Should I insulate the interior side of the basement wall if there is already XPS on the outside?
I have an unfinished basement in N.E. Ohio. Uninsulated slab floor with poly vapor barrier underneath. 13 course block walls with 2″ XPS foam on the exterior side. We are looking into finishing the space for a guest room/suite with a bathroom, excercise area, office and family room/play space. Being that there is already r-10 on the outside of the walls will adding a layer of 2″ XPS (r-10) create any problems? I have been reading everything Ican find on GBA and Building Science but everything seems to refer to either or, not both.
Replies
Eric,
墙两侧的绝缘很好。您将最终与基础墙相似，类似于绝缘混凝土形式（ICF）。
Don't use XPS on the interior- use unfaced EPS instead, or use only 1" of XPS, which would bring you up to IRC 2012 code min for climate zone 5 (N.E. OH):
http:///publicecodes.CyberRegs.com/ICOD/IRC/2012/ICOD_IRC_2012_11_SEC002.HTM.(R15 continuous/R19 if thermally bridged by studs.)
CMU won't wick as much moisture as poured concrete, but it'll wick some. At 1" of XPS or 1.5-3" of Type-II (1.5lb per cubic foot density) EPS you would be in the ~1-1.5 perm range, which is sufficient vapor retardency to protect the studs & studwall from ground moisture. With 3-5 perm latex paint on the wall board the drying toward the interior would be able to always keep up.
Anything more than another R5 on the interior may be overkill unless you're going for much higher than code-min performance, or have expensive energy. But if you wanted to, ~1.5 perm foam (that would be 1" of XPS or 1.5" of EPS) would allow you to insulate the studwall with unfaced fiber insulation, bringing the total R-value of the exterior R10 + ~R1.5 CMU + R5-ish foam + R10-ish studwall ( after factoring in the thermal bridging of the framing through the fiber insulation) to interior-foam R up to the mid-20s for whole-wall R value. That's not PassiveHouse levels, but it's higher than Pretty Good House levels.
你是否绝缘立柱墙与纤维或not, it's worth putting an incy of XPS or EPS under the bottom plate of the studs as a capillary break against ground moisture wicking up through the slab, and as a thermal break to keep the bottom plate above the dew point of the summertime air.
Martin: With ICF they typically use 2.5" of Type-II EPS on the interior, which runs a bit over 1 perm, which is enough for the foundation to dry toward the interior.
With 2" XPS it would be half-that, about 0.6 perms. Unless there is a good capillary break at either the footing or the foundation sill there is some risk of ground moisture getting to the sill plate, since there is effectively zero drying toward the exterior, and weak drying capacity toward the interior. Since we don't really know if those capillary breaks exist here, it's safer to keep it over 1-perm toward the interior.
The attached diagram specifies a pressure treated sill plate though, so it may be just fine either way, if indeed that's what was built.
Eric,
I disagree with Dana. There is no reason to encourage a foundation wall to dry to the interior. This just assures that you will have a new source of moisture for your basement.
Martin,
Thank you for the response, it makes sense and I had not thought of it that way. I talked to the local building inspector yesterday about this project and was told they like to see at least an r-10 on the basement walls and he didn't care how I achieved it. I should already have that with the exterior XPS. I have also read that the ideal r value for a basement wall in a cold climate is r-20.
Would 1" XPS ($12.00/sht vs 2" @ $35/sht x 50 sheets) be enough to insulate the space better than it is now, meet code, and and not create a moisture condensation problem inside the stud walls I would build on top of the foam? I am trying not to be penny wise and pound foolish but it's $600.00 vs $1890 for the whole basement.
当我在离开办公室之前，我在键入我的最新时和当我在离开办公室之前发布了它时，你们之间的回应了。抱歉。
达纳：第一层门槛实际上是压力处理。这件事是否如此，如果下面的块壁变成并保持湿窗帘将不会腐烂？我不能肯定会肯定是否在平板下有砾石，但我假设有。我知道至少有一张塑料。实际上它在“建筑关节”材料和混凝土板之间的某些区域中伸出来。在轮辋托里河周围有未曝光的“r-19”，但我已经拆除了它，用喷雾泡沫在那里推出2“xps，然后更换R-19。这个冬天在轮辋托里尼斯上有很多霜现有的玻璃纤维。
Martin: In your opinion would 1" of XPS be too likely to promote drying toward the interior?
I am not going for PassiveHouse performance but also not trying to get by only on code minimum. I am trying to get a better understanding of this and trying to spend my money where it matters most. I don't want to try and save 1200 here only end up having to spend many times that redoing it down the road.
I appreciate everyone's input.
让基础朝内部干燥的原因是保证水分不能足够高，以影响基础窗台。最终通过〜1.5烫发泡沫最终最终的适度金额在地下室中更容易地管理，而不是在基础窗台中集中时。
但正如我在第一篇文章中所说的那样，如果基础窗台受到压力处理，那就没关系了。基础门槛本身具有约1.5倍型的蒸汽迟滞，因此即使基础顶部具有高含水量，也不会将水分放入螺柱托架上方，比它可以处理得更快。但是，如果基础窗台是标准木材，如果基础是高湿度，那么就有毛细血管突破会有很高的风险。
Whether or not your CMU wall will wick much moisture has a lot of factors that we can't know without more investigation- overall CMU walls don't wick as heavily as poured concrete, and barely at all if the cores are hollow, but if the cores are filled with concrete it would raise the capillary moisture transport potential by quite a bit.
The frost under the R19s is all about air leakage from the basement, not moisture wicking up the CMU, which has HUGE drying capacity into the basement when there is no vapor retardent foam covering the inside.
At 1" XPS is almost a Class-II vapor retarder, which is pretty tight, just not ultra tight. At 2" it's well into the class-II vapor retardency range. You can't really move a ton of moisture through 1.5 perm foam through a whole basement wall's worth (we're probably talking a coupla quarts per year, unless the CMU is totally saturated) but it should be enough to protect a foundation sill (if it needed protecting.) It only takes 1" to meet code when you have R10 on the exterior. But if you have a source for 1.5" EPS (R6-ish) it's usually cheaper than 1" XPS, and unlike XPS it will still have the same R-value in 50 years. As XPS leaks out it's climate damaging HFC blowing agent over a handful of decades it loses performance, eventually settling in at around R4.2 per inch, just like Type-II EPS was on both day 1, and still is on day 20,000. It's not worth paying more for unless you actually NEED the lower vapor retardency (and even then there are often better options.)
It's pretty common to have vapor barriers under the slab, but no capillary breaks at the wall footing, which is probably the case here. But if you have pressure treated foundation sills, don't sweat it- put up any type of foam you like, just make sure there's something between the CMU & framing. Even with the vapor retarder under the slab it's worth putting an inch of foam under the bottom plate, since the temp of the bottom of the stud plate may be below your indoor dew points and end up with relatively high moisture content. This is a common issue with uninsulated slabs in cool climates, and a reason (beyond the energy use issues) to insulate the slabs. Putting a rug on an uninsulated slab will often result in mold even when groundwater is blocked by vapor barriers.
Thank you both for all the info. I really appreciate it.
In addition to the other advantages Dana notes, EPS is cheaper than XPS.