Fan of the spray foam. Makes a huge difference, zero penetration. Bit the bullet and had it sprayed in the house when we built. It was three times the price of bat 13 years ago but it paid for itself very quickly.
Agree 100%. Just completed new construction in NC. Paid the upcharge for the spray foam, all exterior walls and underside of roof. The attic is now only a 10 ° difference from the living space temp. Was a bit of a struggle to convince the contractor to insulate the 3 car garage. They insisted that Nobody insulates their garages here. Anyway, finally completed and installed a 12k btu split unit the other day, what a difference. Ran it at 70° for half hour and took the 55° chill out. Very happy with it.
Interior of my pole barn........ Spray foam first.......seals ALL the outside air infiltration out. You won't regret doing it, only regret will be later on if you DON'T do the foam. Then, you add R19 fiberglass batt insulation...... total wall R value of R-27. Finish interior walls with WHITE steel panels........interior will be brighter, easily cleaned/washed down if necessary and the steel panels are much more durable than drywall or OSB, plus it looks a hellava lot better. Electrical should be surface mounted conduit IMO, easily changed at a later date if you need to add or reconfigure for any circumstance. Sorry I don't have photos right now of my surface mount electrical, just finished it up recently and haven't gotten around to the photos yet. Insulated my ceiling with blown in fiberglass pink insulation, 12" deep for an R value of R-38. I did forced air LP gas furnace for heat, as I had a used 80K BTU furnace available when I replaced the house furnace with a new one last fall. Old one to the shop and plumbed it up, works great! I will also have A/C next summer after I get that installed in the spring. You should have NO problem getting a local LP supplier to set a tank for you and run the lines to a furnace.
My shop building is 40 x 80. I finished of the front 1/2 with bat insulation in the walls & blown insulation in the ceiling. Walls are covered in white steel. All wiring is outside of wall run through conduit. Lighting is T8 fluorescent. The back 1/2 was originally just going to be used for storing cars & camper. Then I started to occasionally working on projects back in the back part... but found it was Super cold in winter & hotter than hell in the summer. So we spray foamed the back 1/2 ... & have screw in LED lights in the porcelain fixtures. It is not finished off. I can heat the whole building if i want to. I have LP furnace mounted on the ceiling & use wood furnace while I'm working in the shop. IMO spray foam is the way to go for insulation... NO drafts Anywhere!!!
My shop is 30x40 but 10x40 of it is an internal room, leaving 20x40 for the working area. I did 6" bats in the walls covered by 1/2" plywood, and the same bats in the ceiling covered in some kind of tyvek material. I agree with other posters that doing your electrical external to the wall is the way to go. Mine is internal and luckily, so far I got it right so I haven't wanted to change it. I use a 30K BTU propane heater with two BIG ceiling fans to push the heat down. In 20 minutes or so it will be 30 outdoors and 60 indoors. Just right for sweatshirt work on the car. A handy dandy tip for guys with sliding barn doors. I made a set of gasket-like things to plug the gap at the door and they work very well. They keep the cold draft from coming inside when the heat rises to the peak of the shop. They are 3/8" plywood with foam pipe insulation attached to the edge. Close the door, shove the gaskets in place, and go to work. Here they are loose and then in place. You can see the 3/4" door gap above the top gasket in the second picture.
we did the in floor in our 36x60, spray foam would have been the bomb! just too expensive out in the sticks. we had quotes over 10K. 2" high density under the slab, fiberglass bats in the walls covered in osb ( I would have done plywood but, it was dads build so I let him do it as he wanted. if you heat it at all make sure you put in a ceiling. first year we fired up the boiler and ran the heat it used up a 250 gallon tank in 2 weeks!!!! shut the system down until the ceiling went in the next spring. same 250 gallon tank lasts almost the full year now on Really cold days. we keep it at 45 as we only store our cars in it. we have a unit heater to raise the temp quick if we need to. just remember furnaces need to usually be 8' off the ground for code. also any lifts or floor drilling you will want to have an idea of before the tubing and concrete go down. not fun when you drill into a tube!
Electric heat would cost a fortune for a building that size. Can you get a large propane tank and service? I bought a Milwakee 12v heated coat that makes it a lot nicer working in a cold shop. I would consider painting the back side of whatever plywood/osb you use for the walls and ceiling with some of the anti mold paint.
Don’t have time to read thru all the post so here goes. Same size pole barn, metal siding and roof. Bubble foil behind all then 2x6 rolled insulation, 1/2 osb ceiling walls, ceiling has not been insulated yet. One 80,000 btu oil furnace will keep it at 65 on 30 degree day very little running time when heating. One 275 gallon tank will last three years. Two 110 volt window ac units keep it 70 in the summer heat 85-95. Conduit electrical, outlets ever 8 ft 200 amp panel box I also have a 50 hp 3 phase Roto-Phase motor for any 3 phase machinery (converts single to 3 phase) put all this in myself. National Barn put the building up I did the rest even the 10x10 roll up insulated doors. Right now it’s about 29 degrees, I can turn on the heat and in fifteen minutes it’s 65 in there, furnace is a Rehm .45 gallons an hour but that would be continuous running which it dont. Some day I might insulate the ceiling lol In 13 years it has never frozen inside with no heat on.
Think about setting aside one area for a 'tool crib' for things like engine hoist, floor jack & jackstands. pot sandblaster, etc. Also build shelves in there for tools you do not use often. It keeps them all in one area when not needed so you do not have to keep moving or keep tripping over them. Put your compressor outside, build a little closet for it made from same material as your siding. Wherever you add your sink, get an "eye wash station" for it . Pretty inexpensive and you will appreciate it someday. Stock some first aid stuff - more than ninja Turtle band-aids close to the sink.
All great ideas. I will be pulling my dakota with a bed topper, and plan to have slide out cargo bins in the bed. The dakota has a v8 so parts including trans could be swapped out in a pinch.
Well, @Johnny Mac? You get the shop done yet? I have the same size shop, uninsulated and needs wired too so I’m in similar shape as you. I won’t be insulating any time soon but I do intend on wiring it in the next couple months.
I'm a long way from all that it's up though. Garage doors on backorder. Probably do the radiant floor heating piping, and concrete this summer. With conduit for water and electric when I get to it (probably next summer)
Did you do the in floor pex yourself? I'm having trouble getting supply houses to Even return calls. I'm more than capable of buying pex from menards and zip tying it to my rebar....but would really like some advice on how big of spaces to leave between rows....how long of runs to do? I assume 3/4 pex....thanks in advance if you have some insight.!
I used 1/2" pex with 15" or 18" spacing. If you really need exact , I could look up plans tomorrow. I broke the main bay into 3 sections (pours) of 20 x 30 each with a heat loop for each. The loops were brought up thru concrete using plastic conduit sweep 90's to manifolds. Make the turns gentle sweep 180 degree and don't tie snug at top of loop. Send me PM if you want more exact info. That way I will get email alert.
