Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

hi everyone,

so we ended up with a flooded basement over the weekend 3 inches of water throughout, its fully finished and wrecked, all flooring gone, dry wall gotta be cut 2 feet up from floor and replaced, plus tons of contents gone, thank god for insurance.

I just have a query regarding insulation for those maybe in the know!. The house is modern, 5 yrs old, the owners didnt appear to scrimp on anything, however on cutting out the dry wall today to start the drying process we have discovered there is no insulation in the external walls in the basement.

We have in floor heat all through the house and it works great warm in winter and the basement stays really cool in the summer, would this be why they chose not to insulate the walls downstairs, ie to keep it cooler in summer, or have they just scrimped on this when building the house?

Would be grateful for any views, we assumed it would be worth paying to get this put in now whilst all the basement is being torn apart, but dont want to loose the coolness the basement provides in the summer

any views would be great, thanks !

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

They scrimped. My basement's fully finished and insulated throughout. Still the coolest part of the house in the summer.

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

Shouldn't there be insulation and a vapour barrier? any pics?

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

there is a vapour barrier just no insulation

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

I think there definitely needs to be insulation. Are your heating bills high?

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

+1

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

Neither of which keep water out if it is water-table issue, nor does insurance cover this.

Burst or leaking pipes another thing though.

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

What caused the flooding?

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

we are all oil for in floor heat, not excessive compared to electric, but could be cheaper, thinking of putting in woodstove in basement to try and save $

insurance will cover if you have sewer back up endorsement which fortunately we have, basically it is water table issue but has come back into the house via a drain, for this endorsement on coverage to apply you either have to have the drain hole in floor or a sump pump failure. Only issue is there is a limit on coverage for $ payable versus the standard building coverage, we think the drain that is attached to the house and goes way down the garden has got blocked/frozen, hence the water has backed up and come through the drain hole in the basement :(

as above

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

So long as it is not determined as flooding, as there is no flood insurance in Canada, but there is sewer back up and burst pipe.

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

There needs to be insulation Nikki. Get Andy on to it pronto, or when the walls dry out ...like..:thumbup:


Did your sump pump work at all? :confused:

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

I'd be inclined to agree with the rest Nikki, we have insulated and vapour barriered our basement too.

I wonder if, like you might think, there's a reason behind not doing it if they have spared no expense elsewhere????

Unless they had dodgy contractors :confused: but then surely it would have needed inspecting to classify it as a finished basement, and insulating exterior walls must be in some or other code.

I'd ask Mike Holmes. ;)

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

When you do want to replace it i would look in to spray foam insulation costs more but worth it.

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

We just did that. iirc the materials were about $300 (it's ony one end of the basement, the rest is finished). The potential grant is $600+ so, if we see the government's money, we'll actually win on it.

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

Ive got 2"of R10 foam, plus R24 Roxul in the stud walls, even unheated its the coolest part in the summer and warmest in the winter. Best investment Ive made I think.

I guess the advantage of spray foaming is it effectively seals and vapour barriers all the small nooks and crannies, in my case that invilved a lot of stuffing fibreglasss and cutting and taping of 6mil polythene sheeting

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

tks everyone for info will look into this and the tax return too for next year!, thanks!

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

Where I live an unfinished basement does not need to be insulated . They could have left it unfinished until they got their occupancy permit and then put up the drywall. It does seem a bit daft as insulation costs next to nothing compared to the overall cost of finishing a basement.

You do hear stories of dodgy builders taking the drywall down and removing the insulation after an inspector leaves. Usually from one contractor trying to put off a potential client from dealing with another, cheaper, contractor. I think it is BS. The cost of taking down the drywall, removing the insulation, and putting the drywall back up again will far outweigh the value of the insulation recovered.

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

As someone said Nikki, look into sprayfoam and the difference in your heating bills will surprise you. I work installing in floor and forced air heating systems and the most effective insulation anyone reccomends is sprayfoam :thumbup:

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

Are the external walls concrete? If so, there could be 2 inch styrofoam between the concrete and the soil (outside).

X

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

Maybe if its a new build, and even then thats some way beyond basic code I suspect...

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

Just trying to throw out ideas on what could have happened. When our house fell apart and they took all the drywall down - we didn't have any insulation..always thought it was cold in here :eek:

Re: Flooded basement:(, insulation ?
 

Well Insulated are a relatively new idea, as is insulation the outside, old school was just butumen the crap out of the outside of the foundation to keep the water out (until it cracked:() and maybe put in a drain / weeping tile at the bottom of the wall to help with drainage...


Now there are fancy membranes and insulation and the rest, but its a pain to retrofit, lots of digging:( Doing the inside is a more attractive proposition, but only if its dry I guess. If its not dry then you have to address the leaking before you do anything else.