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Detailing wall with exterior rigid and hollow girts with fiberglass cavity insulation – GreenBuildingAdvisor
- June 20, 2025
- Posted by: sherwin@eyeconz.com
- Category: Uncategorized
These questions may seem very nit-picky, but I want to finish this project right.
I have a relatively large steel building (zone 4) that will partially be used for “living” space. I am attempting to do a good job insulating it to make it as affordably as possible to do this. The building has steel girts, and I have the wall stackup as shown in my attached picture.
In a previous question (https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/question/vapor-barrier-on-interior-with-rigid-foam-exterior) it was advised to have NO dead space on the exterior side of my cavity insulation. However, I have a couple specific questions:
1. The girts have a C shape that includes a small “leg” that protrudes inward about 1/2″ (see picture). I was able to secure a good quantity of ACTUAL 24″ wide R-19 unfaced insulation which I wanted so I could fill the dead area inside the girt as well as the cavity. However, as you see in the picture, this will undoubtedly create a couple small voids as the insulation curves around the girt “legs”. Is this OK or a recipe for some kind of problem?
2. The exterior rigid foam (1″ XPS) is glued (with Great Stuff foam) and taped (Owens Corning HOMESEALR tape). However, from the inside, there are small gaps (Typically 1/8″ or less) where the foam boards didn’t meet up perfectly and/or the foam adhesive didn’t ooze all the way through. Is it worth trying to fill each of these small gaps with foam? Should I tape these seams from the inside as well? These processes are a nontrivial amount of work, but wanted to see if they are beneficial enough to consider doing. It should be noted, any larger gaps (greater than 1/8″) I will certainly at least fill with foam.
Thanks in advance.
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