"Harry Muscle" wrote in
ups.com:

I have a couple quick questions about my basement walls.

My original plan was to paint the concrete basement walls with DryLok
paint or something similar to keep moisture levels down and to
eliminate any possibilites of water leaking in (there's one spot where
there was leakage before, but I haven't noticed any for about a year
now). After painting with DryLok I would insulated all the walls, add
vapour barrier, then add drywall. However, I got thinking ... wouldn't
the DryLok paint and vapour barrier both act as vapour barriers? And
isn't a vapour barrier supposed to be only on the warm side of the
wall? So wouldn't using both cause condensation problems? Actually
wouldn't using the DryLok itself in an insulated wall cause
condensation problems since in effect you have a vapour barrier on the
cold side? Or am I just not understanding this correctly?

Thanks,
Harry



Harry:

The cart goes behind the horse.

As Joseph Meehan said:

You need to work outside to stop leaks not inside.

Exactly. Assuming your place is not in a pit, gutters can do wonders if
you don't have them.

And as Sev said:

.... be very scrupulous in making sure all drainage is directed away
from foundation.


I'm sure there are many schools of thought on what it should be. Of
course you can do a bang-up job with new construction. With a pickup,
wheelbarrow, shovel and tamp, how good a job you can do depends on how
bad the drainage issue is. Anything is better than flat except a pit of
course.