Large Gap Spray Foam Cans and a Sample of the Mineral Wool

This is going to be a 2 part post since I have some details that I want to show to help better explain some of the situations we found. I thought I would start out by discussing our material choices and general strategy.

When we bought the house there were finished stud walls in front of the foundation walls and sill with fiberglass batt insulation. When this was done in the 1970s they also added some fiberglass to the sill area. This was done very poorly and irregularly. It also had paper facing on some of it, which is a bad idea unless you are going to define your line of moisture barrier and be consistent. Once we removed the walls and the miscellaneous fiberglass batt insulation we found an earlier layer of mineral wool (aka rockwool) that had been stuffed in between the exterior balloon frame wall studs above the sill. However the sill itself had not been insulated. We also encountered miscellaneous newsprint  from 1906. My guess is that the mineral wool is probably a little bit later than the newsprint.

Sill w/ old Mineral Wool and New Spray Foam before new Mineral Wool Batt is Added

Once we evaluated the situation, we quickly  decided that before we could install the new mineral wool we need to seal any air gaps. I will get into all of the conditions tomorrow, but we decided to go with the DOW Great Stuff Big Gap Filler. It is cost effective at $4.79 a can and pretty easy to work with. As you can see we bought quite a bit and ended up going through about 10 cans (the rest will be returned to Home Depot). We used it where the wood sill plate met the foundation and in any gaps around the old mineral wool. Also to fill in the areas that did not have the old mineral wool (i.e. below the bay window).

Sill in Bay Window w/ spray foam where there was no mineral wool

Before we knew that there was mineral wool already there I had decided to use mineral wool batts already. As I had mentioned before, mineral wool has some advantages for a condition like this, including better fire resistance, better R-value per inch, acoustical properties and it can handle moist conditions better than fiberglass. It is also denser and tends to deter pests more then fiberglass. I have specified mineral wool on lots of occasions (usually for sound isolation between 2 spaces) but I had never worked with it. First I had to find it, which proved more difficult than I thought it would be. In the end I found that our local lumber yard can order it, although it took them a little bit to figure out what exactly I wanted and how the quantities worked. I ended up with Thermafiber 3″ thick batts. Unlike fiberglass they don’t come in a roll because they are more rigid and don’t take to rolling. Instead they are 16″ wide (like a typical fiberglass batt) and 48″ long. The bags we ordered contained about 48 sf and cost around $42.

I was warned that it was more itchy than fiberglass, but we were planning on wearing long sleeves, gloves and masks anyways, so I wasn’t too worried. Once I opened the first bag and did a sample cut I discovered that it cuts more easily and cleanly than fiberglass (I was using a straight edge and an Olfa Knive). Of course our bays are not a standard bay size and are typically around 14″ rather than the 16″. The height we needed was about 9 – 10″. So after a little bit of math and some trial and error in fitting the pieces we determined that we could get five 9 1/2″ x 16″ pieces. These fit nice and snugly in between the joists. We decided to use 2 pieces per bay.

2- 3" Rockwool Batts Installed in Between the Joists

This actually went quite quickly. I did the cutting while Mr. S. installed them. For the front of the house (parallel to the bay) we continued to use the small pieces and just butted them up next to each other. We found the longer pieces were hard to push into place. I also found it was about as itchy as fiberglass, but because it was less messy to cut I actually prefer it by far to work with.

We have already noticed a difference in the basement and on the first floor. We still need to do the rear wall of the house. In that case there is only a narrow gap between the floor joist that runs parallel to the foundation wall and the wall. It is going to probably be a little trial and error.

Tomorrow I will show you some sections of the sill condition so I can better explain our strategy.

*For all of our Basement progress click here.

Hart's Selected Cabbage Burlap Bag from Springtown, PA

I know I promised a longer post about foundation sill insulation (I know you are very disappointed!) but I wanted to show everyone our latest find from the basement. When we were clearing out above the foundation walls this past weekend we found some old burlap bags. I had seen a corner of burlap hanging down a while ago and hadn’t bothered to see what it was. Well it turns out that it was 3 OLD (100 years or so) burlap bags that had been shoved into the space between the stone foundation and the sill plate a LONG time ago (now replaced with spray foam). Drew gave them a rinse off outside over the weekend. They are still kind of gross but they are really cool at the same time. They are fairly fragile so I’m not sure that they would be able to be framed, but I could always frame pictures of them in the new finished space in the basement. What do you think?

The first one is a 50 lb cabbage bag. The second is a 100 lb potato bag. And the third one is a 167 lb fertilizer bag (I can’t imagine trying to carry a bag that heavy!).

Eastern States Seed Potatoes Burlap Bag from Springfield, MA

Tunnell's 5-8-7 Fertilizer Burlap Bag from Philadelphia, PA

*For all of our Basement progress click here.

I will be posting up updated basement photos later but in the meantime I thought I would show you the plans for the flooring. We spent the long weekend installing new insulation at the sill/ top of the foundation. 10 cans of spray foam and 2 large bags of mineral wool and we are almost done! We have already noticed less draft in the house. Of course once we get the walls insulated down there, it should feel even warmer!

Inspiration 1 via Houzz

Inspiration 2 via homebunch

Inspiration 3 via Houzz

So in the meantime I thought I would show you the flooring that we picked out. We started with the idea of large porcelain tile for the bath and laundry area but we couldn’t seem to find anything to our liking that was also in our price range. So we expanded into looking at real stone and slate and also vinyl tile. I love the look of the slate, but not the maintenance (it is the basement after all). We are also challenged in the height department down there. So in the end we have selected a vinyl tile that looks like slate (plus you can grout it). It is thinner than tile or stone and should be a little warmer on the feet too. I know it seems a little “cheesy” but I like how it looks in person and it had good reviews so we are willing to give it a try.

12x24 Vinyl Tile in "Slate"

The photo is from my phone, sorry the color is a little off! The price is good about $1.69 sf. It is special order from Home Depot. It is from their TrafficMaster Ceramica line. They don’t list the slate color online but here is a link to a similar one called Coastal Grey. We will be using the 12×24 in a staggered joint pattern, similar to my first inspiration. We plan on using a mix of horizontal and vertical beadboard throughout the basement. I am leaning towards the horizontal beadboard similar to my second inspiration in the bathroom.

For the main room we are thinking of having some fun with the flooring. We decided that we wanted the warmth of carpet in this space. My preference is for durable carpet tile in this case, but the price on most carpet tile is expensive (especially for a basement) but I think we have found the answer!

Mixed Lot Carpet Tile in "Bright"

Mixed Lot Carpet tile in "Grey"

These are from Carpet Corporation of America based out of Georgia. These odd lots are priced in the $.29-.49 sf range. I still have to call them but I like it! The beauty is if one gets damaged you just put a new one in! They also offer random lots of matching tile in the $1.50 sf range. So stay tuned to see what i end up picking! It will be a big departure from our understated beadboard walls.

*For all of our Basement progress click here.

Newly Parged Wall (dark gray will fade as it dries)

So this is not one of my pretty posts. Somehow looking at foundation walls is not a particularly eye catching thing to do. But for us, this means that we are one step further to having pretty finished walls! My contractors (Kent, Chris & Nate) have been busy down in the basement this week. They were here for 2 days this week and probably have 1 more day to wrap things up (at least until the drainage specialists show up). They are about 2/3 of the way done with the parging on the walls. Parging is basically a skim coat of mortar that is applied to the stone (rubble) foundation. Since the foundation is made up of lots of smaller stones this help to even out the wall and help minimize the potential for leaks and spots for bugs and mice to enter. Inevitably the parging starts to deteriorate after a certain point (with years of moisture from the outside making its way inside). Ours was probably last parged about 50-70 years ago. The process consists of using a wire brush/chisel to remove all of the lose parging. In our case the parging was generally in good condition above the ground line and in varying degrees of deterioration below the ground line. We also noticed that once we removed the interior walls in front that the stone walls that the walls dried out quite a bit and more parging fell off. Then they fill any of the larger cavities/holes first. Then they come back with a thinner coat to skim coat the walls.

This is only the first step in our wall construction. After parging comes a special fabric that is applied to the walls that will keep any moisture away from the inside. This will attach to the new perimeter drain system with a special lip that will allow all of the moisture to drain into the new perimeter drain and back to  the sump pump to take it away (back outside).

After the drainage system is complete we will be adding rigid extruded insulation to the inside along with stud walls. We will also be adding new mineral wool insulation just above the foundation at the sill plate. There is a mix of insulation in there now that we are going to take out and replace for consistency. Mineral wool which is made from molten rock (and now from slag leftover from the steel making process). It has a couple of advantages over other insulation. It is an excellent fire retardant, doesn’t deteriorate or lose its insulative properties when wet, has a better R-value per inch then fiberglass and is a excellent sound attenuation. I’m still working out the exact detail for this location to maximize R-value and fire separation. I also had to special order the mineral wool (usually listed as Rockwool or Thermafiber).

New Floor Joist Support

Reglazed window

So along with this process they also fixed an unsupported floor joist (it has only been unsupported for about 100 years ago), put in a new exhaust line for the dryer, added a new exterior electrical outlet to the front of the house, reglazed one of the windows, temporarily hung our electrical box so that the drainage guys could work underneath it, and extended one of our gutters so that we minimize water collection in one corner! Phew! It was like Christmas all over for us.

We also managed to make it over to Home Depot to look at some products and finishes without the kids yesterday. We decided on a floor!! And found some great affordable LED recessed lights. So stay tuned for more developments!

May everyone have an amazing 2012! Thanks for reading!

*For all of our Basement progress click here.