As far as cold weather, since you are in Tampa (I think) you should have no problem. I have no experience with the product in the harsh environs of, say Duluth, Minnesota, but have noticed that the strips do stiffen slightly as the temperature decreases. As far as fire goes, these vinyl curtains will burn. And when they burn, they give off a horrible black pungent cloud of bad karma. Ask me how I know.

So really, is this the solution for your problem? Hard to say but perhaps you could try one door to see if you liked the fit, the performance, and the cost. Or maybe an alternative solution would be to just try to close up the gaps you have rather than seal the entire opening. If I understood correctly, the gap you have is no more than 3/4". A wide weatherstriping product might better suite your needs and be much cheaper.

By the way, neat building. The wall panels look solid, not the typical metal sheating. What are they made of?

I was just in Tampa last week. My college roommate is the new Base Commander at McDill and I got to attend the Change of Command Ceremony. Very impressive.

Good Luck.
 
OP
C

Car54

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 31, 2006
Messages
106
Location
Tampa, FL
Thanks for that great read on the vinyl slats. I may just go the route of closing the small gaps first to see how well that works. Great to know you can kind of piece the other system together.

As for the building...it was at the house we bought a couple of months ago. Going through receipts it is from this company: http://www.mdbarnsflorida.com/whymd.html

The walls are plywood sandwiched between some galvanized painted sheetmetal. It really seems to do a good job of insulating...the surface inside never really feels anywhere near as hot as the outside. The roof is steel with the bubble wrap looking radiant heat insulation. It sits on 24" footers and is bolted to the ground. It's really a cool barn, it's ashame I am going to gut it to make it a work shop. Cool horse stuff stalls inside. I'm a horse-power guy, not a horse guy.
 

Malaga

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 30, 2010
Messages
64
Location
Atlanta, GA
Ditto on the horsepower. Maybe you can recover some cost with the stall equipment. Someone in Ocala is just dying for that, they just don't know it yet. Thanks for the info on the barn - I'll look at the link you noted.
 
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