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Posted by on May 2, 2007, 10:34 am
Well your going to get more opinions here....
Moisture is your problem. Dehumidifiers will always be the answer.
Scrap the french drains.
In terms of finishing off the walls, thats a tricky one. There are
a few ways. Drywall is cheap in materials and they do make
mold resistant ones out there now. I used greenboard on all the
outer
walls a regular drywall on the ceiling.
There are basement finishing systems out there too. They are sort
of like removable panels on the walls. Looks ok but I do love the
idea
that you can easily go behind the walls if you had to by just removing
a
section.
Your budget is going to determine the type of job you want to do.
G o with the contractor that you feel comfortable with. I personally
wouldnt be
into guys trying to dig up the outside nor inside of the house.
Tom
> What a can of worms this is becoming. We are going to finish our 45-
> yr-old basement, and so far, 6 contractors have 6 different ways of
> dealing with our moisture problem.
>
> All around the bottom-most foot or so of the cinder block walls of the
> basement, the old paint (I assume its Drylok) is falling off and there
> is efflouresence too. There is no damp or musty smell, but I know
> it's humid down there. Even now, in the winter, it's 60% humidity.
> We have never, in 3 1/2 years, had actual water come into the
> basement, just this seeping moisture. We have heavy clay soils.
>
> I am afraid what will happen when we put walls up. Everywhere I go,
> there is contradicting information, from professionals everywhere:
> put up poly, don't put up poly, use wood studs, use steel studs, use
> insulation, don't insulate, etc etc etc.....It's enough to drive me
> batty.
> I am determined to do this, but don't want to spend $30K just to have
> to tear it all out in a few years due to mold/moisture. And digging
> up around the outside of the foundation is too costly for us, probably
> $60K.
> The moisture-proofing contractor insists we'll be sorry if we don't
> break through the basement floor all around the perimeter of the
> basement and install french drains for the water to go from inside the
> cinder block walls. This for $6500 on top of the cost of finishing
> the basement. I may be misguided, but I don't feel comfortable
> hacking into the foundation.
>
> This may be a really crazy idea, but has anyone invented a way of
> drilling a hole in the lower cinder blocks, let all the water drain
> out, and then filling in all the blocks' spaces with some kind of
> filler/expanding stuff to keep the water pressure from filling them up
> in the first place?
>
> So what should we do, Drylok + wood studs + drywall + dehumidifier?
> Drylok+wood+poly+drywall?
> I have also read mixed reviews on the mold-resistant drywall, should
> we use that?
> Help me, I am losing my mind because everywhere I go I get different
> answers.
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