How to insulate a basement / Discussions

...top half of the walls have pink fibre glass insulation covered with clear plastic and a black plastic border nailed into the concrete but the bottom half of the walls are left uninsulated. I have a wood framed 2x4 wall an inch off the concrete. How should I insulate the bottom before putting up drywall? Thanks 

...at all basements have, is a vapour barrier sealing organic materials in with wet concrete. As for how to fix your basement, you really would need to remove everything and start fresh. We have many pages on how to build basements properly (which I will link below) and the idea you proposed of spray foam insulation on ba...

...toward the rear with framed walls on top. The framed areas have fiberglass insulation but the concrete is bare.  I want to finish these walls with a newly framed wall covering the concrete and partial wall. Should I: 1. Install Foam Board Insulation over the bare concrete and leave the framed walls insulated as the are...

...ay to remove humidity from a basement is without a doubt, a continuously operating dehumidifier. Select one that is sized to manage the amount of space you have, and try to keep it about 40% RH. If you don’t already have a heat recovery ventilation system, you may want to look into that as well. A house that old probab...

...am about to start a full strip out and rebuild of my basement to make a secondary suite. I've been reading all the information on the site and find it very useful (and educational). I am a carpenter from Scotland living in British Columbia now and as we tend not to have basements at home, I'm finding it a learning curv...

...air movement, and that is anothter thing you don't want in an insulated wall assemly. But yes, we would put rigid foam boards against the wall THEN the stud wall, you don't want to have organic material exposed to moisture, particularly having a source of moisture on one side and an impermeable or semi-impermeable laye...

...about R-values or project cost than I am about moisture (and bugs, to be embarassingly candid about the matter).  I gather that I can always safely throw some fiberglass batting up in the rim joists to remediate any inadequacy of R-values acheived AFTER the use of spray foam (with or without foam board) to establish ai...

...to add the desired amount of compactable fill to bring it up to the level you’d like. We did exactly that with our LEED V4 Platinum Edelweiss House. This page has a video about how to build passive solar homes,  where you can see how we raised the level of the slab with clean compactible fill, exactly as you would need...

...aterials to ensure healthy indoor air quality. Below are a few pages to read over, and again, please explain a bit better what you are being told about foundations and we can probably help you. We are in the process of building another demonstration house in Wakefield, Quebec, it is from a prefab slab-on-grade form kit...

...a valid concern?   What if there is a leak in the drains, how would you ever know? 3. What about a hybrid - we don't need a full basement, what are the implications of having half of the footprint as a slab, and half basement? Thanks Shaun   That is a common question, and a hot topic that often brings dissagreement, bu...