To insulate or not

[ovrszd]

Isn't the foil a vapor barrier?

 

[Rustyiron]

You won't regret spending money on insulation. Top of the list would be spray foam, but if it doesn't fit your budget, there are other good options out there.

I put 3" of polyiso foam in the walls, An 1-1/2" "layer" on the outside of the posts (framing) between the wall girts, then another 1-1/2" layer on the inside. In my case (framed 16"oc) vertically between the studs and that left me enough room for an r-13 layer of regular f/g batts to flush out with the interior framing. around here, 2" of foam is enough to have the 'dew point' inside the foam, that's what you want. Fwiw there's also tyvek under the (metal) siding and each layer of foam had the edges foamed tight. It looks like you've decided to insulate, and f/g would be ok down south, but if your going to do it where the winter's long & cold, do it right. Read up on the dramatic performance loss of f/g with ANY air movement through the wall cavity witch is very hard to eliminate completely, esp with "barn metal" on the exterior.
In my case I found 4x8 sheets of used foam from a commercial re roof, cut & fit to the framing. It was a good bit of labor but spray foam was not in the budget with 195' of 16' high walls and spray foam going for around $1/board ft. (144cu./in.) for closed cell.

 

[AGRIMAN]

I put 3" of polyiso foam in the walls, An 1-1/2" "layer" on the outside of the posts (framing) between the wall girts, then another 1-1/2" layer on the inside. In my case (framed 16"oc) vertically between the studs and that left me enough room for an r-13 layer of regular f/g batts to flush out with the interior framing. around here, 2" of foam is enough to have the 'dew point' inside the foam, that's what you want. Fwiw there's also tyvek under the (metal) siding and each layer of foam had the edges foamed tight. It looks like you've decided to insulate, and f/g would be ok down south, but if your going to do it where the winter's long & cold, do it right. Read up on the dramatic performance loss of f/g with ANY air movement through the wall cavity witch is very hard to eliminate completely, esp with "barn metal" on the exterior.
In my case I found 4x8 sheets of used foam from a commercial re roof, cut & fit to the framing. It was a good bit of labor but spray foam was not in the budget with 195' of 16' high walls and spray foam going for around $1/board ft. (144cu./in.) for closed cell.

I'm a spray foam contractor so I'm aware of the performance variations between foam, blow in and fiberglass batten. I also understand that sometimes the budget just will not allow for foam. This is one of the reasons we also sale and install fiberglass batten.

Most of our residential work (new construction) is foam with some fiberglass on interior walls for sound proofing. Existing construction is foam (roof lines and crawl spaces). Our commercial work can vary greatly. We spray a lot of commercial foam for moisture barriers and insulation, but there's also a large market on the commercial side that's all fiberglass batten. So far this year, we have had two jobs that totaled over 160k square foot of fiberglass batten alone.

I don't see anything wrong with what you did with the polyiso board, pretty good idea really. Sounds like you put in the extra effort by foaming all the edges shut. My only concern would be how good of a total seal you actually got. You probably have a good idea by now just based on how well the building maintains its heat, but the only way to know for sure would be to have a door blower test done. It would be interesting to know what those numbers are.

We also do concrete lifting and soil stabilization with foam and we spray polyurea. We did a really cool polyurea job earlier this year. A Engineering firm was testing some new methods of reinforcing concrete. It wasn't a big job, but we got see some cool things they were trying, but my favorite is still concrete lifting. I'm always amazed when the slab starts to move.

 

[Doofy]

Please move to Alaska! My slab jacking consists of a Handyman jack and a couple of hydraulic bottle jacks.

 

[Rustyiron]

We also do concrete lifting and soil stabilization with foam and we spray polyurea. We did a really cool polyurea job earlier this year. A Engineering firm was testing some new methods of reinforcing concrete. It wasn't a big job, but we got see some cool things they were trying, but my favorite is still concrete lifting. I'm always amazed when the slab starts to move.

I've seen a guy advertise that on TV around here, very neat. Does the polyurea have a "stronger" expansion or just a greater expansion rate? There are some wild different uses of foam these days, I've seen it (on the net) used in large blocks for fill at a new highway bridge abutment. The white polystyrene :confused3: coffee cup foam. I don't remember if that was just experimental or not. :thumbsup:
Are you about a buck/bf in your area also? Watching a crew spray a big house that I was working on, there's a lot more to it than most would think, not to mention the huge generator, air compressor and (around here) keeping it all warm in the winter. I did not know that you had to spray in layers either. THey were spraying closed cell and had an area up against the rood that cracked. I didn't get a chance to talk to the sprayer but was told it got hot or something because it was too thick. IIRC they were going for 6" at the roof & 4" in the walls.

 

[3Ts]

I'm down here in Texas and I'd do insulation here as well - including porches. The condensation drips from the porch roof.

As for getting snakes to get rid of mice, it really works. But, then you have snakes and they make a mess of things too. So, to get rid of the snakes, get rid of the mice and the snakes will leave. (And yes, I know it was tongue in cheek, but it's also true.)