aeroaddict

aeroaddict

Well Known Member
I'm still on track to start the RV build journey. Recently bought a hanger, it is insulated (walls and ceiling), and has a heater. The door is a Schweiss bi-fold and is not insulated. The door faces north and the area has the four seasons with cold temps in the winter and hot temps in the summer.

It seems a little useless to not have an insulated door. With the current HOT weather in the west, I can feel some heat coming off the door.

So my questions are; should I insulate the door and if so, how would you do that? I looked at the rigid insulation foam boards and the R value is not that great ~ 4 to 5 for one inch thick.
 
Hard to believe they would insulate the walls and ceiling and not do the door. Look for water stains and make sure the door wasn't leaking and ruined the insulation maybe the previous owner just removed it instead of replacing it.
I would defiantly insulate it. I would use the rolls, you can get it from any metal building supply house.
 
I have two hangar doors. One, facing north, insulated. One facing south, not insulated.
The north facing door is insulated. I would always insulate a north facing door.

My reason for not insulating the south facing door is, in the winter, the sun heats the door which radiates heat inside. In the summer, if I'm in the hangar, the door is open.
 
The people I know who are happy with their hangar door insulation used spray on expanding foam type insulation. I'm sure it was expensive.

Mel's comments are on target. I moved hangars a few years ago, but prior to that had a South facing hangar. Relatively warm in the winter because the sun shone right on the door or into the hangar and cool in the summer because the sun never hit the door or came directly into the hangar.

My new hangar faces East. Warm on Winter mornings. Hotter than blazes on Summer mornings.
 
Kyle Boatright said:
My new hangar faces East. Warm on Winter mornings. Hotter than blazes on Summer mornings.
Click to expand...

But not nearly as hot as a west facing door in the afternoon!

Once when I bought a Port-A-Port hangar, the airport manager told me it had to face west. When the hangar sales rep found out that I would cancel the deal if it had to face west, he called the airport manager and had a talk with him.
He "magically" found a spot facing south. Coincidentally the same spot I had already suggested.
 
aeroaddict said:
I looked at the rigid insulation foam boards and the R value is not that great ~ 4 to 5 for one inch thick.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't knock rigid foam. As a point of reference, fiberglass batts have an R value of 3 to 3.5 per inch of thickness. (4" typical wall thickness = R-13)
 
I went through this last year. Idid 1 inch urethane this closed all pin holes and cracks my concern was weight of the urethane on my bifold door but my door handles the weight ok. I am happy with results. A lot cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

Rich
 
Thanks all, good points. It sounds like the thing to do is insulate it.

The reason I brought up the rigid foam board insulation is for the installation; think I could just cut to size and use liquid nails to attach the board to the sheet metal of the door. If using the fiberglass batting I wouldn't know how to fasten/attach it to the door to keep it in place.

I considered the spray type but haven't priced that out.
 
They will just pop off if you try adhesive. You can use hard foam expanded or extruded, but you have to strap them in with edge framing or a cross-board type thing.
 
My hangar neighbor has a batt insulated door that is still working well after 8-10 years. The batts are held in place by gismos that look like nails with an adhesive pad on one end. That end sticks to the sheet metal of the door spaced about every 18". The batts are pushed over the nails, then a sheet metal fender washer is pushed on the end of the nail. Sorry I don't know the real name of these things, but they are well known to insulation guys.

Jim Berry
RV-10
 
Yes I have seen what you are describing in commercial buildings. I think I will call local insulation contractors and inquire about their services.

At this point, trying to think out of the box, I'm going to investigate if I can easily remove the sheet metal skin of the door (held on by sheet metal screws) to understand if I can use fiberglass batt to lay on the metal door frame and then refasten the sheet metal skin which will also hold the fiberglass batt in place.
 
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Compressed fiberglass is not worthless, but it gets it's insulating factor from the air spaces it creates when fluffed up. Compressing it will reduce it's effectiveness considerably. Foil covered foam insulation is what I would use and have used on hundreds of commercial buildings and doors.

Air coming in around the door gaps if it is not properly weatherstripped will reduce the benefit of adding insulation. Breaking the heat-cold transfer from the metal and eliminating air leaks is your goal. Sprayed Foam insulation does that the best and ridged foam sheets are second. Batts are very good - if installed properly and in locations they are designed for.

If you can't fix the air leaks, there will not be much benefit in insulating. An oven or refrigerator do not work very well with their doors open.

If you live in a humid location, you have a whole new list of things to consider.
 
Insulate Door

We have a Schweiss North Facing insulated door.
The blankets were hung prior to the metal being attached from the top to thebottom in one piece.
The metal was then screwed down which retains the blanket insulation.
Yes there is some degradation in "R" value where the blankets are
compressed but it sure makes a diference in both winter
and summer as the heat gain/loss is miinimized.
The white vinyl backed insulation also reflect light in the hangar which helps when working inside.
We are very happy with it overall and would do it again.
 
Consensus and common sense (which isn't always common) is to insulate the door. My only question now is what to use and how to attach. Today I will go to the hanger and investigate the difficulty removing the external sheet metal skin. If not to difficult then the decision comes down to fiberglass batt (removing the skin and then reinstalling) or using foam board with the proper adhesive.

But no work will be done until this heat wave is over. It is hot out west, forecast is 111F today !!
 
Insulation

Try a metal building supplier for the blanket insulation. A good vapor barrier will protect the insulation and give a reaonable finish.
 
OK, so there is a reason to actually look at the whole post BEFORE making a comment. After commenting, I found out this was the hangar that had MY PLANE IN IT! I had just delivered my plane on a trailer from Colorado to Idaho and put it in the hangar that the question was about.

It is plenty dry here and holy cow, it has been hot this week. It was so hot, I didn't even make it to the hangar to check it out. Dan, I will look tomorrow and we can figure it out!
 
The stick pins used to hold batt type insulation on inside of metal in metal buildings:

InsulationAccessoriesStickPins.jpg
 
Insulation

You will need a mastic to imbed the base clip. McMaster Carr might be a good source. I te commend removing the outer skin if possible.
 
A friend of mine recently constructed a home, and used the new spray-foam insulation between the attic rafters vs. on the attic floor. This creates a sealed cocoon over the house, and in the middle of a 110 degree day the attic is only 2 degrees cooler than the rest of the house. The rest of the house is sealed against outside drafts - so much so that he had to incorporate a fresh air feed in his HVAC to insure he wouldn't get "sick house." His home uses about 1/3 of the energy to heat and cool of a conventional build.

Spray foam is a bit more expensive than other approaches, but has advantages.
 
I recently built a row of T hangars and was previously involved in another T hangar project and all exterior walls, ceiling, and doors were insulated with fiberglass bats - primarily for condensation protection. It does, however help keep the temperature moderate in all seasons. I've never seen a hangar temp below 40 degrees, even when it was below zero outside in Ohio. I would highly recommend insulating your door.
 
This doesn't directly apply to the OP's situation but I'll share in case it's useful to others.

I'm in a large uninsulated metal hangar (40x60). To build, I constructed a workshop room inside of the hangar. 3 walls are formed by the hangar walls. The 4th wall and ceiling are exposed to the interior space of the hangar.

Room construction consisted of stud walls on all 4 sides with ceiling joists on top.

I struggled with figuring out how to insulate the shop. I settled on rolls of 1/4" fiberglass sandwiched in between white vinyl on one side and reflective aluminum on the other. The entire shop is lined with this stuff. The vinyl provides an ideal reflective surface for the interior and the reflective aluminum appears to be very effective in reflecting radiant heat given off by the hangar's metal walls.

I'm in NC where summer heat is the main issue and this insulation seems to be very effective at fighting it. OTOH, while winter is not so cold, I do have trouble keeping things as warm as I would like on some days of the year. Part of the reason for that is I have a small heat pump based HVAC which per the specs, does a great job cooling but is limited in it's heating. But my sense is that this type of insulation is particularly effective at keeping radiant heat from a metal building out but not as effective in keeping conductive heat in or out when compared to some high R-valued fiberglass batt or foam.

It's amazing how cool the shop stays even when the HVAC is not operating. OTOH, I think the rest of my hangar stays hotter but I don't really know.

Another thing I like is that I don't have a bunch of insulation in my walls to get wet and mildew. Condensation isn't a problem but a leak could make the insulation a mess.

I was never able to find good information on insulating metal buildings... just a lot of product offerings. But for cooling, I think that any metal building, sitting in the sun, can benefit from a reflective surface on the interior that faces the metal exterior.
 
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