My house was built in 2001 and I am in the process of finishing the basement. There is an insulation that was wrapped around the whole perimeter and fastened and taped to the concrete walls. It has white plastic sheeting facing the interior of the house. I am debating whether to remove this entirely to finish the basement. Other alternatives would be to frame over it but I’m not sure then how to add more insulation. Would I then perforate the plastic lining and place the vapor barrier on the new stud walls? Thanks for your help.
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No idea where to buy it or how much they would cost, but last basement I finished I'd come across a surplus yard with 'free' (you haul) sheets of 4x8 melamine hardboard glued to 1" of expanded polyethylene.
Put sleepers at 4 ft on center, screwed the panels to those and added an oak batten board at the seams, worked great.
Melamine had some gouges and scratches (probably why free). Painted small scenes over the damaged areas or if gouges not too deep a decal ).
Remove the diaper
We refer to your existing insulation as the diaper. Because the contents are the same.
Remove it and replace with foam board, then stud wall, unfaced fiberglassin the studs then drywall. No vapor barrier on the interior.
-Rob
That's what I figured. I will try salvage some of it in the ceiling to deaden sound from the upstairs. Thanks a lot.
Would this work above grade?
Would I use this approach above grade? I'm renovating a 103 year-old brick row house and will be re-framing and insulating a wall, with drywall as the finish surface. I want to use a combination of rigid foam and fiberglass. Most advice I've seen is to put up the stud wall, insulate between the studs with fiberglass or roxul, then attached the rigid foam to the stud wall, then furring strips and drywall. But that approach complicates electrical work a bit. I've also read mixed reviews of the degree to which rigid foam serves as a vapour barrier . . . and it's this quality of the rigid foam that I believe leads folks to recommend having the rigid foam on the warm side of the fiberglass in the wall, to prevent trapping moisture in the fiberglass section of the wall. Any thoughts/advice? Thanks.
Let's back up a bit ... WHY insulate a basement? And, if so, how much and what kind?
These are inportant questions. By the time you reach the floor level of a true 'full' basement, you're at a depth where the ground temperature stays about 60, year-round.
We've discussed basement remodelling a few times before, and I have come to question most of the 'conventional wisdom.' To stay on point, let me start by saying it all begins with the FLOOR. Not the walls at all.
The floor is where you will lose your heat. The floor is where moisture will condense. Thus, your first step is to make that floor at least absolutely level, or, better, flat and pitched to the sump. Then float a T&G plywood floor over rigid foam.
Because of moisture issues - every basement WILL get wet at some point - I'd not put fiberglass insulation within 6" of the floor, or drywall within 3" I'd even space the walls off the foundation walls, using 'hat channel.'
Let's back up a bit ... WHY
Edited to remove duplicated post - no idea how that happened!