I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the exterior walls of the finished basement at my family’s vacation/rental house.
Right now it’s mostly panelling that we painted white but is buckling off the walls and looks horrible. Some of the walls had sheetrock over EPS but it was in bad shape so we took it down to the concrete blocks and painted it with epoxy paint.
Bottom line is, it’s UGLY.
What I’m thinking is this: rip out everything that’s there. Glue 2″ XPS to the concrete walls. Attach expanded metal lathe to the foam. Use Structolite plaster or Durabond to skim coat the lathe.
The house is a log cabin, so I like the idea of some sort of texture on the walls. I could round the corners at the windows and kind of make it look like stone walls that got plastered over. If time and money were unlimited I’d do stone veneer or brick. They are both limited.
The house is in snow country so I like the idea of foam insulation on the walls.
The idea is to turn this room into a family-room style space. Right now it’s pretty hideous.
Anybody done this? Tips or tricks? How would you attach the lathe to the foam board?
Here’s the room now:
Here’s the living room upstairs, which has a new floor and new french doors:
(edit to add: saving this as a smaller file did funky things with the color. It’s all a nice aged pine color, not orange and brown the way it looks here.)
And here is the real reason to be there:
Edited 4/14/2007 4:28 pm ET by woodguy99
Replies
Can't answer your question, but I'd think wood planks would be best, and easiest over the foam.
Because there is so much wood upstairs I was thinking of something else downstairs. My wife and I were in Quebec city a few weeks ago and loved how the ground floors of all the old buildings had really thick masonry walls.
It just seems logical to have masonry, or at least the look of masonry, under logs....
Why not glue sheetrock over EPS? I just did that last week no problem, and a lot quieter on the inside...
Expert since 10 am.
It seems to me like it would work fine- the stucco or structolite is really bonded to the lath, not the xps, so I don't think the substrate would matter too much. How about using PT sleepers ripped to 2" at top and bottom, and vertically on 2' centers to attach the lath to? It might be overkill, but you'll want something to secure the wire to.
zak
"When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone." --John Ruskin
"so it goes"
Could you use one of the EIFS products directly over the foam and forget about the lath?
If I knew anything about EIFS, I'd be giving you an answer right about now. But I don't. It sounded like Woodguy wanted to put something up himself that would be durable, but a little bit rustic, and easy on the pocketbook. Seems like his idea of Structolite was a good one.zak
"When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone." --John Ruskin
"so it goes"
The sleepers are probably a good idea. I've done plenty of taping but no plaster or stucco work so I'm just guessing how to go about it.
If you've considered drywall why not use blueboard and skim coat it? I know B/B is readily available in your neck of the woods. You could even give it a skip trowel finish to cover up your "learning curve" on troweling. It would be a lot less trowel work than the structolite over lath. Just a thought...
Geoff
P.S. where abouts is the cabin? Great setting!!....and cabin!!
The cabin is in Bryant Pond, just south of Bethel in the Maine White Mountains.
My inspiration for the structolite over lathe is rough stonework that's been plastered over. I'm losing interest though thinking about mixing all that mud, whether over blueboard or lathe--I don't even like taping drywall so I don't know what I'm thinking.
There are lots of tapers in that area though...I could hang the rock, either GWB or BB, and hire the finishing out...specify a knockdown finish...get some of that rounded corner bead....
That would be close to the look I want and I wouldn't have to do the part I don't like...thanks for the idea!
I see you're not far away, the cabin's on VacationRentals.com and HomeAway.com. I'd give you the Breaktime discount if you're interested....