We are spending our first winter in our new house and we noticed ice coming through the wall. The builder said there is nothing they can do and it is because we are living in the home now. How can I reply to that?
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It's not ice "coming through the wall", it's frost collecting in a cold corner. From the picture I can't tell where the problem is, but I'm guessing it's not in the basement but in the upper corner of the top floor, where the ceiling meets an outside corner. This is kind of semi-normal, if the insulation is not "perfect".
One thing you want to do is not let it get too humid in the house. If you are getting a lot of condensation on the windows then you need to run bathroom exhaust fans and the like a bit more aggressively. And if you have a humidifier, make sure it's not turned up too high.
Is there a warranty in place? Ice on the inside is not good at all. It’s could be a simple fix like just stuffing some insulation in the wall. It looks like insulation is missing or open air getting into the house.
I love it! Too many builders are such jerks. Instead of being contrite as he should he deflects.
Anyway, it looks like your insulation is not complete at that spot. You could punch a few holes in that area and blow a can of spray foam up there.
That isn't ice "coming through", that's frost collecting, due to high humidity and low temperature. And this looks to me to be a ceiling corner, not the basement.
Take steps to control the humidity in the house -- run bathroom exhaust fans more and turn down your humidifier if you have one. And check from the outside to make sure there aren't any nearby openings where cold air could blow in.
It's a walk out basement and instead of making the wall go straight to the ceiling they made a partial wall along the foundation so it looks like a couple steps going up the wall. I was reading in the building codes something about continuity of insulation. Feeling a bit nervous about the home warranty. Nothing but bad reviews and u have to give them a deposit.
That's the corner of the walls and the slab, right? Are you sure that's ice and not efflorescence? Are the walls painted? If so, are those bumps on the left one grit or bubbles in the paint? Where in the country are you? Does a downspout drain onto the ground near that corner of the house?
Yeah, if it's at a bottom corner it's efflorescence.