Insulation of Existing Basement Walls
The guy that did the basement for the previous owner of my house put up a vapor barrier (plastic) and wallboard, but did not put any insulation between the vapor barrier and the concrete wall. the basement gets cold in the winter (there is no heating down there now, but I plan to put some baseboard heating in). Most ov the basement is below grade. So it seems to me I have several options: 1) leave things as they are and rely on the insulation value of the concrete walls; 2) try to cut holes at the top and blow in fiberglass or foam insulation (not clear foam i doable for a closed wall and cellulose won’t work bc of the moiture); or 3) tear down the wallboard and properly insulate with spray foam or rigid foam (not my preferred route bc of cost)
Any thoughts you all may have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Replies
If it's not to much drywall, I would foam it. I've done a few basements this way the results are better than you would expect. Also if you have room, you should consider putting 2 inch foam on the floor, it has huge results too. If there is to much drywall to consider tearing it down you could use 'aircrete'. I've never used it personally, but I understand it's good for this type of application. You'd have a 2 inch hole in each stud cavity, you could burry it under crown, or do some patching, also trim tex has some mouldings that would work well for this application. Good luck
Sorry for the ignorance, but what is an "aircrete"? Is foam based?
rc
What about putting up EPS foam (it's vapor permiable) over the existing drywall and then drywalling again over that? You loose the cost and mess of that initial demolition.