Rigid foam / Discussions

...foam or thicker rigid foam (sealed with canned foam at the edges) is the best way to prevent condensation in that specific cold spot. we share your aprehension about spray foam, but its a small amount and it certainly works. Regarding the mechanical room, an uninsulated section near an electrical board usually won't ca...

...rigid EPS foam. Mineral wool lets the moisture move right through it, EPS foam would be a perfect 2/3rds vapor barrier. That would be assuming you install at least 4 inches (about R24) if you have an 8 inch wall. This particular option for attaching rigid EPS foam panels to the exterior of a house has a metal rail in t...

...rigid insulation. It’s a great product; we have reservations about the climate impact as XPS foam has high green house gas emissions, but finding used stuff is great. The advice you received about installing it directly to the concrete is correct. XPS is a vapor barrier, and that is a good thing. Yes it will keep the c...

Old house; basement is only 21% of total under house footage. 79% is crawl space. Basement Never painted. Walls go up 4 ft to a 2ft wide ledge and then the old stone foundation. 1 side is an exterior wall; 3 sides are crawl space beyond the stone.  A lot of heat is lost through uninsulated basement floors, so good idea...

...foam, this page should tell you all you need to know –  How to Insulate Exterior Walls from the Outside Another idea and product comes to mind, if it’s a farm house I’m assuming you have wiggle room to make the wall thicker without affecting propertly line setbacks? If so, here is my thought – a thick panel of rigid fo...

...foam strip! So - as we want to use the space in the basement, what are the suggested steps to reduce the humidity? What should we put on the uninsulated floor as a covering that won't go moldy/smelly like the carpet has (and we're on a budget, and have next to no headroom.) I appreciate there's no perfect solution - bu...

...foam insulation has failed? It's hard to ever weigh in on a problem with complete confidence without seeing a project or knowing the full wall assembly, but if anything, that may actually show a 'success' of the spray foam rather than a failure. The wood studs will transfer far more heat than the Spray Polyurethane Foa...

...foam. In front of the wall I frame to buy for walls and insulated with Roxul insulation Batts I went to go do some electrical work today and pulled back a bath and noticed that there was a bunch of condensation and a little bit of mold in between the bat and the polyiso. Did I do something wrong here? The humidity in m...

...foamboard to my 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 ov...

...foam product can give it a bad rap in green home building circles, but we think that EPS insulation may be the best option in the long-term, read more here –  Is EPS foam is an eco-friendly insulation?  Regardless of it’s raw materials, EPS is an affordable insulation material with a reasonable carbon footprint, and i...

...foam board then tar board chicken wire then stuco then paint with elastromeric/ sand mix, all to keep out heat. Styrofoam or no Styrofoam is the question. is it worth the cost or am I going over board?   What you describe would work, and as you suspect I think it may be overkill, but its very hard to say. To know the r...

...Rigid Foam insulation.  In the future I may add A/C to the cottage.  Do you believe a Vapor Barrier to be necessary?  Thank-you Michael Vapor barriers can be a problem with homes that are air conditioned, because it reverses the vapor drive. When it is hot and humid, that warm moist air can find its way through a wall ...