How thick should insulation be in a shed?

4 inches (100mm) of insulation in the walls would fill the void in your wall between your 2x4 timbers. This would give you a good bit of heat retention but you will also need to limit the size of openings in the shed such as doors and windows.

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Return to Shed Insulation Questions.

Insulating a shed to keep heat out

by Otto Go

(Antelope, Ca)

I just got an 8x12 Yardline shed built and I want to insulate the inside the keep it cooler inside for the hot summers here in Roseville Ca. What are some tips, I wanted to know if going through the process of insulating will even help keep it cooler?? Please advise? It is 2x4 construction

Answer:

Hi Otto,

Thanks for your question. I can think of three low-cost techniques for limiting the heat gain in a shed: The first is to make the outside of the shed as light a colour as possible so that it reflects the suns heat. This can take the form of painting the outside of the shed a light colour, white or light pastel shades would work well. Roofs coverings are often dark (thinking of felt shingles here) and absorb heat. Shingles have an impregnated mineral on the surface to help reflect the heat. But this isn’t too effective and the minerals become detached over time. The roof that I would recommend would be a silver metallic roof which is about as reflective of heat and light as you can get! You could instal this on top of the plywood/shingles that you already have with an air gap beneath. This should prevent a fair amount of heat absorption. The second technique would be to install a radiant barrier. This is effectively a sheet of tough aluminium foil that reflects the heat from the sun back out rather than allowing it into the building. This can be fixed to the inside of the walls and roof. Speak to a local builders merchant to see what is used locally. The third item that you should investigate would be ventilation. Make sure that you have vents at the base and also at the highest point of the roof (at each end). The vents will allow cooler air from ground level in and allow the warmer air at roof level to escape. Having vents on opposing sides of the building will allow the building to benefit from any small breezes. Dependent on how you intend to use the shed then having doors and windows open to enable the heat to escape would help too. (With shades over the door and window to stop the sun/heat entering). The first of the three items are quite passive in their implementation and once installed will keep on working without further input. I think that I would only install insulation if you were looking to actively cool the building with an air-con unit. If you were to follow this route then the buildings colour and the radiant barrier would still be effective. However, you would then want the building to be as airtight as possible to stop cool air escaping, so I would re-consider the vents. The thickness and type of insulation would depend on the outside temperature and the temperature that you wished to achieve. I hope that this helps to progress your thoughts and that you have found it useful.

Regards

John

PS. It would be great if you could send me a picture of your shed. (did you mean a Heartland Shed? Or Hardline?)

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