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Bergamount22 Oct 2017 23:27Hello everyone,
I have a small barn from 1980 with a floor area of 10m x 10m (33ft x 33ft). The barn has no intermediate ceiling and a roofing made of asbestos cement sheets.
The barn will now be used as a hobby workshop and will be heated occasionally—mainly on weekends or after work.
However, heating doesn’t make much sense with the asbestos cement roofing. Therefore, we are considering adding roof insulation. Since, as mentioned, heating will be infrequent, I am concerned that the insulation might absorb moisture and cause mold.
My question: Has anyone had experience with a similar situation? Are my concerns valid, or could these fears be unfounded?
What would be the best insulation solution for this situation?
Thank you in advance.
I have a small barn from 1980 with a floor area of 10m x 10m (33ft x 33ft). The barn has no intermediate ceiling and a roofing made of asbestos cement sheets.
The barn will now be used as a hobby workshop and will be heated occasionally—mainly on weekends or after work.
However, heating doesn’t make much sense with the asbestos cement roofing. Therefore, we are considering adding roof insulation. Since, as mentioned, heating will be infrequent, I am concerned that the insulation might absorb moisture and cause mold.
My question: Has anyone had experience with a similar situation? Are my concerns valid, or could these fears be unfounded?
What would be the best insulation solution for this situation?
Thank you in advance.
G
garfunkel23 Oct 2017 18:44Hello
Barns usually have just a wooden board wall or something similar. In most cases, there is nothing that qualifies as thermal insulation. They tend to be quite airy as well.
With an area of 10 x 10 m (33 x 33 ft), how tall is the barn?
That results in a significant volume. Heating all that up after work and doing it again every few days—I’m not sure how practical that is...
Which insulation is best depends on how the roof is constructed. If there are many corners and beams, at least glass wool (fiberglass) is needed, but probably blown-in insulation is better.
There are insulation materials that are less sensitive to moisture, though I can’t recall their names right now.
Unfortunately, I can’t say whether these are rigid, soft, or loose materials.
Then there is the question of what happens to the condensed moisture—if it repeatedly settles on the wood, that’s also not ideal.
Based on the floor area alone, this will be quite costly, I’d estimate several thousand euros.
Can the roof support the additional weight of the insulation, especially if a severe winter occurs again...
What will you use the barn for? Maybe it’s better to build a second, smaller room inside the barn, for example, 5 x 5 m (16 x 16 ft) with a simple ceiling.
This could be done using timber framing, with OSB boards on the inside, optionally including an insulation layer.
Add a simple workshop stove, and that’s it.
Then you might not even need thermal insulation because the stove provides enough heating power to keep a smaller room continuously warm, which also avoids problems with vapor barriers and mold.
Barns usually have just a wooden board wall or something similar. In most cases, there is nothing that qualifies as thermal insulation. They tend to be quite airy as well.
With an area of 10 x 10 m (33 x 33 ft), how tall is the barn?
That results in a significant volume. Heating all that up after work and doing it again every few days—I’m not sure how practical that is...
Which insulation is best depends on how the roof is constructed. If there are many corners and beams, at least glass wool (fiberglass) is needed, but probably blown-in insulation is better.
There are insulation materials that are less sensitive to moisture, though I can’t recall their names right now.
Unfortunately, I can’t say whether these are rigid, soft, or loose materials.
Then there is the question of what happens to the condensed moisture—if it repeatedly settles on the wood, that’s also not ideal.
Based on the floor area alone, this will be quite costly, I’d estimate several thousand euros.
Can the roof support the additional weight of the insulation, especially if a severe winter occurs again...
What will you use the barn for? Maybe it’s better to build a second, smaller room inside the barn, for example, 5 x 5 m (16 x 16 ft) with a simple ceiling.
This could be done using timber framing, with OSB boards on the inside, optionally including an insulation layer.
Add a simple workshop stove, and that’s it.
Then you might not even need thermal insulation because the stove provides enough heating power to keep a smaller room continuously warm, which also avoids problems with vapor barriers and mold.
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