June is here, and we are now experiencing triple digit days (i.e. over 100 degrees). We all know there’ll be plenty more of these over the next few months. It makes us sweat and drives up our air-conditioning bills.

In our busy industrial areas, metal buildings and roofs are all around. Metal is often the construction material of choice for the hundreds of workshops, sheds, field offices and even barns that dot our industrial landscape. Here you can see a prime example: our local equipment storage facility.

Metal buildings and roofs are easy to construct, relatively inexpensive and shelter our equipment from storms. However, they are far from watertight. In addition, they reach hellish temperatures as the mercury soars.

Our workshop was already cooking when we decided to look at its insulation. The fiberglass was suffering. Water that had seeped through gaps in the metal frame had rendered much of it next to useless.

Enter spray foam. Looking for better protection from both moisture and heat, we decided to eat our own dogfood. We sprayed the shed interior with one-inch closed-cell foam, professionally applied by our local team. Not only did it restore a layer of insulation covering all walls and roofs but sealed all the small openings in the metal, creating a perfectly dry interior.

The metal building now has a more solid structure, better weather protection and temperature management. Even as our summer gets into full swing, interior temperatures have become quite bearable.

Of course, depending on the pitch of any roof, we often create additional insulation and temperature control by covering metal roofs with closed cell polyurethane spray foam and rolling out a reflective elastomeric coating. You can see many examples of our work on this site.

If you are feeling in the heat inside your workshop, field office or barn, now is the time to upgrade insulation and make your metal building work for you.