Tips installing XPS insulation please
Senna
| Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on
I am installing expanded polystyrene insulation on a poured concrete foundation wall which I have never done before. A question I have is using foam adhesive the best method to use?
According to the instructions it says to lay a bead around the perimeter of the insulation and a line every 12 inches. That turns out to be a great deal of adhesive. Is there a better way?
I am a little worried about the gaps between the insulation and the wall. Turns out the foundation is much rougher than I expected. I may go back and add some tapcons and large washers.
How do I seal the cracks and seams? I was thinking tuck tape and acoustic sealer. Perhaps a little bit of spray can foam in larger areas. Any other suggestions?
Replies
Can you rent a Hilti gun?
I have attached foam by gunning some blobs of glue on the foam sheets, maybe 6 or 8 small blobs on a 2' x 8' piece, then shoot it on with powder-actuated pins.
You'll want the kind with the big plastic washer already mated to the pin.
The glue blobs, plus 4 pins per sheet, do a good job of fixing things in place.
Enerfoam makes a gun and canned faom for a glue/insualtion that is great.
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What does the foam have to support? Other than it'se self?
I installed some on a foundation with a horizontal crack the lenght of the wall and the top pushed in over 4". All stabalized by engineered support beams and expoxy sealantn. But no way that youcould get a tight fit on that wall.
used enough adhesive to hold them in place. Don't realy remember, but maybe 3 sheets per tube.
Then I took canned foam and sealed it top, bottom and sheet to sheet edges.
Then built a plumb wall infront of it.
Thread 54020 may have some answers for you. Are you insulating the inside before finishing or outside before backfilling? The thread I mention and my comments here are for inside finishing (have never done the outside).
I just installed the 2' x 8' x 1.5" Owens Corning Insul-Pink on two basement walls this last Thursday. It really goes fast once you get a system down. If you have a few waves in your wall it really pays to use tapcons to control compression vs. PAF's.
I'd suggest going with Rub-R-Wall as the best material to seal the foundation wall and to allow the XPS to adhere to it. The stuff stretches up to 18x, bridges large gaps, and is quite sticky. The only downside are the cost and the need to hire a experienced contractor to apply it.
I am very happy with our Rub-R-Wall experience as even prolonged periods of water exposure on the outside led to no dampness of the walls inside the home, even in the one area where we have a semi-cold joint.