If I’m renovating a basement in a 1985ish condo and they already have that silver blanket type insulation on the concrete, should I still cover the walls with foam panels? I was going to cover them with the foam and then build 2×4 walls on top.
Any ideas?
Skim-coating with joint compound covers texture, renews old drywall and plaster, and leaves smooth surfaces ready to paint.
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>> silver blanket type insulation << OK, I'll bite, what's that? Foil faced fiberglass batts? Something else?
Not sure, didn't look closely. Its thin but has a foil face but its more like a thin "quilt-like" material. It has some type of insulation between the foil but I'm not sure of the Rvalue
If it's got foil, it's likely a vapor barrier. I'd tear it out. Vapor barriers tend to trap moisture in basement walls.Andy
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you might want to check out the building science corp. website: http://www.buildingscience.com/resources/basements.htm
It has some of the latest research on insualting basements.