Basement finishing suggestions?

[chris]

Hello:

I am in the process of finishing our basement. Our home is 2 years old with poured basement walls. We have started to put up 2x4 framing against the walls, and planned to insulate with faced R-13 fiberglass insulation, and put up 1/2 drywall. Recently a friend suggested that we put plastic sheeting between the framing and the concrete walls to keep out moisture, and use unfaced insulation.

My question is, what is the best way to do this? Our basement has had a very small amount mildew appear in the summer, in the past. And, if the plastic sheeting is put up between the concrete and the framing, should the insulation used be faced or unfaced?

I am also interested in insulating the concrete floor as well, and am open to suggestions on what to use for that as well. Thank you very much for all feedback and suggestions!

-- Chris

[Clark W. Griswold, Jr.]

IIRC, you don't see moisture migrating through poured concrete unless there are substantial cracks. Any mildew would be caused by moisture in the warm air condensing on the colder concrete. That's why the moisture barrier should be facing the source of moisture, which is usually the living area.

Poly sheeting is cheap though and can't hurt. When I framed in a basement in a home a number of years ago, I put poly sheeting between the studs and the concrete, and then used standard faced insulation with the moisture barrier facing the living area. You wouldn't want unfaced insulation as that would let moisture condense in between the studs.

1x2 lathing strips spaced at two foot intervals with sheet styro in between. Particle board flooring over the lot.

[Joseph Meehan]

Tape some plastic or foil onto the wall and another onto the floor. Come back the next day and see if you have moisture forming on the side toward the wall or toward the room. Come back and let us know.

[no1herenow]

Personally, I would never use particle board flooring, and especially below grade. I do like the lathing strips/sheet styro method; I use PT lathing, and a heavy grade poly sheeting under all, instead of the epoxy paint.

[Bob_M]

While I am not a builder I did have our basement finished a few years ago. What the builder did was to "seal" ALL the concrete with Dry-Lok clear sealer then covered the walls with thick plastic sheeting. The wall studs were then attached to the walls with special fasteners "shot" out of a gun.

We've had ZERO problems with moisture with this method.

Good luck.

[Percival P. Cassidy]

But the fasteners have now punctured both the waterproof layer created by the application of Dry-Lok and the plastic sheeting.

Our basement walls had already been painted or treated with Dry-Lok or something of that type (I have no means of knowing what), so I used heavy plastic sheeting between the wall and the studs, but I anchored the new bottom and top plates only to the floor and the joists and did not fasten the studs to the walls.

Perce

On 12/29/04 09:42 pm Bob_M tossed the following ingredients into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

[Dave]

Ask your local building inspector -- if it isn't done to code and he finds out about it, he may make you do it over again. Best to ask first! I've always found those guys friendly and helpful, if you go at it with the right attitude.

Dave