Sealing up a Pole Barn

[jaw22w]

The Amish erection crew has just finished my new 30x40x12 pole barn. My son and I will insulate and finish the interior. I want to use 2' o.c. vertical studs and r 19 roll insulation with OSB cover on the walls. The ceiling will be white metal liner panel and r 38 blow in insulation. Here's my question. The first thing I notice is all the daylight I see along the bottom of the walls above the grade board. All the corrugations in the exterior sheet metal siding. There is a metal rat guard that the siding sits on, and it fits really close but there is still daylight and therefore wind leakage into the wall. I have seen YouTube videos where the owner used Great Stuff foam in each of those corrugations all around the building. Is this a good idea??
I would love to spray foam all the walls. The problem there is, they can't spray the foam on the metal walls in cold weather, so I would have to wait until spring to have it done. And the price I got was really attractive. $3200 for just the walls. I can't wait until spring, so I'm going ahead with the fiberglass.
Anyway, anybody got any thoughts on foaming all the corrugations at the gradeboard?

 

[Kobuck]

Do you have tyvek behind the siding?

 

[Chris705]

I would urge you to seal the joint with foam to keep the infiltration out…. I can only offer some thoughts…..
1. Use a torpedo style kerosene heater to warm the area you are sealing. But not too close.
2. Read the instructions for whatever foam brand you use. Keep the cans in a warm space until being used.
3. Consider using larger froth packs of foam…..two can systems with a length of hose, they come in various yields of foam and are often more economical than small aerosol cans, however you have to keep the tanks warm.
MAKE SURE the instructions allow for the propellant to be around open flame if you use an open flame heater.
Good luck with your project!

 

[billconner]

Curious of overlap of siding on bottom girt.

 

[jaw22w]

Do you have tyvek behind the siding?

No. I wish I did, but I didn't think about it until too late in the process. I'll just have to deal with it now.

I would urge you to seal the joint with foam to keep the infiltration out…. I can only offer some thoughts…..
1. Use a torpedo style kerosene heater to warm the area you are sealing. But not too close.
2. Read the instructions for whatever foam brand you use. Keep the cans in a warm space until being used.
3. Consider using larger froth packs of foam…..two can systems with a length of hose, they come in various yields of foam and are often more economical than small aerosol cans, however you have to keep the tanks warm.
MAKE SURE the instructions allow for the propellant to be around open flame if you use an open flame heater.
Good luck with your project!

Yeah I was thinking I may have the same problem as the guys spraying the barn walls would have.
The thought just occurred to me of another possible solution. For about $100 I could use those rubber closure strips. Pretty easy to install. Remove bottom row of screws, install closure strips, put screws back in. Probably about the same cost as foam.

 

[jaw22w]

Curious of overlap of siding on bottom girt.

3-3/4". Siding comes down to slab height, then the rat guard below that. Bottom girt is 2x8.

 

[PoorUB]

I would wait until it can be spray foamed. Metal buildings can leak terribly.

Great Stuff aerosol foam will not expand in cold either!

Did you tell the builder you wanted to seal it up and heat it? It should have had Tyvek and extra work done to seal up the tin.

We did floor heat in a metal building. 200,000 BTU boiler to heat 3500sqft, way overkill but that is what the costumer had already. The building was existing.

A remodeling contractor was hired to insulate and finish the inside. when it was done It would not heat the building. Fingers were pointed back and forth. One blustery winter day the owner called and said it was 55 degrees and the thermostat was set on 65. I got out there and I could feel the air moving in the building. I grabbed a piece of tissue and walked around the building. Along the bottom of the wall and other places the wind would blow the tissue horizontally! The owner videoed the tissue flapping in the wind and sent it to the contractor that did the work. They came out, pulled all the interior sheeting and spray foamed it, them put it all back.

I urge you to seal it correctly or you will regret it later!

 

[Busted_Knuckles]

Ive lost track of how many pole building shops Ive owned and rented. Some you could fly a kite in, during a winter storm, I had a snow drift near 2' tall in one on the INSIDE of the building.

It occurs to me, that most folks really do not get air infiltration. And most that do get it, seem to get hung up on mold/mildew and bad air.

Id share this, spend all your time and money on sealing the building, and to a lesser degree insulating it. In other words, insulation is completely worthless, if you building breathes like a corn crib. If youre conditioned air is rolling right on out, the R value of your insulation means little. Might be why allot of shops of that kind of construction use radiant heat...

Im a major fan of both open and closed cell spray foam, as a starting point.

 

[PoorUB]

Where I used to work we had a new shop built. All steel building. One weekend we had a winter storm. The wind blew at 40 MPH for a couple days. When the roads got clear enough to get to work we had to laugh because inside the heated building there was a large snow drift, about ten feet long and three feet high! Imagine how high it would have been with out the heat running!

We called the contract back and they puled off the sheet metal and found some issues with the Tyvek wrap and sealing along the sill.

 

[walrus]

Air leaking into fiberglass insulation will make the insulation an air filter not insulation.