So I have a 6mx6m steel shed which I will convert into a workshop. I like to do woodworking, boat building and board repairs. The shed is hot though and I expect timber and materials stored in there to suffer. Does anyone have an good and economical suggestions for insulation and temperature control for steel sheds?

whirlybird would help

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Shifu said..
So I have a 6mx6m steel shed which I will convert into a workshop. I like to do woodworking, boat building and board repairs. The shed is hot though and I expect timber and materials stored in there to suffer. Does anyone have an good and economical suggestions for insulation and temperature control for steel sheds?

Do what my mate did, he found where new building construction sites were, then spoke to the Company who removed the big site waste bins and collected all the off cut insulation pieces. Waste mob let him have them, saved paying to dump same.
Didn't take long before he had enough to do roof and walls. Strung galvanized ring lock or chicken wire as he went to hold it in place.
Bloody cool shed now.

I am going to suggest something at a tangent, but keep the sun from hitting the roof by fitting some shade sails above the metal roof.

Move the shed to the South Pole

Bunnings has a 75mm insulation with a Aluminized film in one side. Get some mesh to keep it in place. Keep the Foil facing the inside.
It will make a big difference.

There are a myriad of products and solutions, the one above is probably the easiest/cheap.

Don't buy a cheap shed and expect to turn it in to a workshop. Do it properly. But if you have already got cheap shed. Here's the expensive option. Thought long and hard about the best way. But given that headroom was low, the roof leaked and I didn't want to work upside down with chicken wire, I put a colourbond roof over the whole lot. A 180mm gap to put in insulation. But heat will come in through the walls, so you're going to have to frame the inside to contain wall insulation. At least then you've got walls that are easy to put in a cup hook to hang stuff off.

For working in a shed Cross Flow ventilation is the key, if you only have an opening in one end the air doesn't move through the shed.
Install windows or doors in at least one other wall apart from the end with roller doors.

For cooling when you don't have the doors open you are going to need to insulate the roof and probably the western wall too. There's no really easy way to do the roof, you will need to lift up sections and screw them down again while fitting something like air cell insulation underneath.

As said above, a whirly bird will help extract the hot air too.

A bloke I know here used spray foam over the inside of his whole shed.
It's like one big esky inside. It wasn't the aerosol stuff he mixed it himself, might be worth looking into.

It's a pretty good shed. Came with the house. Double roller doors and heaps of power points and lights.


Upside down cos this is Australia

e vents have a better capacity than whirly birds, for insulation air cell which is basically a bubble wrap with foil and anti glare foil would be your best option, stuffing insulation against tin doesnt work, it requires air flow and will sweat, problem with sheds is that the spans between frames is large, if it was mine id cut vents high up , just under the gutter line, ensure they are weather resistant, id then aircell the internal structure , flick off tin and aircell on top of perlins foil tape overlaps and refit tin, you need to leave a slight droop between perlins so the insulation is effective with airflow, adding a couple of louvered vents or opening will also allow to release trapped heat, ive been in construction and energy efficient high end housing for most of my working life,mainly europe, australia has the worst methods in efficiency ive come across, take the colour of your shed as the 1st f up, then buying a sail board as your second

I build houses for a living,,,,,,,, for what it's worth.
For heat, proper ventilation is more effective than insulation, whirly birds on top with vents down around the floor level, the hot air can't go out thru the top, if it doesn't suck cooler air in at the bottom.
Just painting the roof white will help also.
I'd only add insulation if you are having problems with getting too cold while working in there.

I got sheets of polystyrene they are 50mm x 1mtr x2,5 mtr they use as packing for materials & cut to suit & liquid nails to glue onto walls used angles for roof to support .so i got them free
makes a massive difference & sound proofs the shed which will probably make the neighbours happy if you run machines in there I got dust extraction happening I would recommend that as it doesn't take much to fill a shed that size up with dust happy man caving

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Mastbender said..
I'd only add insulation if you are having problems with getting too cold while working in there.

mate........you don't really need to worry much about getting cold in Queensland - and the insulation will make a big difference in a steel shed.

even with good ventilation - the steel walls and roof will often get too hot to touch.

As well as all the good advice above you might consider an electric fan in the roof to pull air through the shed and expel it outside. I have one in my house. It has a diameter of about 1 meter and when turned on will pull doors shut. The idea being that a gentle breeze flows through the house and removes any hot air. We've had it for about 10 years now and costs about 30 cents per hour to run. On those hot Sydney nights we never need the air conditioner in summer.

The commercial ones are pretty expensive (~$2000) but a handy man could probably rig something up.

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actiomax said..
I got sheets of polystyrene they are 50mm x 1mtr x2,5 mtr they use as packing for materials & cut to suit & liquid nails to glue onto walls used angles for roof to support .so i got them free
makes a massive difference & sound proofs the shed which will probably make the neighbours happy if you run machines in there I got dust extraction happening I would recommend that as it doesn't take much to fill a shed that size up with dust happy man caving

I used that too, works great but stinks like chemical **** in hot weather. Pulled it out eventually (decided it would burn and drip pretty good too in a fire and wreck everything inside the shed) and replaced it with aluminium foil, held in place with magnets. Easiest and fastest way to install the ally and it works great. Can vouch for this stuff. shedinsulationdiy.com/index.html

That stuff above looks the go...

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ThinkaBowtit said..

I used that too, works great but stinks like chemical **** in hot weather. Pulled it out eventually (decided it would burn and drip pretty good too in a fire and wreck everything inside the shed) and replaced it with aluminium foil, held in place with magnets. Easiest and fastest way to install the ally and it works great. Can vouch for this stuff. shedinsulationdiy.com/index.html

"Yeah B*tch!! Magnets!"
going to have to remember using magnets for things like that, awesome idea

I got the strips with magnets spaced along them, as well as just the magnets. Go the strips for the roof at least, bit more exy but heaps easier and looks good.

Mine doesn't stink its polystyrene used for insulated roof &walls so i don't know if that makes a difference

Poly styrene has some insulation value but king span is a premium product and would possibly be as much as your sheds worth

And it can have an unpleasant odour , cat piss comes to mind when new , but this disperses

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sn said..

Mastbender said..
I'd only add insulation if you are having problems with getting too cold while working in there.

mate........you don't really need to worry much about getting cold in Queensland - and the insulation will make a big difference in a steel shed.

even with good ventilation - the steel walls and roof will often get too hot to touch.

Which is why I mentioned white paint.

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Mastbender said..


Which is why I mentioned white paint.

oops

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ThinkaBowtit said..

actiomax said..
I got sheets of polystyrene they are 50mm x 1mtr x2,5 mtr they use as packing for materials & cut to suit & liquid nails to glue onto walls used angles for roof to support .so i got them free
makes a massive difference & sound proofs the shed which will probably make the neighbours happy if you run machines in there I got dust extraction happening I would recommend that as it doesn't take much to fill a shed that size up with dust happy man caving

I used that too, works great but stinks like chemical **** in hot weather. Pulled it out eventually (decided it would burn and drip pretty good too in a fire and wreck everything inside the shed) and replaced it with aluminium foil, held in place with magnets. Easiest and fastest way to install the ally and it works great. Can vouch for this stuff. shedinsulationdiy.com/index.html

I like the look of this stuff. Might be the easiest way to do it.

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actiomax said..
Mine doesn't stink its polystyrene used for insulated roof &walls so i don't know if that makes a difference

You might be right, I just used plain polystyrene sheets about an inch thick, no coating on it or anything.
Or it might be the temps, it wouldn't start stinking until it got to about 37+. Almost made your eyes bleed in the mid 40s.


Go for it Shifu, I'm happy I did.

That looks pretty cool .
most of mine has metal skin on inside .
it's taken a while but my shed is a lot bigger .
I really don't know how much sound proofing you would get from that I just know my neighborhood probably appreciates sound proofing more than anything else i enjoy as a result .
But you might have more distance between neighbours I just wanted to be able to run machines and turn my guitar up to 2 & not piss anybody off &hey it was free .
I enjoy the sound proofing I cant hear my wife yelling at the kids when I'm in shed