I looked at foaming our "shop".........the cold end when I decided to make that end warm............that end 60 x 60 x 16.

Foam was just 3 times higher than "conventional".

We used can foam to fill the obvious less-than-tight areas of the walls, and then put 8 inches of fiberglass in the sidewalls, coupled with plastic, and then steel......and we can find no drafts.

Assuming no drafts of relevance, we ended up with over 3x the R factor.

Ceilings.........fiberglass on plastic on  steel...........and we are not having to heat the area above the 16ft.

So......lets assume we need to completely redo the interior in 15-20 years.........the interest on the difference will pay for it............and, in reality, what is the probability of a need for a total do-over??

I would bet foam would be the ultimate.......due to its "sticking" ability..........but for the cost difference----------why?

If the vast bulk of the area is high R factor, and the drafts are nominal........I cannot believe that the difference in heating costs would be significant.  Opening and closing the doors will still be the biggest heat loss problems, and those will exist whether foam is used or plastic/fiberglass.

Granted........we took the time to foam the obvious problem areas first.......and then used really heavy plastic sheeting.............but even with an additional labor factor (work was totally done by employee-crew, who would have had to have been paid anyway)...........the cost was still a third.

Well.........I did buy the materials on sales........................

I'm not knocking foaming..........seems to me to be a great product..........just the NEED for the extra "quality" when so many other variables enter into the heating costs------and isn't that the primary concern--------heating costs??

I suspect that the foam has significantly lower labor costs than "conventional", so on commercial building construction, for example, where all of the labor has to be hired, as compared to contributed.......I can see where there would be a market.

Most ag operations, however, especially in the winter or summer months, can spare the comparatively little bit of time that insulating a shop requires, and resultantly, to say that labor cost is significant, is, well, from my perspective.............hooey.

Adding a labor cost is relevant only if there is a specific alternative use of that person's time.......say, at another job or project which would/could be going on simultaneously in which the labor would be producing revenue.