Spray Foam Insulation In Chatham, Ontario

Why We Lead With Agricultural Work

Chatham-Kent has more than 2,400 farms and over 630,000 acres of farmland. The municipality generates over $4 billion in economic activity a year, with $1.3 billion of that in farm cash receipts.

There is also more than 20 million square feet of greenhouse here, the second largest concentration in Ontario.

That is the building stock. Barns, machine sheds, pole barns, grain storage, packing and grading rooms, headhouses, livestock buildings, produce cold storage. Most insulation companies treat all of it as an afterthought behind attics and basements.

We built the business the other way round.

Condensation Is The Real Problem In A Steel Building

Ask anyone with a steel-clad shop or barn what their insulation problem is and they will describe water, not cold.

Warm moist air inside meets a cold steel roof. The underside of that roof drops below dew point and water forms on it, then drips onto equipment, hay, stock or product. In winter it can freeze on the underside and then release all at once during a thaw.

Batt and blanket systems do not stop this, because air still reaches the steel behind them.

Closed-cell spray foam bonds directly to the underside of the deck. There is no gap for air to reach, so there is no surface at dew point for water to form on. That is the single most common reason a farm calls us.

Greenhouses, Headhouses And Growing Facilities

Growing structures are a specialist job and we treat them as one.

The glazed area is not what we spray. The money is in the headhouse, the north wall, gable ends, service corridors, boiler and mechanical rooms, and packing and grading areas.

Heat loss through an uninsulated headhouse and north wall is continuous through the whole growing season, and it runs directly against your energy cost per square foot of production.

Humidity is extreme and constant, so anything that is not a vapour barrier is the wrong product. That means closed-cell.

We work around growing schedules. Nobody wants a spray rig running next to a crop at the wrong moment, and we plan the job around your calendar.

Shops, Machine Sheds And Pole Barns

The most common request we get, and the most straightforward to specify.

A shop you want to heat needs the roof deck sealed first. That is where most of the heat goes and where the condensation forms.

Pole barn construction with girts and purlins leaves a lot of irregular cavity that batts never fill properly. Foam does not care about the shape.

If the building is used for equipment repair or fabrication, the foam needs covering to code and it needs to survive being knocked. We spec thickness with that in mind.

Partial jobs are normal. Plenty of people insulate a heated workshop bay and leave the cold storage end alone. We will price it either way.

Livestock And Poultry Buildings

Animal housing is its own problem. Stock produce heat and a great deal of moisture, and ventilation carries it to every cold surface in the building.

Uncontrolled condensation means wet bedding, corroded fasteners and steel, and an environment that works against herd or flock health.

Closed-cell foam on the roof deck and walls holds the interior surfaces above dew point and keeps the assembly dry.

It also seals the gaps that let birds and vermin in behind a blanket system.

Wash-down areas need the product carried properly into junctions rather than stopping short, and the covering requirement still applies.

Commercial And Cold Storage

Chatham-Kent's agri-food sector means a lot of produce moves through packing, grading and cold storage buildings.

Cold rooms need continuous insulation with no thermal bridges and no air paths, because every gap is a place for frost to build and for the plant to work harder.

Closed-cell foam gives high R-value per inch, which matters when wall thickness is limited, and it handles the vapour drive from warm outside to cold inside.

We also do warehouses, workshops, mechanical rooms, garages and light manufacturing across the municipality.

Commercial work is scheduled around your operation rather than ours, and the dates go in the quote alongside the price.

Closed-Cell Or Open-Cell? The Honest Answer

Closed-cell gives about R-6.0 to R-7.0 per inch, settling near R-6.5 after thermal drift. It is rigid, it acts as a vapour barrier at sufficient thickness, and it costs more.

Open-cell gives about R-3.5 to R-3.8 per inch. It expands much further, damps sound well, and runs roughly half the price per board foot.

Open-cell is **not** a vapour barrier. That fact decides nearly every agricultural and commercial job.

Anywhere there is moisture, ground contact, livestock, wash-down, refrigeration or steel cladding, we spec closed-cell. Open-cell has its place in interior partitions and some conditioned residential work, and we will tell you when that is the right answer.

Spray Foam Has To Be Covered. Here Is What That Means

This catches people out, and it is worth knowing before you compare quotes.

Spray foam cannot be left exposed in occupied space. The Ontario Building Code requires a thermal barrier over it, and half-inch gypsum drywall is the standard accepted assembly. Approved spray-applied intumescent coatings are an alternative under sections 9.29.4 through 9.29.9.

In spaces people do not normally occupy, a thinner tested ignition barrier is often acceptable instead.

How this applies to an agricultural building depends on its classification and use, and it is something we work through with you rather than leave for an inspector to raise later.

If a quote you have does not mention covering the foam, that quote is incomplete.

Ventilation, Re-Entry And Livestock

Nobody can be in the building while we spray, and not for a period afterwards.

Curing foam releases isocyanates and other compounds. Correctly mixed and properly ventilated, it clears within the manufacturer's stated re-entry window, and we ventilate mechanically to get there.

**Livestock must be out too.** This is the part that needs planning on a working farm, and it is the first thing we discuss when scheduling.

You get the re-entry time in writing before the job, not after. If anyone tells you stock or people can stay in during a spray, get another quote.