metal building and moisture??

[JD3130]

Build myself a nice 40 by 24 metal shop. 14' high 10 low end. 10 x12 door and a man door. 3 windows. Sits on concrete slab with plastic under it. Now, I know we been getting a lot of rain here in Tx, but its so damp inside water is dripping off everything. Even the floor was sweating. I insulated a 10X10 office and PC area, it is fine. Any ideas? What would be the best fix. The cost of finishing an area that large would be out of my reach. Help Guys

 

[Alan L.]

Is the building insulated? Could be condensation. My building is insulated and stays perfectly dry in all weather.

 

[Bird]

Just occasionally, at certain times of the year, I had something very similar in my uninsulated 40' x 60' metal building from condensation. The worst part, to me, was that it caused metal items (tools) in the shop to rust; things like my radial arm saw, drill press, etc. The first time I went in the shop one morning and noticed a puddle under my tractor kind of scared me, but then I noticed the tires were dripping wet; nothing wrong with the tractor; just condensation. And I don't know anything you can do about it except insulation, heat, or ventilation.

 

[btolle]

I had problems with sweating in my 28 X 32 garage until I insulated the roof and installed a ceiling fan in the center which I leave running (blowing upwards toward the ceiling). That seems to have cleared up the sweating. I used 6" insulating batts.

The ceiling fan keeps the air moving just a little and prevents any dead air spots in the corners. I mounted the fan above the ceiling joists so I would not be hitting it with boards, pipe, etc. while working in the garage.

The real benefit of insulating the ceiling is that the garage stays a LOT cooler in the Summer and warmer in the Winter. I noticed this Summer that the temperature inside the garage was often 2 or 3 degrees cooler than the outside temperature.

Best money I spent on the garage. At least I can go out there in the Summer turn on a fan and work. Used to be unbearable.

I have a gas heater with 5 grates in it. Before the insulation I used to have to run it where 3 of the grates were lit (medium setting) to keep the garage in the low 60's on cold days. Last Winter I ran it on one grate (lowest setting) and the garage stayed in the low 60's on the coldest days. I live in East Texas so it really doesn't get that cold here but we do get frost at night once in a while.

Bill Tolle

 

[sneaky_pete]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Is the building insulated? Could be condensation. My building is insulated and stays perfectly dry in all weather. )</font>

Mine too on both accounts, and we've had record rainfall this year in Parker County. I also have two of those fancy ridge box vents that I leave open most of the time except when it's really cold.

Pete

 

[PineRidge]

I believe Alan hit it right on the head. Our pole barn is also insulated and we have never seen any condensation problems either. I'm wondering if you have no plans to insulate it if cross ventilation might eliminate your problem.

 

[JASTN70D]

When I had are building done we used house-wrap on the inside of the roof this seems to have worked well. We keep a number of large animals in the building and it still does not condensate even in the deep of winter. Never from the ceiling at least just some evidence on the side walls near the animals.

We don't have a concrete floor though. I don't know if that is good or bad for condensation problems but there are wet spots on the floor from rain soaking the outside perimeter most of the time.

Ventilation should be the answer in your case. The building must always match the outside temperature as close as possible. I adapted a whole house fan for summer heat that worked very well. Put it in the side wall.

The building is 42X60 all steel

 

[bobodu]

I was waiting to see what others would say so I wouldn't look like an idiot with my train of thought....I was much relieved to see folks mention ventilation.My favorite method for keeping things dry and easier (cheaper) than keeping moisture out of an existing building.In our dry cleaning plant,we have a large storage room that must be temp. and humidity controlled in order to keep our franchise.This building is very old and solid concrete.The lower floors house all the presses,steam tunnels and driers.We just added a dehumidifier and piped it down a drain.In this application,venting would cause more moisture as the incoming air would be saturated,unless we pulled in outside air some 300 feet away!!

 

[nobull1]

I am in the same boat as yourself and am getting close to insulating. Done a lot of research and found the most reasonable thing to do it with is 6" of fiberglass with the vinyl woven backing. They can make this in any length that you require and in 6' widths. The most expensive thing was to buy the plastic extensions to push through the insulation which attach to the thru bolts on the building. Once the insulation is pushed through, you thread on a 2" washer to the plastic stud. What we have found is the you can use the metal sticky back type of hanger c/w the metal washer for a 1/4 of the price and haven't been able to dislodge them from any metal that we have tried them on.Which included 200 degree stove pipe as well as under water. The MFG says not to use on roof metal exposed to the sun[for liability I'm sure] that's why all the testing. So far can't find any way to loosen them without a scraper and hammer /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif. In Canada it works out to about .80 per square foot for all materials. The added benefit is that the insulation backing is white and will add a lot of light to the building if you choose not to cover it. insu hanger
insulation

 

[JD3130]

Thanks, for the quick posts. I have tried leaving the doors open, since they are sheltered from the weather, but that didn't help. I know the spray on insulation works, A nearby wood shop 60 x 100 has that, about 1 inch thick in white. But so far the DIY's can't do that.
I don't ready think one would need the full 6 inchs. I been wondering about the rigid foil covered foam boards? They come in 4 x 8 sheets, which would be easy for one person to handle, construction adhesive might hold them up with a little help. Guess I'll do a take off to see what that would cost! I'll let you know the results! If you'll have any negative thoughts on this let me know.