Basement / Discussions

...basement is finished? Finishing a basement in a cold climate like Minnesota requires careful management of the "dew point" to prevent hidden mold (see here to better understand the dew point in homes.) Since you plan to keep the existing vapor barrier against the concrete, the biggest risk is moisture getting trapped b...

...basements, and poses exactly the risks you are hearing about - that insulating them can trap moisture and cause them to rot. There are pages here about how to finish basements - How to insulate basements properly without causing mold or rot We are of the opinion that the heat loss is preferrable to rotten joists, so I ...

...basement with ICF walls is a far better way than the mold-inviting normal practice of trapping moisture in basement walls with a vapor barrier. A crawl space is a just a short basement, so if you did it with ICF then kudos to you for a good design, but in general we find the very notion of a crawl space a bad building ...

Hi guys im from Canada and I recently finish studying and insulating my basement. I used one and a half inch polyiso board insulation glued to the wall with adhesive and I left a half inch Gap all around the board to spray foam. In front of the wall I frame to buy for walls and insulated with Roxul insulation Batts I w...

...basement. You may have seen this page but others reading may not, but this article is about what is going on in your walls – Why basement walls go moldy and how to build basement walls that will stay dry At this point it sounds like the damage is done, but you may be able to buy yourself some time before doing a major ...

...basement from the inside using an internal perimeter drain.    

...basement and installed 1 inch foam insulation to the exterior wall before framing and then installing fiberglass insulation. When he began drywalling he noticed moisture behind the fiberglass on the secrion of the wall that is above ground. At this point we are wondering what we could do to remedy this. I should mentio...

...basement ceiling/first floor of my house is insulated with 3 1/2" faced fiberglass with the vapor barrier on the house side (not pointed downward toward the basement). I want to had additional insulation, especially over the unheated garage. Is wool insulation over the existing fiberglass recommended, or should I simpl...

...basement because it could cause freeze-thaw damage to the foundation. Their stance was that these old houses like to "breathe" so it's better to avoid any changes because it's lasted this long as-is. I want to follow the "Why are basements moldy" recommendation of rigid insulation board directly against the concrete an...

...basement ourselves (zone 5, Toronto) and on a budget after gutting the entire finished basement due to extensive moisture penetration and mold issues. The foundation/walls are concrete block and we have 2 sides done with interior plastic membrane to french drain and sump pump, one side exterior waterproofing, and one s...

...basement for TOTAL cost. While i know SOG is cheaper than basement, i can do 750 sq ft on top of 750 sq ft basement with finishing in two years after concrete dries vs about 1200 sq. feet with SOG to accomodate our total needs. So my question is: is a 750 sq ft house on top of 750 ft basement cheaper than 1200 sq ft ho...

...basement and wasn't sure if the tar paper even really did anything or its an old practice the contractor was used to doing? Basements are often moldy, and unfortunately even after basement renovations are completed because people usually rebuild them in the same way, which would meet Einstein’s definition of insanity –...

...basement you can include ThermaSill insulated door threshold forms. If you've been through our site at all looking at foundation options then it would be no surprise that we aren't big proponets of basements, so if we were to build one, this is how we'd do it for performance and to eliminate the risk of mold. Below is ...

...basement on problem soils A raft slab is engineered to spread the weight of the building evenly over the entire surface of the slab, so there is no footings needed, and no, its not going to go anywhere when done properly, and a perimeter skirt insulation is added to prevent frost heave. So what you may be able to do, ...

...basement foundation walls. From all of my reading it says that your basement foundation walls can only dry to the inside. If I put foamboard on the concrete and seal it everywhere, when moisture comes through the concrete it will have nowhere to go. Perhaps I am missing something here but seems to me over time behind t...

...basement floor and would like to know if one coat is thick enough.  The thickness cited in an ecohome article was 0.00031. The technical data for the paint has a wet thickness that matches the article but a much smaller dry thickness.   When we used a vapor retarder primer (vapor barrier paint) in our Edelweiss LEED Pl...

...basement, with tar paper against the cement wall, then studs and four inches of batt insulation and then a vapour barrier and drywall. Two years ago I noticed cracking on the exterior of some of the foundation blocks, where the interior walls had been insulated but not on a portion of the basement walls that were not f...

...basement floor The best way to prevent flood damage in basements is with proper drainage and sump pumps, but I suspect you may specifically be referring to sewage backup. To be clear - are you hooked up to municipal sewers or do you have your own well and septic system? Give us a few more details if you like and we may...