Major Insulation Needed...

[John Grabowski]

I have a 30 x 40 foot pole barn that is uninsulated. The walls are not covered and the 2 x 4's are laid flat and horizontal on the walls. The roof support is truss 2x4's and 2x4s at the ceiling. It is high....14 feet to the trusses and also has three large garage doors. I was thinking about creating a ceiling out of osb to cover the trusses and then blow in insulation with cellulose. Then just make sure to insulate the garage doors and air seal them to the best of my ability. I am struggling with insulating the walls b/c I would either have to frame it 2x4's to put in fiberglass, spray it in or use some type of foam board and then cover with drywall. BIG EXPENSE. So I am going to leave the walls blank if I can.

My question...Is my plan enough to keep heat in if I use a 85000 BTU woodburner? Any suggestions?

Thanks,

John G

[Ray Newman]

-- Where are you located?

-- What type of floor? If concrete any insualtion and/or mosture barrier under it?

-- If you only insulate the celing, I think that you are still going to loose a graet deal of heat through the walls.

[Michael Wetzel]

You could frame the outside walls 24" OC to save some $$ framing.

[Mitchell Andrus]

A heating contractor or a website with a heat loss calculator can tell you how many BTU's will migrate through the walls at specific temperature drops. You will insulate after doing the math, trust me. I'll bet you get back the cost in 3 or 4 years.

[brian barnum]

Hi this is my first post but I may be of some help. My shop is 30x48x14 and what I did was use extruded polystyrene bead board 1.5 thick horizontally between the purlins then 1.5 thick x4x14 vertically between the poles. I then put purlins on the inside and covered with white pole barn siding. To save a buck you could go over the foam with osb. Then I put steel on the ceiling and blew in insulation to r-48 once again you could use osb. It not only helps in the winter but in the summer when it is hot out. to stop air leaks I used spray foam in a can and hit all the seams. all my insulation came to under $1200 and labor was provided by the wife and I.

[Mark Boyette]

I have a shop close to your size (32 x 38). I have a 80,000 BTU furnace with no insulation at all, yet. I live in NE Ohio but don't use my shop every day so it hasn't been a priority. The concrete really holds the cold and is hard to warm up. Even with insulation that will be my biggest obstacle, I'm guessing. I'm considering the same thing but if you have a wood floor you will be much better off than I am. On a 30 degree day is heats up in 15 minutes or so but when it hits the teens it takes about 2 hours.
Let me know which route you take and how it works out if you don't mind.
thanks, Mark.

[Ed Griner]

My shop is a recycled timber framed train station. Once the critters were removed,you could see daylight through the walls.Roughed it out, called the local "ICY NE NE" people they came and sprayed everything,(walls,ceiling,floors,the whole bldg.The end result is shop that is tight as a drum.(insulation wise)Rocked the walls,pine T&G on the ceiling,keep the temp about 70 degrees all winter.The foam is also its own moisture barrier. Now the negative,anything you don't want insulated,MAKE SURE THEY MASK IT!!!!This the glass,the floor,electrical boxes etc..Make sure you look at some of their previous work,when I called three insulators and ask to see other jobs,two decided to skip my job. Keyword here is OVERSPRAY,my floor wasn't masked and that is how I know about overspray.I had the floor sanded afterwards and it looked great. Its long leaf pine,the job cost me $3500, They did it over three days,put 10" under the floor and its very comfortable year round. I would certainly recommend it. Good Luck/Ed

[Mike Cruz]

If the 2 x 4's are laid flat, that means you have 1 1/2" of room. You could use 1 1/2 foam board to fill that, they put your boards over that. At HD, the 2" stuff is $28 per 4 x 8 sheet. I found a guy that sells factory seconds from DOW. I got 3" sheets for $19 a sheet! I don't know what HD sells the 1 1/2" foam board for, but if you could find one of these guys locally to you (don't know where you are) then you could probably save a bundle and get those walls insulated.

[John Grabowski]

I appreciate all the help....I am a hobby woodworker and only get in the shop 4 days a week for a few hours. I would love to insulate the whole building but its not practical financially. I am hoping that the ceiling idea will help me. DO you guys think it will help? Or should I just spend money on a bigger heater?

That will cost me 1000$ for insulation and 1200 or so for my wood stove. I dont really need it to be at 70 degrees in the winter...I think that I would only need heavy heat for 15 or so days per year.

I will eventually put foam in the walls as money allows. But that is a luxury right now.

Thanks,

John G

[Don Jarvie]

John,

Do the ceiling 1st. Heat rises so keeping it in the building helps.

I finally have the walls done on my 20x20 shop and the ceiling is next. Takes about 2 hours with the dayton heater to go from 35 to 55. I'm hoping its faster once the ceiling is done.

[Troy Turner]

John - I have an 18 x 24 pole barn. I installed the "double bubble" foil insulation. Slight PITA to retrofit, but less expensive than drywall, etc. Great in the summer in West Texas. Installed a 5K W heater this weekend and it warmed up from 27 to 55 in about two hours. Another hour later, I was kicking the thermostat down. Make sure you seal the edges and gaps with silicone. Made a huge difference. I'm going to get a small fan to put at the other end of the shop to help with heat circulation and keep it off the ceiling.

[Lee Schierer]

Insulating the ceiling will improve your heating. However, make sure your trusses can support the added weight of the OSB and insulation you intend to add in addition to any snow loading that may be needed. Not all trusses are created equal when it comes to load bearing

[Chris Friesen]

Something that hasn't been mentioned...whatever you do, make sure that your building is as airtight as possible. Doesn't take much airflow to create a lot of heat loss regardless of the insulation level.