Insulation is an essential part of any building. We’re often asked if it’s necessary on a metal building. Technically, the answer is no. You don’t have to insulate your metal building. However, we highly recommend that most steel building kits be insulated, regardless of their intended use.
Properly insulating a building can help ensure its longevity, and, in many cases, is necessary to uphold your building’s warranty. Here at Great Western, we offer compression insulation with our building kits. It’s extremely cost-effective, efficient, and simple to install.
Compression insulation is a fiberglass system with a bonded vapor barrier that fits between the building panels and the secondary framing. Put simply, it’s compressed between your wall or roof panels and the girts and purlins. Once installed, the compression insulation system forms a continuous barrier between the exterior panels and the secondary framing.
This means that, on top of the expected effect of insulation helping to maintain the interior climate consistent, the compression insulation acts as a defensive layer to prevent external heat from transferring into the secondary framing. Steel transfers heat quite well, and without proper insulation, the interior of a metal building can get extremely hot during warm and sunny conditions.
In addition to maintaining a more comfortable interior environment, compression insulation’s vapor barrier can also prevent moisture damage to your building’s secondary framing. The fiberglass layers absorb any moisture that seeps through the roof or wall panels. In addition, the vapor barrier prevents moisture from reaching your building’s secondary framing and can help avoid premature moisture damage to your building’s primary structure.
Another great advantage of compression insulation is the ease of installation and lack of waste. Our buildings come with rolls of compression insulation that coincide with your building’s plan to keep the erection process quick and simple. It offers a clean and familiar installation process that delivers reliable results without requiring specialized equipment or complicated adjustments.
In addition, the R-value of compression insulation is determined by its thickness. So, no matter where you are and how hot or cold it gets, there’s a compression insulation solution for your building that’ll keep it properly insulated and protected.
A handful of our customers have used spray foam insulation in their buildings and are happy with it. However, in general, we do not recommend using this insulation system for a metal building. The foam and steel expand and contract differently, creating stress points that may harm the panels as the building moves naturally. It can also trap moisture against the metal since it covers everything completely, making it difficult to spot problems before they cause damage.
In addition, if the interior of the panels are not perfectly clean, you may run into issues getting the spray foam to properly bond to them, which can lead to an expensive waste of materials. Finally, using spray foam on a Great Western Building will unfortunately void your panel warranties due to the potential for increased moisture damage like rust.
Overall, the choice of insulation type is entirely up to you. However, if you ask for our recommendation, we’re always going to suggest going with the compression system we offer with our kits. It’s simple, efficient, cost-effective, and maintains your warranties.
Looking for a place to start? Our sales team is here to help get you exactly what you need. Whether you’re building a shop, garage, a full-blown residence, or a storage or agricultural building, our steel building kits are your perfect solution. Each one is designed and engineered to meet not only your needs, but your local coding requirements so that you can get the job done right quickly and seamlessly, the first time.
You should receive your estimated quote by email shortly. Please keep in mind that this is just an estimate and does not include snow loads, wind loads, county specific code requirements, delivery or design specific engineering calculations related to the structural soundness of the building.
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