Howdy, I am designing a basement conversion, and have a question about vapor barriers. My Client’s home has an unfinished basement in the Denver area. The floor is a wood framed structural floor over an unheated crawl space. The crawlspace is ventilated (I’m not sure if it is mechanically or passively ventilated), and there is currently no insulation between the framing. There is also no vapor barrier on the dirt below. Would it be harmful to add a vapor barrier on top of the OSB sheathing before adding the pad and carpet?
Thanks!
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Could you describe the situation in different terms.
It sounds like you have a basement floor with a crawlspace UNDER it.
That is correct. The soils in this area are so bad, most builders of newer homes do not place concrete floors in basements. In homes with slabs, the slabs almost always heave, buckling door frames and causing general havoc. Our house has about 3" of lift in the center of the slab in the basement, which made adding baseboards tricky when we finished our basement.