Our Steel Barndo Roof Leaks! Fixing Our Barndo Moisture Issue
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- After moving into our Barndo the weather really started to turn for the worse. We were so thankful to be out of the RV in the freezing cold weather, but we almost immediately noticed some severe leaks that had developed.
We immediately imagined that the steel roof screws were likely the point of failure, so we bought a bunch of special roof screws and immediately went about ensuring that the roof screws weren't the point of failure when it came to the roof.
After switching out every single bolt on the roof, and ensuring that there weren't any issues on top, we did some more research and found that it was almost certainly condensation issues that were causing the trouble.
This certainly plagued me for a while, and if I have any updates on our building I'll share that with you.
40 x 100 steel frame sitting on the ground. Got a foam quote. $75k More then the building. Maybe stuck ordering the white bales. thx for insite. I will order better screws.Ontario Canada
If you install it properly you won't have an issue just make sure it is a good vapor barrier and you'll be good. Good luck! Are you building it yourself?
Hey bro. Sorry to see the water problems. Just my opinion but that was quiet a bit of water you got out of that insulation up there for it to be condensation. Either that or youve got a massive amount of exposed surface area for condensate to accumulate. Maybe if that was a weeks worth of buildup on bare metal for that area? You also might want to dry out all of that insulation before any mold can grow. Ugh such a bummer man. I do have to say that your are taking all of these setbacks like a champ!! Some might call it quits but I like that you’re sticking with it and not giving up!!
On a positive note, if you do go with spray foam I think closed cell can be used as a WRB. Check on that for sure though because I could be wrong. I’m a HVAC guy by trade, so building envelope is a cousin of mine. Condensation is really a problem with today’s building codes and tight envelopes. Especially when you’re building to LEED standards. You seem to keep your roll up doors open a bit. Do you guys have a HRV or ERV? You can find out how many air changes are required for your volume or just run it off of a few humidistats. There are some white papers on IAQ that are a good read, might be worth checking out. Definitely don’t rule out a leaking roof if you don’t know 100% it’s not leaking.
Best of luck to you brother. Hopefully this is resolved quickly! Keep us posted! We can bounce ideas off the wall and someone might see something that nobody else did.
Thank you and that was a bit of a compilation of me fixing the problem and trying to troubleshoot it over the course of a few months.
When I reached my hand up there I could feel the crazy amount of moisture up on the metal. I ended up draining and drying it out to avoid mold on it because I was worried about that too. I go up and check to see if any water is accumulating periodically and it seems like it is fixed now. At some point I will definitely switch it to spray foam but it is on the list of things to do.
Hey! I have an HVAC question, could I reach out to you and ask it?
@@homesteadingbarndo dude I’m so sorry for the late response. I’m assuming you have found your answers already. If not I’m absolutely here for ya man. I just don’t check my YT notifications. Lol very very few people ever respond to my comments unlike yourself. Lol. But I’m totally available for a second opinion if you’ve already gotten one.
@@Justaguy0420 no worries! I have been so busy with other projects I haven't fixed the issue yet, I am getting a p6 error on my mini split after about 8 mo's of use. Just wondering if you would suggest getting the system re charged or trying to do a pressure test to see if there's a leak somewhere. Is it common to lose refrigerant after a while of continual use or should that not be happening
@@homesteadingbarndo what’s the manufacturer? I’m assuming you looked up “p6” and it said something along the lines of “low pressure”.
These systems are sealed systems so you should never have any reefer leaking for any reason. I’m assuming that your system uses 410a. If you are low on reefer your indoor units will ice up in cooling mode. Also did you install it? We will always do a “start up” report on all of our equipment. So you know it’s working within design spec from the start. It’s possible your system wasn’t pressure tested correctly and that you’ve always had a leak. It will work for a while if it’s a slow leak and you aren’t using it much. 410a sitting pressure on a 70 degree day is 201.5 lbs but the operating pressures can go up to 480 or 600 lbs on some units. So it’s possible for it to not leak when it’s off but to leak when it’s turned on.
With a startup report it will show your delta across your indoor unit. So if you can check the incoming air temp (usually the top of unit) and then check the discharge air temp to get your delta let me know what it is. This is in cooling. I will also need to know the outdoor ambient temps when you are doing this. So return temp, discharge temp, and outdoor temp.
You can also put an amp clamp on your line voltage (either L1 or L2 not both) to see if the compressor is actually doing any work. You will have design amperage on the name plate of the outdoor unit. I rarely see mini splits run at full amps.
Wish you were a little closer because we could figure this out in no time. I’ve got a recovery machine and bottle, plus vacuum, scale, gauges and a half full bottle of 410a in my storage unit right now. Lol. I will be coming over soon to take a look at some raw land.
did you install any ventilation in your building? Example would be a continuous ridge vent?
Nope we didn't vent at all. Is that a factor that helps with leaks?