Partially Finished Basement – Insulation Question
Hello all – new fan of the forums/hoping for some insight regarding basement insulation…
I recently moved into a Cape Cod style home built in 1939 in southern Minnesota. Half of the basement is finished and heated. The other half of the basement is our “unfinished” (concrete floor, exposed block walls, no heat register) utility room. There are some cheap French doors that connect the two areas that we leave open 100% of the time and the stairway to the upstairs does not have a door of any sort.
For some reason the previous owner stuffed some fiberglass insulation between the floor joists in the utility room only. Presumably in an attempt to keep the floors of the above bedroom and kitchen “warmer” or combat drafts. Since the utility room free flows to the rest of the house I feel that the batts are not doing much good in terms of overall heating efficiency and I am thinking about getting rid of them. They are exposed and annoying – waiting to someday fall on some unsuspecting laundry do-er.
However, is it possible they mitigate some cold air drafts to the bedroom/kitchen above the utility room or are they simply visual clutter? If so, would I be better off to remove the batts and properly insulate the rim joists in the utility room instead? Keep the batts and properly seal the rim joists? Should I shut the doors and forget the utility room exists? Sell the house and move? Thanks for any thoughts/ideas.
-dn
Replies
DN that's the exact approach I took when I finished my own basement. Concentrate on air infiltration from outside - rim joists, basement windows, sill plate etc. Insulate the walls if you can. That way there is no cold air getting in.
I used an airless spray painter and put a few coats of latex onto the joists and left them exposed int he finished basement.
They look good. My basement is warm (no heater just the exposed radiator piping that feeds the upstairs) so it works for me. In your case you may need a heat source down there to keep your floors a little warmer,
Sounds like a solid plan. I do not think anything in the basement is adequately insulated at this point. The finished side does not appear to have rim joist or wall insulation. Not surprised if corners were cut. I assume ditching the batts and insulating the rim joists I have access to will at least be as good, likely much more effective, than the batts themselves. Insulating the walls might be more of a production.
I will look into tapping into the ductwork for a register or two in the unfinished side as well.
Thanks for the support.
-dn
Perhaps they were installed for sound attenuation?
Valid point. The old washer and dryer were quite loud. I could see a situation in which the homeowner wanted to do something to soften the racket below. Maybe they had some batts left over when they re-insulated only half of the attic...
I'm still leaning towards it offering little by way of heat/energy savings in it's current location.