Simkie, on the topic of water lines, I spent last winter in a barn that was insulated (with the spray foam stuff) and that also was heated if needed. Despite that, the hydrant lines inside the barn were also individually insulated.
Lifetime in Montana and I’ve never seen an insulated barn. Even the equine clinic barns are not insulated; heated, but not insulated. Ours is cool in the summer with the shade and slightly less cold than the outside in the winter but we don’t keep our horses in the barn anyway. Water lines have to be insulated and heat-taped, insulation or not. Insulation is excellent mouse habitat, also.
[QUOTE=King’s Ransom;7773562]
The insulation discussion are always a hoot around here, since few know anything but everyone claims to be an expert!
If you travel to Europe, or even to areas in the U.S. where barns were made with extremely thick walls, you will notice that the barns stay cooler in summer and warmer in winter. That’s all. You don’t really need to be a physicist to figure it out.
Ventilation is a good thing. The sun beating down on a thin metal roof or west-face wall in summer — not so much. The wind blowing THROUGH the thin metal wall in winter, with ice forming on the inside … again, not too comfy for anyone.
Insulation is a good idea. Air-tight is not a good idea.
If you fill the voids between your metal walls and your kick boards inside the barn with straw you are creating an incredible, unbelievable fire hazard. And there is no way on earth you will seal that tight enough to keep insects and rodents out of it – and even if you did, they would eat right through your wood kick boards to get into it.
However, I am sure the OP is not going to do such a foolish thing![/QUOTE]
For what it’s worth, I am actually an expert. 
Just your friendly neighborhood nerd!! I’m an architectural engineer and I specialize in building energy efficiency. I do know a bit about insulation and fire ratings.
Foam board will insulate nicely and reduce drafts, making for a more comfortable barn even if you aren’t heating it. It will absolutely not be airtight, even if you seal the living crap out of it. But neither is your house, so don’t worry about it! There are lots of types of foam board… Polyiso is a good choice (better than polystyrene I would say, a little more bang for your buck and less chemical stuff) but I would still not leave it exposed on the walls, put it behind kick boards or drywall to protect it. (By the way, drywall makes for an excellent fire resistant layer.)
The benefit to insulating barns is not really the same as the insulation for your house, since we don’t traditionally heat our barns, but rather in slowing down heat transfer and tempering big temperature swings. The mass of an insulated wall will slowly warm during the day, and then when the air temperature drops at night, that wall will slowly release its stored heat into the barn. The more insulation and mass you have, the more heat you can store. It’s the reason adobe houses work so nicely.
My barn came with r13 batt insulation at the roof, which I have appreciated in the winter (you can absolutely feel the difference in the uninsulated side), but after 15 years the birds are starting to get into it.
Good luck Simkie, I am living vicariously through you and your adventure!!
This is why bank barns are so wonderful, cooler in the summer, warmer in the winter. 
As for an insulating big barn door, consider using garage door panels instead of the traditional metal sheeting door. They come in all kinds of widths, different thickness on the insulation between the two metal sides, and can be hung in any direction. I’ve used them under a cabin as a skirting, and it is amazing how much difference they have made. Tough as heck, chew proof, and they don’t even look that bad if you get all the same design. (I was picking up odd sizes and castoffs, so I did one side in one design, the other side in a totally different one) . Now I just have to convince the groundhog that while it is nicer inside, he had better stop trying to dig underneath!:mad:
If a horse grows a good haircoat, is healthy, has plenty of roughage and heated water to wash it down with, something to block the wind, they can withstand some pretty cold temperatures.
[QUOTE=rhymeswithfizz;7775968]
For what it’s worth, I am actually an expert. [/QUOTE]
I am so thankful we have an expert here to help Simkie! As for myself, I’m no expert, just a scientist. In the barn, you have horses that are consuming large quantites of feed and expelling faces/urine and water vapor. Ammonia from the feces/urine and the water need to be removed from the barn; otherwise, the indoor air quality will decline and this will adversely impact the respiratory health of the horses. I have read that 4-8 air changes per hour (ACH) are desireable to achieve this objective. In a 24’x36’x11.5’ barn, that means you need to be exhausting on the order of 60,000 cubic feet of indoor air to the outside every hour. In order to exhaust air, you need to bring in a similar volume of air to replace it. Please explain to us how insulation is going to slow down the influx of hot air in Summer and cold air in Winter when you are intentionally bypassing that insulation to ensure proper ventilation.
BTW, Adobe has a lot of thermal mass which allows it not only to impede heat transfer, but also to absorb heat. In addition, the adobe house is sealed, unlike a barn where you need to continually circulate air between the inside and outside. Thus adobe, and insulation in a horse barn is not a good analogy.
[QUOTE=Anjou;7776152]
I am so thankful we have an expert here to help Simkie! As for myself, I’m no expert, just a scientist. In the barn, you have horses that are consuming large quantites of feed and expelling faces/urine and water vapor. Ammonia from the feces/urine and the water need to be removed from the barn; otherwise, the indoor air quality will decline and this will adversely impact the respiratory health of the horses. I have read that 4-8 air changes per hour (ACH) are desireable to achieve this objective. In a 24’x36’x11.5’ barn, that means you need to be exhausting on the order of 60,000 cubic feet of indoor air to the outside every hour. In order to exhaust air, you need to bring in a similar volume of air to replace it. Please explain to us how insulation is going to slow down the influx of hot air in Summer and cold air in Winter when you are intentionally bypassing that insulation to ensure proper ventilation.
BTW, Adobe has a lot of thermal mass which allows it not only to impede heat transfer, but also to absorb heat. In addition, the adobe house is sealed, unlike a barn where you need to continually circulate air between the inside and outside. Thus adobe, and insulation in a horse barn is not a good analogy.[/QUOTE]
Well, if we really want to get nerdy here, there are three methods of heat transfer; conduction, convection, and radiation. Radiation from the thermal mass was what I was really getting at, which travels in waves (like light), and that will occur regardless of how windy your want to make your barn or even if you keep the windows and doors fully open, which I do. Warm surfaces don’t just heat the air around them, they radiate heat to whatever “sees” the warm surface, including people and horses.
As for ventilation, 4-8 ACH per hour is what we use for university and hospital laboratories with life safety issues and fume hoods, which seems overly dramatic for a barn. I do have an exhaust fan in my barn, but it isn’t a whole lot more powerful than a bathroom exhaust fan, maybe 150 cfm. Since I keep mine open 24/7, I’ve never actually used it
I am not an expert, but I have been to many, many barns in MN & SD. It was something of a hobby when I lived in the Twin Cities (barn touring). Anyway, insulation is definitely more comfortable, but you will still need a frost free hydrant in the barn. It can still freeze. So I wouldn’t insulate only because of water. Heat tape is probably a good idea either way, unless you are actually heating the barn.
The best barns, imho, are not heated very high–just above freezing to maybe 40 degrees, and have a ton of ventilation. The worst barns are heated too much and are tight. You want to pass out from the ammonia fumes–regardless of how many times they clean the stalls each day.
If I were building a barn I wouldn’t worry too much about insulating the whole barn (really, could go either way–I’ll leave that to the experts) but I would insulate the tack room and heat it up a bit, so I have somewhere I can warm up. I would insulate my indoor if I could afford it. I like insulated indoors.
Just my observation.
I’m going to be putting up a small metal barn in New Hampshire next year and I intend to insulate it with the foam panels. Questions:
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Are there any special clips or other thingys for securing the foam panels to the underside of the roof panels? Or can you just stick them to the ceiling with construction adhesive?
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Of course I’ll be covering the foam panels with something chewproof where the horses can get to it, but I’d like a white color for the ceiling to maximize light levels. Will plain latex paint stick to these panels? Do the panels always have a foil face? I’m assuming the foil faces inward as a moisture barrier and for fire resistance…
Do be sure to cover the insulation, I have seen the results of the red squirrels around here who had made an absolute hash of it, really tearing it down in sheets (fiberglass)! Who could have thought such little critters could be so destructive. Birds, mice, squirrels, probably even raccoons and skunks would like it.
Ditto - cover all insulation. I am certainly no expert. But my ADHA gelding pony liked to tear trips out of all the insulation he could reach.
