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Posted by buffalobill on February 6, 2007, 1:47 am
> Okay, this current cold snap has my feet freezing, and my (thankfully
> high-efficency) furnace working overtime. The insulation in this 1960
> ranch+1978 addition is sub-par. Eventually, I'll find a contractor to add
> another six inches in attic(since I don't fit up there), but I also have a
> lot of exposed foundation in this raised ranch. (I'm too cheap to think
> about walls and new windows, but might also make plexi interior storms.)
>
> Since I only use the basement for storage at this point, would I gain
> anything from hanging sheets of foil-face 3/4" or 1" foam from the sill
> plates in the former garage bay (now buried) in the original part of the
> house basement, the long basement wall on the prevailing wind side, and in
> the crawl under the addition? The former garage has a lot of foundation
> showing above-grade, and it is cold as hell in there, on the far side of an
> insulated wall. The bedrooms right above have cold floors, in spite of the
> fiberglass in the floor. The crawl is insulated (badly) in floor, but not on
> walls, and is unheated except by leakage from the fresh fiberglax flexi
> ducts that run through there. (I removed wall furnace from addition, and
> added a duct trunk and return with the new furnace.) I don't wanna do
> anything permanent at this point, to leave future basement options open,
> plus there is some history of water seepage, so I don't want to block quick
> access to the concrete. I was thinking, just hang the styro sheets like a
> curtain from sill plate, using 3/4x2 lath and drywall or deck screws pasted
> into sill plate. Sheets would be tightly butted together, and maybe the
> joints could get taped. In southern MI, how far down the wall would I need
> to go- 36" below grade, or all the way to floor? (All the way to floor would
> be least labor, and no more material, unless I could get 2 panels from each
> sheet.) Note that I don't want to actively heat the old garage, since it is
> uninsulated to the outside, and gas is expensive. Basement heat comes mainly
> from the furnace being down there, but stays at least 50 degrees in the rest
> of the basement.
>
> Is foil-face foam legal for an app like this, w/o a drywall fire break over
> it? Would it make any difference in heat loss? I know in a perfect world,
> foundation should be insulated on outside, but that would be way too
> expensive for this cookie cutter, and wouldn't pay on resale. The
> inter-joist spaces on the rim joist do appear to be insulated, but I haven't
> pushed drop ceiling out of the way to check all of them. I already have 3/4
> foil-face foam plugs in all the basement windows, which helped some, as did
> adding a layer of the same foam above the attic hatch.
>
> aem sends...
before i look at the insulation manufacturers' websites, i would start
here:
http://www.buildingscience.com/resources/mold/Read_This_Before_You_Design_Build_or_Renovate.pdf
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