To insulate a pole building or...

[grub32]

I have a 40x30 ft pole building in NE Ohio. It is uninsulated except for the 3 garage doors. There are 3 a 9x12 foot and 2 9x9's. I only spend a few hours a week in the garage and use kero heaters and I use around 100 and 150 worth of kero per year.

I am considering a few options:
1. Spend 2k to insulate the ceiling to r19, walls to r13 and close up the soffits.
2. Spend 600 to do the ceiling and soffits.
3. Do nothing now and do it when I retire in 20 years and probably pay 3 times the price.

I am looking for suggestions?

I currently have 2 kero 70 btu heaters to heat it up now.

Thanks for any and all thoughts

Grub

 

[Ohmthis]

Grub, I'm in the same situation you are in except I haven't started building yet. After a lot of research and talking with several companies that build barns here is what I have come up with. Cover the bottom cord on the trusses (make sure you know how much load you can put on them) and blow in a celleous insulation in to your liking, r30-36 for me. Using metal to Make the ceiling is a light weight way to go. Frame between your posts and put in FG batting in the walls and cover to your liking. This will be the what I feel is the best way to go if you are planning on spending more time out there and heating it consitantly.
If you don't plan on those two things look into wide fiberglass bats that you can hang over the walls. They have a white vinyl backing that will finish it off. There is a thread with a link to a place that sells these or you could search for pole barn insulation on the web. Hope this helps!

 

[NUTTSGT]

If it was fully insulated now, would you use it more ?

Would it be easier to insulate now or in 20 years ?

Insulation is an investment, it will pay for itself over and over through out the years.

You state 2 kerosene heaters, are these the loud *** space heaters or the ones that just sit in the middle of the floor ? If they are the loud *** heaters, I don't like those things. They work but are annoying as heck.

 

[dieselgarage]

Not sure of your location. But insulation works both ways. Keeps the heat in or out.
I'd insulate for sure.

 

[930dreamer]

Go with the insulation ASAP, my shop get's in the 90's in the summer, that's with full insulation and no A/C. I can't imagine having no insulation.

 

[matt151617]

I say do the ceiling for now. If it cuts your fuel usage by 50%, that's a payback of only 8 years. Even if it's only 25%, that's still 16 years where the insulation has paid for itself.

Plus I can promise you kerosene isn't going to get any cheaper. Every penny it goes up, the faster the insulation pays for itself.

 

[3pedal]

If you figure insulation cost will increase some, and fuel costs potentially a lot, insulating now will save instead of later will save you the most. And you will have a nice shop to work in.