Insulation For Basement Walls Vapor Barrier

If you live in a cold climate place the vapor barrier between the interior of your home and the insulation.

Insulation for basement walls vapor barrier.

Not so asphalt saturated kraft paper. The vapor barrier is sealed to the concrete wall at the bottom with some sort of seal and nailed directly to the concrete. If you have a framed wall that is adjacent to a concrete foundation wall where the vapor barrier is next to the drywall in front of the studs the fiberglass insulation gets wet and becomes a breeding ground for mold. Also on the graph is the permeance of polyethylene.

When the mold grows it will spread to everything around it studs drywall etc. Vapor barriers are sheets of plastic or other material placed on one side of insulation sheets. A vapor retarder is a material used to prevent water vapor from diffusing into the wall ceiling or floor during the cold winter. The water vapor can come through the concrete from the soil or from indoor air that comes in contact with the concrete.

Whether or not you need a vapor retarder hinges on three main factors your climate your home and the location of the wall you re insulating. Whether your vapor barrier is a facing or a film it must be placed on the warm in winter side of the wall. After the insulation is in place you will want to add a vapor retarder sometimes called a vapor barrier if you need one. This barrier is meant to keep moisture from getting to the insulation in the walls and ceilings and it is required by building codes when insulating most houses.

In any case the vapor barrier must point to the warm side. With fiber insulation and a vapor barrier moisture can get trapped in the insulation leading to moldy insulation and decay in the wood framing. If you live in a hot humid climate place the vapor barrier toward the outside of the wall cavity. Not to be confused with a vapor barrier which is placed on the warm side of the wall just in front of the insulation and behind the drywall a moisture barrier goes against the basement wall and.

As the wall dries the water vapor leaves the concrete and tries to penetrate the insulation and wall. You should then use fiberglass insulation that has a vapor barrier between the studs with the vapor barrier facing in toward the living space. Concrete is like a huge sponge which holds water and water vapor for years and years. The builder insulated the upper 4ft of the basement wall with a pink batt style insulation which is held to the wall with a vapor barrier.

This will give you two vapor barriers one before and one after the stud wall framing. Joe says in the article plastic vapor barriers really are vapor barriers when things get wet. Not every wall does. Of foam against the wall this should not be a problem in your climate.