OK I'm ready to frame and insulate my unfinished basement. It's about
two-thirds below grade. It's dry. I live in one of North America's colder
regions -- nearly smack in the centre in Canada. I'm going to use
two-by-fours stud walls set slightly away from the concrete wall to
accommodate extra insulation (going for R24). I'm going to vapour barrier
with Tyvek on the warm side between the studs and the drywall instead of on
the cold side. I'm planning on putting the insulation-barrier-drywall layer
right up to the two-by-ten ceiling joists. How do I, or do I put barrier and
insulation between the joists agaist the concrete. It seems to me that the
whole point of doing a barrier is to have a continuous membrane to hold in
the moist air in the house. By the looks of it if I do go between the joists
that still doesn't make the barrier continuous to the main floor above the
basement. I was thinking of finishing the ceiling of the basement with
ceiling tile and possibly stuffing even more insulation between the joists
to further isolate the basement environment from the floor above it. Is this
OK to do?

thankyou that's what I need to read.


"Steve Nekias" wrote in message
om...
You will want to download a 144page brochure from the Natural
Resources Canada, Dept. of Energy Efficiency called "Insulating
Basements, Crawl Spaces, and Slabs-on-grade." Here is the link:
http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/publications/...Insulating.pdf

If you have problems, go to http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca, click on the "Home
Renovations" tab, then look for a PDF format file with that title.

Be careful if your house has joists set on direct contact with
concrete or concrete blocks--they indicate that there is a problem
with wood rotting if you insulate the rim joist area!

Mr Fixit eh

Yes. My floor joists are indeed set into the concrete. Hmm.


"Steve Nekias" wrote in message
om...
You will want to download a 144page brochure from the Natural
Resources Canada, Dept. of Energy Efficiency called "Insulating
Basements, Crawl Spaces, and Slabs-on-grade." Here is the link:
http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/publications/...Insulating.pdf

If you have problems, go to http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca, click on the "Home
Renovations" tab, then look for a PDF format file with that title.

Be careful if your house has joists set on direct contact with
concrete or concrete blocks--they indicate that there is a problem
with wood rotting if you insulate the rim joist area!

Mr Fixit eh

"SofaKing" wrote in message news:rn5%b.614683$X%5.590399@pd7tw2no...
Yes. My floor joists are indeed set into the concrete. Hmm.

Moisture can wick into the concrete from either the ground, or from
brick sheathing-if there is no flashing.

Apparently, the problem is that insulation in the rimjoist area
reduces airflow that would dry out any moisture that might get into
this area, and of course, untreated wood doesn't get along well with
concrete plus moisture.

NRC recommends that you caulk the area well with accoustical sealant
to eliminate airflow (that will provide significant energy efficiency
improvement). You will find detailed instructions on pages 65, 71, 74
(see last thread)dealing with joists-in-concrete.

The recommendation is to caulk the seam at the top of the header
(between header and subfloor), and at the bottom of the header
(between header and concrete foundation); then caulk the seam where
the floor joist meets the header, and around the joist where it is
imbedded in the concrete--whew!

Mr Fixit eh