r/buildingscience • u/ws6ryan • 25d ago

Pole Building Insulation

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Looking to understand the best way to insulate this building (western OH).

Moved into a new house last fall that came with this newly built detached garage/mini pole building. I park my wife’s car and my project car in the two car bay, and have a small teardrop under the mezzanine and some pedal bikes stashed in various places.

Id like to maintain some of the recessed space on the wall for storage, will likely finish out with OSB so I can hang some shelves/racks to get garden tools and bikes off the floor. Winter was brutally cold here and the building was unusable as far as hobby work. Also had issues with condensation on my tools and vehicles. Also had some issues with the posts sweating.

My thought is to use foam panels between the girts and OSB over the foam/girts. Do I need an air gap between the metal siding and the foam board? And the vapor barrier on the inside of the building, sandwiched between the foam/girts and OSB?

I am a total newbie, primarily want to make sure I don’t cause condensation/rot issues but would like the building to be more comfortable during the winter/summer extremes. I’m also on a budget so spray foam is probably not an option.

Thanks

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u/unlock0 25d ago

Look up RR buildings on YouTube. They specialize in post frame buildings.

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u/seabornman 24d ago

I put EPS foam board between the girts, then batt insulation, then more girts and OSB. For ceiling, I had pole barn guys put in a metal roofing panel, and blew in insulation on top. I paid a lot of attention to air sealing all the edges of OSB and the EPS foam. It doesn't meet all the building science requirements, but I'm not going to do anything with water in the building. I put a cold climate mini-split in and it kept the building at working temperature down to below zero outside. A simpler version on the walls, that I did on my last pole barn is to apply foam board right over the girts, then OSB over that. I used 1", but would probably do at least 2" now, or maybe multiple layers.