Insulation under commercial slab - HR

George Peteya

HR - maybe Dow 100 High Load from the perimeter in, say, 4 feet, but not in the doorways. Dow Chemical used to be helpful with things like this ... try 1(800)258-CHEM. Ask for a sample ... you'll get a piece 1 sq ft, 2" thick, with specifications on the label.

hr

I am looking at a trash company maintenance building. 10,000 square feet with heavy truck useage. What kind of weight per square foot on a 50-60,000 pound ten wheeler. I,d be nervous about weight issue of 1' foamboard or any of the new roll foam or bubble stuff. I do have 2" perimeter vertical foamboard in the design. Skip the underslab insulation??

hot rod

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Jeff Lawrence_24

I seem to remember

someone did a fire station with radiant (Heatboy or Joel??) a while back and the slab was thicker than normal. MAybe they'll see this and post what they did.

A/C season is here in the south. I'm almost to tired to go upstairs to go to bed!

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Colin

slab loading

The owners of this farm shop opted to leave the insulation out of the center as they planed to pull loaded semi's(60-80,000 #'s)in during the winter months so they would be road ready in the AM.We used 2" foam,champhered on the top edge and extending 12-16" down, and insul-tarp 6'in around the perimeter. We left the foam out at the overhead door-ways to get some thermal creep to keep the overhead and Hydro-swing doors from freezing down. The system seemed to work fine last winter, which was the first full season of use. The fuel bill was a little higher than I would have liked to see ($400.00/ Mo./12,000 Sq. Ft.heated) but with no insulation in 2/3 of the floor what could we expect.

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Earthfire

Garage

doors let out a lot of heat. I wouldn't use any insulation under the slab. Insulate the foundation , and let the slab and earth underneath be a a nice heat storage bank. Quick recovery when the doors come down.

Troy_3

insulation in comm. building

Hotrod: In my shop we used 2" 5# polystyrene and covered it with 5" of 4000psi concrete. We have pulled loaded semis with 48,000# of gypsum concrete plus truck weight onto this floor to unload. It hasn't moved yet. What is probably worse is the 4000# pallet of gyp on two little forklift tires. They told me the concrete spreads the load. We also stack 3 pallets high. that is 12,000# on a 4'x4' piece of concrete. Or 48,000# on a 12'x12' area. Don't know if this helps? What disturbs me is the fact that with 2" of poly under and up the edge I still melt snow around the perimeter of the building. That in my mind equals heat loss!