I’ve been kind of busy down in the basement for the past few days. I had to get the insulation project finished up. It was getting on my nerves.
It all started like this – remember when I told you all about how proud I was of myself for shoveling the long trench all the way to the pond? This was so the sump pump water had some place to go. I even had the tube attached outside. The long four inch one, so it wouldn’t freeze. It looked like this:
Well, as it turns out, I didn’t attach the tube well enough. I purposely kept it loose in case it froze up. I wanted the water to splash out instead of keeping the pump running all night long and eventually burning out. I basically jammed the tube up against the PVC pipe and kicked some snow around it to hold things in place.
When I woke up a few mornings ago, I looked out the window and to my absolute horror, found the corrugated tubing laying on the ground. It was in the middle of a big puddle of water that was shooting out of the PVC pipe. I guess the force of the water knocked the tubing away. You know what that means – it means that the water that was sitting against the foundation (all night long) was finding its way back into the basement. And for some reason, sump pump #2 wasn’t kicking on. The switch was getting caught up on something internally. I think it’s time for a new pump. I’ll use the current one as a backup.
Anyway, when I went down into the basement, I found about four inches of water covering the floor. There wasn’t anything worth much down there, but I was irked about the whole situation because I had put a lot of time and thought into making the sump pump system function properly. For a tube and a switch to throw the whole thing into disarray – well that was annoying.
And what was especially annoying was that I had some insulation on the floor that I was going to reuse for the basement walls. It got partially wet from the flood. Because of that, right then and there I told myself that I was going to finish the basement insulation project. I was too tired of looking at the mess down there and just wanted it done. If I could finish that up, I could move to the room directly above it and finish the bathroom as well. Putting out small fires is the name of the game I guess.
The first thing I did was to screw the tube onto the PVC pipe so it wouldn’t come off again. Done. The second thing I did was to begin peeling all the paper off the existing insulation to see what the situation was. Was there mouse damage? Was the insulation fitted properly? Was it long enough in each space? From my point of view, things looked manageable. Where things weren’t perfect, I made them perfect and where the insulation was too thin, I thickened it up with the fiberglass I purchased for the bathroom. I bought a bag too much, so I used it in the basement.
After I was finished insulating, I covered it up with plastic. I used up the 6 mil plastic I bought to cover the basement crawl space dirt floor and had to run out to the hardware store to grab a 10’x100′ roll of 4 mil. There really is no need for 6 mil plastic as a vapor barrier. I also finished the rim joist insulation with the extra rigid foam I bought for the bathroom too.
When I was all finished, I looked up and found this:
Please pardon the mess in that last picture.
As you can see from the first photo, I hung the shelves I bought in Florida. I’m missing two brackets, but can make them up with regular shelving. I have a plan for that. With these shelves, I can keep my tools off the floor and away from the water the next time the basement decides to flood. And I’m sure it will because when one relies on sump pumps to keep things dry, one needs to get used to water on the floor.
Ugg, I’m tired. And just in case you need to be reminded what the basement used to look like, click here.
Hi Jay,
This morning I canceled–for the second time–an appointment with a local insulation specialist to spray foam our sill boxes. We’ve canceled both times because we just can’t convince ourselves to face the health risks of poorly applied spray foam. But we’ve also scheduled this twice because we’re very cold in the winter and need to do *something* to curb the stack effect bringing in cold air from the basement.
So I’ve been googling a lot today and landed on your page. I too liked the look of the rigid foam board insulation technique documented by Peter over at Dover Projects. I see you followed his lead, but instead of relying heavily on Great Stuff (which is probably also not great to breath), you “friction fit the rigid insulation and sealed edges with painter’s caulk.” I take it you are still happy with that method?
Also, what is the status of your two rim joists that run parallel with your floor joists? In my 1928 home, those are very very hard to get to; in fact, until today I had assumed that one benefit of the professional spray foam was that they’d get to this part, but now that I read more about proper application of spray foam, I gather one should not just stick a nozzle in this area and squirt a liberal dose of foam in there. So either these wouldn’t have been done right (and thereby) presented a health risk, or they wouldn’t have even been done by the professional at all.
Finally, I am intrigued by the fiberglass insulation situation you’ve got going on with your basement walls. I see from your “before” picture that the walls were insulated this way when you bought the house. I’ve never seen this method of insulating basement walls down to the frost line before, but it looks rather cost-effective. What are your thoughts on this set-up, now that you’ve lived with it for a while?
Thanks for weighing in; I appreciate it.
Hi Paul,
Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate the comment. You actually sound a lot like me. I love the idea of spray foam but I don’t love the idea of having to rip out a poor application. I do, however, lean towards it for home insulation.
A few days ago, I made a vow to myself to never purchase another ounce of fiberglass insulation. Not because it doesn’t work, but because of rodents. We live in the country and these things are quite the nuisance. And they happen to love insulation. To be honest, while I’m happy with the rigid foam I used for the rim joists, I wish I had done the entire area with the rigid foam.
Regarding the parallel rim joists, I haven’t figured that out. I stuffed fiberglass in those areas. I have been pondering using spray foam in there. As a matter of fact, I was just looking at “Foam It Green” videos on Youtube when you wrote this comment.
Friction fitting the rigid foam is good, but I think cutting the pieces somewhat smaller would be better. Just so you can get a good seal. Caulking is sort of okay, but I think surrounding the pieces of foam with Great Stuff would offer a better seal.
Here’s my opinion on the whole thing – because I have a lot of insulating to do around here. I’m going to use as much rigid foam as I can because I know it was made correctly. Then, I’m going to use as much Great Stuff alongside that as I can. For anything else, I’ll use spray foam somehow. Whether it be from a pro or a do-it-yourself kit. I simply can’t use fiberglass anymore because of the mice. I really want the seal foam offers.
Thanks again,
Jay
PS – Don’t even get me going on poorly installed (or lack of) vapor barriers. Fiberglass insulation settles over the years because of the moisture that gets trapped in it. We’ve got gaps a foot deep because of this. Nice cold spots on the walls.