First Post. Several questions. Bear with me.
I want to refinish our basement in a 2 year old builder home in MD. The foundation is poured concrete with foil faced insulation gun-nailed to the foundation on the walls that are exposed to the elements. (Nothing on the walls below grade.) We have seem absolutely no evidence of moisture problems of any kind since we moved in. I have read varying opinions regarding vapor barriers. Some sources say they’re a must, some say to simply stud the new walls out from the foundation a couple of inches and use fiberglass in the new walls, allowing an air gap behind the new walls. Should I paint on a moisture barrier (removing the foil faced insulation) or just stud out the new walls and leave the gap?
Also, I’m unsure of what to do with the floor. Can I simply lay down a good pad and carpet over the relatively level, dry slab, or should I install new sleepers and a subfloor? If I do need to put down a subfloor, should I do it before or after the walls?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Replies
Regional differences in opinions are going to get you a variety of responses. Having lived in various very different areas, (MT, AL, TX, NE) there's more sense to this than is typically evident on the forum. The concern with moisture, for example, can depend on your climate, how foundations are laid, humidity levels . . . my first answer is double check any ideas you get with whats happening and "customary" locally, which if you don't know any contractors is usually as simple as a call to the codes department. If you don't have water issues, framing with the wall spaced from the concrete and using kraft faced glass is fine. You dont need a subfloor. I'm in the middle of finishing a basement at the moment and the pad will go direct to concrete. Vapor barriers here are used when the wall is direct to the concrete, i.e. firring strips and foamboard. The only time I've had to deal with sleepers was in a house that already had them in the basement. It was a significant amount of additional work to get everything level to the unlevel floor, but if you go that route, I'd entertain the notion of leaving it out from under the walls - that is to say, after the walls. If there's a need for it, you also may need to repair it down the road, an easier task if the walls aren't standing on it.
" We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita . . . "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that, one way or another." - J. Robert Oppenheimer