My new home suffered a set back with a record rainfall last week. I ended up with about five inches of water in the basement. The drywall and trim were already up and painted. I will not go into the reasons why or who is at fault, I’ll just say that it will not happen again on my watch. My question is….. I live in Northern Virginia, my basement floor is about six feet below grade. I have removed all the base board and 16″ of drywall from the lower part of the entire basement and about 12″ of the R-11 insulation from the lower part of the outside walls. Do I need to replace that insulation when I replace the drywall? If I do not replace it, do I risk condensation forming in the wall? I plan to replace the bottom three inches of drywall with pressure treated plywood, the remaining 13 inches of drywall with green board, and the baseboard with a PVC baseboard. Do I need the insulation? If I do , could I use ridged foam instead? Just trying to make sure to minimize any future flood damage.
George
Replies
fix whatever caused the flood, replace the insulation (maybe use foam not fiberglass), use regular sheetrock, but hold it up off of the slab by ~3/8" (greenboard won't do any better in a flood....use wood base but be sure & backprime (even "dry" basements are often damp), or go for the PVC....but you'll only get 1x, unless you add PVC ogee on top....
A flood is a flood, you'd want to take out the ply, greenboard,etc. anyway if it floods again...