Insulation - Insulating a Commercial Building with Spray Foam

Dr. Energy Saver was called out to help the owner of a commercial building cut down on heating and cooling expenses, by making the building more energy efficient. This particular structure was fully built with metal, and as we all know, metal is the most thermally conductive material in existence. The building did have an estimated R-11 layer of fiberglass insulation applied to the walls, but since the bats were pinched around the beams, the R-Value in these areas was close to zero. That creates gaps in the insulation blanket where the potential for energy loss is very high. To make matters worse, the structure was also very leaky. Dr. Energy Saver energy conservation specialists solved this problem by applying a thick layer of spray foam insulation on top of the existing fiberglass batches. The spray foam expands when applied, closing thermal gaps around the beams and air sealing the whole structure.

Insulating with Spray Foam

Today, we have been called out to this commercial building to make it more energy efficient and the building owner complained of high eating bills and hard to keep the place warm without having the heaters run all the time and burning all that natural gas so one thing that we know about steel buildings is that they are under insulated.

Spray Foam Is The Solution

The solution here is spray foam. It is an ideal solution. We are going to spray it right over the existing insulation. These louvers aren't being used anymore, they need to be completely sealed up obviously major air leaks but also we have various other vents and penetrations in the wall and the leak a lot of air so we are going to spray it across the purling across the bottom of the roof and that is going to make it air tight and add a lot of R-value to the build.

Real Full Video Transcript Below:

Hey. This is Larry Janesky from Dr. Energy Saver. Today we have been called out to this commercial building to make it more energy efficient and the building owner complained of high eating bills and hard to keep the place warm without having the heaters run all the time and burning all that natural gas so one thing that we know about steel buildings is that they are under insulated and they leak and so we have a steel frame building and on the outside of the building we just have a steel shell and of course metal is the most thermally conductive of all materials. We only have a relatively thin layer of fiberglass so it might be R11 fiber glass with white facing there, but the fiberglass is pinched off at the wherever there is a beam and we can see they have used it in a roof when a steel buildings are built.

These metal what we call purlins, are put across that means the sheet metal is pinching that insulation and if it is Arthur Tyne insulation and it is 2-1/2 inches thick it is only R13 fully fluffed so where it is pinched off it is R0 pretty much so really need more insulation here. We also have a lot of air leakage. The solution here is spray foam. It is an ideal solution. We are going to spray it right over the existing insulation. These louvers aren't being used anymore, they need to be completely sealed up obviously major air leaks but also we have various other vents and penetrations in the wall and the leak a lot of air so we are going to spray it across the purling across the bottom of the roof and that is going to make it air tight and add a lot of R-value to the build.

Open-cell spray foams don't have the R-value that close-cell spray foams do coming in about 4-1/2 per inch, but that is easily overcome by just applying a little bit more. If you like to make your commercial building or your home more energy efficient using spray foam, cellulose, injection foam or any other type of insulation call Dr. Energy Saver, we will give you a home energy evaluation and a written estimate to save you energy and money, call Dr. Energy Saver today. Contact us for a home energy evaluation and written estimate.

Watch the full video on Insulating a Commercial Building with Spray Foam or learn about other types of insulation.