metal building question

so as you know garage was totaled in a storm , it will be about 4 weeks before the start on the new building.

question 1: what can i use to insulate the building. mainly for condensation ?

question 2: what is my best option for a lift ? drive on ?? etc....

Question 1 - rolls of fiberglass insulation is the most common and inexpensive.

You could do spray on foam but it's expensive.

Question 2 - I like the 2 post lifts for working on cars the give good access, IMO the 4 post stuff is better for storage.

dfree383 wrote:Question 1 - rolls of fiberglass insulation is the most common and inexpensive.

You could do spray on foam but it's expensive.

Question 2 - I like the 2 post lifts for working on cars the give good access, IMO the 4 post stuff is better for storage.

but remember this is a metal building so the metal studs are gonna be about 4' instead of 16-24" ........


as far as the 2 post that was what i was leaning toward except it would be nice to store another car in there ..... there are so many lifts out there what do suggest

Nick, they make 6' wide roll insulation for metal buildings. That's what I used. No way I would build a building without it. I think it was about $1000-1200 for my 36'x40. I have a 75K BTU gas heater and a 30K BTU window units and my shop stays nice all year.

David Willingham wrote:Nick, they make 6' wide roll insulation for metal buildings. That's what I used. No way I would build a building without it. I think it was about $1000-1200 for my 36'x40. I have a 75K BTU gas heater and a 30K BTU window units and my shop stays nice all year.

so is it installed after the building is done ???

No. It's installed after the frame but before the metal.

I have a friend that is in the AC business and when he built his metal building he sprayed it up solid to seal it up. My friend does not have a lot of money either so I would call around to see how much it costs. I wouldn't be surprised if it is alot cheaper down south than up north. If it was me, for a smaller building, I wouldn't think twice about the extra cost. Now maybe if you are building an 80x100 or something....

Remember it is a long term investment so sometimes it is better to just eat it up front and be happy forever after.

We foamed our shop with an inch. It's 4800 square foot with 14 foot walls. Cost was about $11,000 but the cost to erect the building was also cheaper since there was no rolled insulation. I think it cost us about $200 during the winter to heat last winter but that was a mixture of a kerosene heater in the morning and running an electric heater at night to keep the pipes from freezing. Kept it about 45 at night and about 65 during the day.

We have built an oil burning heater now so we hope that drops that by a lot.

Summer temp last year was always about 5-10 degrees hotter than outside and didn't really cool off much at night. This year with the insulation we keep the shop about 5 degrees cooler than outside and with one port a cool we can lower that about 10 degrees more.

This winter I am installing two 5 ton ac units for next year. That should keep it really nice.

David Willingham wrote:Nick, they make 6' wide roll insulation for metal buildings. That's what I used. No way I would build a building without it. I think it was about $1000-1200 for my 36'x40. I have a 75K BTU gas heater and a 30K BTU window units and my shop stays nice all year.

I did this in mine also. You can give them the measurements of the building and they'll cut it to length so each roll starts at the ground on one side and rolls over the top to the other. I use a 30k btu wall heater in the 40x40 part I work in and it does ok most of the time, the ac is delivered through 2 8x12 roll up doors.

bruno wrote:question 1:  what can i use to insulate the building. mainly for condensation ?

If a vapor barrier wasn't put down before the concrete floor was poured then condensation may still be a problem to some degree regardless of how the shop walls/roof are insulated.

The fully encapsulated insulation ment for steel buildings is nice, but I would always worry about cutting/ripping/melting it's white plastic/vinyl outer covering. If you go the cheapest route & just use fiberglass insulation stapled to framing/furring studs, IIRC a covering of 1/2 sheetrock should be more than enough to satisfy most local fire codes for fiberglass insulation.

Also read about how fiberglass insulation has a problem of losing it's heat-barrier effectiveness from getting "heat-soaked" during the course of a normal hot summer day. So there's this damn interesting idea of using the foam board that has a radiant barrier foil on one side placed in the shop wall first (foil side facing the metal & spaced 1" away from it) before adding the fiberglass insulation on top of it. The radiant barrier foil & foam board is supposed to help stop/reduce X amount of the summer heat from ever reacing the fiberglass insulation in the first place, thus reducing the chance of it getting heat-soaked.

Initial building structure must have insulation board under metal on roof, or it will sweat like a republican debate member against The Donald.

Spray in foam is the way to go, but like it was said it's not cheap. If you plan on adding Heat/AC it will save you money in the long run. It's been a long time since I built my shop but it was a little over $6000 to spray my shop and it's 36x48 with 12ft high walls and about 20ft up to the peak. I don't have AC in there yet (had to spend that money to replace the unit in my house) but in the winter I have a 17,000 BTU propane heater that I run for 1 hour only and then I have to turn it off or it will get to hot. The building will hold that heat all day unless I open one of the doors. During the summer I have the doors open and it can be 95/100* outside, but inside my thermometer will read about 85*. Of coarse I still have to deal with the humidity

Added some photos when they came in and did the installation.

Two post lift and rolled insulation here. Make sure you have your heater vented outside or it will sweat. Most two post lifts will need at least 12' walls.

bbf-falcon wrote:Initial building structure must have insulation board under metal on roof, or it will sweat like a republican debate member against The Donald.

Or Hillary at an email convention?

Roll insulation and two post lift..............

I have a 30x40 12 ft height with a 4000 btu Central unit heat pump.  I have yet to have over a $65.00 summer bill and I stay in it a lot.

In the winter I come in after work and turn on a 150,000 btu propane forced air heater and bring the temp up to about 60 and set the unit to 65 and can work in shirt sleeves till time to leave.

I disconnected the resistive heat elements so they won't come on.

IDT-572 wrote:Roll insulation and two post lift..............

I have a 30x40 12 ft height with a 4000 btu Central unit heat pump.  I have yet to have over a $65.00 summer bill and I stay in it a lot.

In the winter I come in after work and turn on a 15000 btu propane forced air heater and bring the temp up to about 60 and set the unit to 65 and can work in shirt sleeves till time to leave.

I disconnected the resistive heat elements so they won't come on.

Your shop is so jam packed you actually don't have that much space to heat. lmao..

Hey hey I resemble that remark. Lol

IDT-572 wrote:Hey hey I resemble that remark.  Lol

Yep!

Lota hp comes out of that old farm shop......................

^^^ that's right!

Sorry but I disagree on the 2 post deal. Drive-on 4 post with a fore and aft sliding "jack" is the way to go. Maybe 'cuz I'm a chassis guy but a drive on allows me to do whatever I need to do.

Also remember that the concrete pad for a 2-post is a minimum of 6"......a drive-on can be the standard 4"

yellowhorse7 wrote:Sorry but I disagree on the 2 post deal. Drive-on 4 post with a fore and aft sliding "jack" is the way to go. Maybe 'cuz I'm a chassis guy but a drive on allows me to do whatever I need to do.

Also remember that the concrete pad for a 2-post is a minimum of 6"......a drive-on can be the standard 4"

good info everyone...... im sure this is only 4"s ...any links to these aforementioned lifts ?

Both have advantages. 2 post ftw if you have plans of dropping engines from the newer junk.

bruno wrote:

yellowhorse7 wrote:Sorry but I disagree on the 2 post deal. Drive-on 4 post with a fore and aft sliding "jack" is the way to go. Maybe 'cuz I'm a chassis guy but a drive on allows me to do whatever I need to do.

Also remember that the concrete pad for a 2-post is a minimum of 6"......a drive-on can be the standard 4"

good info everyone...... im sure this is only 4"s  ...any links to these aforementioned lifts ?

http://www.maxjaxusa.com/