prickly_pete wrote:
B&T402 wrote:
I think a lot of contractors are using rigid foam panels, glued directly to foundation walls, then seam-taped to form a vapour barrier. Seems to be a better way to do VB. Spray foam pretty expensive, I think double or more.
Check out YouTube - AKA "Visual WikiPedia" - to get some ideas. Hilarious sometimes what you find there, but there's still a lot of good info.
An 8' x 2'(ish) sheet of 1.5" thick R7 foam insulation costs $19. Doing an entire basement with that stuff would be insane.
I just slapped up your regular pink insulation, stapled some VB down and drywalled away - warm basement (well, it WAS a tad cooler in the summer, which is awesome). I think the real key is to get some kind of subfloor down to insulate against the concrete floor.
I did the foam panels in my basement, and it is expensive. It’s also a lot of work to install. It cost me like $1,200 to do a 700sqft basement. At the time they had the eco rebates which made it worth doing, but I don’t think they offer it anymore.
It is the right way to go. Moisture in a basement is always a problem, and these will never attract mold or mildew. I put Roxul overtop of them to get an R32 (again, chasing rebates). The panels alone are all you really need. I highly recommend them.
Fiberglass is the worst product you can use (although used frequently in basements). If it gets wet it will attract mold and it completely looses it’s R value. If foam panels are too pricy, then use Roxul, not pink. Roxul won’t hold moisture.