Thanks for responding so quickly, I used your words of wisdom and had a great talk with our contract manager. Yes we have a building permit, engineer drawings, and there is a local, part time (one day a week) building inspector. They were doing two horizontal rebar in the top and there were two in the footings, which also had a lot of vertical in them. which I now know is just barely code in this area. Of course I have been reading Finehomebuilding for too many years, and just assumed it would look like a whole network of rebar tied together, and I freaked when it didn’t. They redid it with lots more vertical rebar and upped the cement to 4000psi (whatever that really means). I feel more comfortable knowing that rebar is in there. Here in upstate NY the freeze/thaw is bad….and our soil is glacial till….lots of clay.
This is a custom house, one I designed myself; after several courses with architects at the Yestermorrow School. A school that is just a joy to attend. Lots of good knowledge, down home pleasantness, and a real belief in building good design and cost effective homes. Ours is a dutch gable hip roof, one story with a daylight basement. Stick built with a hand cut timber frame roof. We cut down several large cherry trees on the property and are using them as center posts to hold up the ceiling.
My next question is about basements. My builder say, put water proofing on the outside of the foundation. Put rigid insulation on the inside of the foundation, put up 2X4’s and sheetrock, tape and paint……for a finished basement. I wonder, can you use rigid insulation on the outside (on top of the water proofing), and then just smooth and paint the inside with cement paint?? Saving money, and making sure there is no hidden water damage and mold problems in the future. The heat will be under slab radiant for the basement, and under floor radiat for the first floor.
Replies
This is a question that's come up several times, where to put the insulation. Our resident dome guy, CloudHidden even dug out where the gov't lab determined that thermally, it was better on the outside of the mass. Which only makes sense to use the mass for your benefit, in addition to supporting the rest of the house.
We live in what amounts to a basement, with no house above. It works just fine to insulate on the outside of the walls. Perlited gypsum plaster (Structolite) is my choice for wall finish. My trowelling isn't flat or smooth and we like the texture. As far as water damage and mold problems, they can still happen, just won't be hidden.
If your contractor does it right, you won't have a water problem.
We have a rebar grid similar to what you envisioned. But our wall has 15' of fill against it. 4000 psi is more portland cement per yard than they were going to use. My engineer specified 3000 psi concrete to hold up our 240 ton roof. The rebar and the psi are working in different areas, tension and compression. Sounds like you have a guy who doesn't exactly know what he's doing and wants to throw some more in there just in case. Other than your cost, no problem.
Are you informal enough there that your cherry doesn't require a lumber grader before you can use it? Sounds like you're having fun.
PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
Edited 7/20/2005 12:49 pm ET by VaTom
There are two minor problems with having the insulation on the outside.
One is a problem with termites. They might not be a problem in your area, but it is still best to work around them. Have a gap at the top of the insulation between it and and wood. The other is to use borate treated foam.
The other problem is that an exposed foam on the outside needs to be protected from sun and damage.
For example a stucco coat.
But it does same some work finishing the inside and is betterenergy effiency.