Continuing With the Basement Insulation

I’m kind of at an impasse with my little basement project. I finished up insulating under the stairs and have run out of material. I thought the 2″ thick rigid insulation board would go further. I have a small amount left over, but not enough to warrant me getting all filthy dirty. I’m going to wait until I get a few more sheets of 1″ thick board before I begin dealing with moving around the fiberglass insulation once more.

Just to pass the time, I went downstairs this afternoon, cleaned up a bit and pulled down all the paneling that was installed before we got here. I needed to see what I was dealing with and needed to see what thickness of rigid board I needed – 1″ or 2″. Since the walls are already insulated with R-19 fiberglass, I’m simply going to purchase 1″ board and fasten it against the walls in the same fashion the paneling was. To see what the basement looked like with the paneling installed, click here. To see what the basement looks like now that I pulled all that paneling down, take a look below.

I’m also going to put rigid board in between all the floor joists against the outer walls. Those areas are notorious for insulation failure and a source of heat loss.

The main reason I’m working on getting this basement squared away is because the current fiberglass has many gaps in it. I can also see daylight around a few objects that go through the outer wall, such as the oil tank pipes and the sump pump discharge tube. Those spaces alone account for much of the heat loss in the space. The rigid foam will also act as a vapor retarder once it’s installed and taped properly. The whole area needs to be completely sealed.