Insulating unfinished basement ceiling

[aafadca]

I have an unfinished basement with about 1000 sq. feet. It's an older house with 24 on centers and I want to put some type of insulation in the ceiling. I'm debating on some type foam board or regular fiberglass insulation. Has anyone done one/both? Can you tell a difference in the house? Any advantage of one over another? Thanks

 

[p_mori7]

Pictures ?

Is this a crawl space or full height basement ?

Is the area heated ?

 

[aafadca]

Pictures ?

Is this a crawl space or full height basement ?

Is the area heated ?

Don't have pictures at the moment. I'm not home. It's unheated basically with about a 10 foot ceiling.

 

[Rob_b]

Might I suggest this... http://www.homedepot.com/p/Owens-Co...ieces-per-package-BF42/202585869#.UgccfH8VGgw

 

[James-W]

Are you eventually planning on finishing off the basement and using it as additional living space?

 

[rsa]

You might research insulating the basement walls instead of the ceiling. From Martin Holliday at Green Building Advisor,

Energy modeling has shown that such insulation is cost-effective. Energy savings more than justify the investment.

Places to start, greenbuildingadvisor.com and buildingscience.com. I find using site searches on your favorite search engine works best. Don't start insulating your basement walls until you're absolutely know how to properly do it. Here's a starting place: How to Insulate a Basement Wall.

There are valid reasons to insulate the ceiling, e.g., sound control.

 

[msgross]

Plus it's a start to finishing the basement.. I used the polystyrene foam sheeting against the block walls and stud walls against that with unfaced insulation.

 

[rkevins]

if you have exposed wiring and plumbing you could use lay in celling grid and use foam board insulation cut to fit in the track, or make track from 1 x 4 nailed to the bottom of the floor joist

 

[aafadca]

Yes, there is exposed wiring and plumbing. No, I'm not going to finish it but would just like something between the basement ceiling and main floor of the house. I had thought about attaching some thick foam board to the joist. Then I wondered if regular insulation would be better in between the joists.

 

[p_mori7]

Because there is exposed plumbing, I would insulate the walls. I wouldn't want the pipes to freeze. But my point of view is probably biased due to my location and experience being with finished walls...but there is a reason we do it that way up here...it keeps the basement a lot warmer and the floor is warmer as a result.

 

[Teken]

You might research insulating the basement walls instead of the ceiling. From Martin Holliday at Green Building Advisor,Places to start, greenbuildingadvisor.com and buildingscience.com. I find using site searches on your favorite search engine works best. Don't start insulating your basement walls until you're absolutely know how to properly do it. Here's a starting place: How to Insulate a Basement Wall.

There are valid reasons to insulate the ceiling, e.g., sound control.

I find it interesting that he calls out that basement interior walls should never use fiberglass batts in the walls. To also not use a vapor barrier once the insulation is in place.

This has been done in Canada for more than 25 years.

Either I am missing the obvious or Canadians have been doing it all wrong for 25 years in the cold *** North!

Insight

Teken . . .

 

[76cruiser]

I used fiberglass batts in the floor joists when I finished my basement. Although there is no real need to insulate the floor/ceiling, I thought it would help with limiting the sound. It does to a limited extent as the heat ducts will always transmit sound. All-in-all it was only an addition $300-400 to add R30 to the floor joists. Not sure I would mess with it again given the opportunity.

 

[rsa]

Either I am missing the obvious or Canadians have been doing it all wrong for 25 years in the cold *** North!

Not just Canadians and what was being missed wasn't obvious—almost everyone was doing it wrong.

The quote below is a very brief excerpt from Building Science Corporation Research Report 0202. The full report is quite informative and readable.

All Building America homes constructed by the Building Science Consortium were initially constructed with interior basement insulation. The approaches used early in the program were interior stud wall framing insulated with fiberglass batts and “blanket” insulation (Figure 3). These two approaches are the most common approaches to basement insulation used by the home building industry in general.

The experience by the Building Science Consortium with these two approaches has been bad. The Building Science Consortium has concluded that these two approaches are unsuitable for use by the home building industry due to serious problems associated with mold, decay and odors. This is consistent with reports from Canada where basements are insulated in a similar manner (Fugler, 2002) and from other researchers in the United States, notably in Minnesota (Ellringer, 2002). Continued use of these approaches by the home building industry will likely lead to a disaster of unprecedented proportions and may result in the construction of energy efficient homes being set back a generation.

 

[Teken]

Sometimes I wish I knew more early on when I built my home on 2009. I am sure the costs would have been a little more using solid core insulation but the advantages are just better over all.

Maybe when I have more money then time I could entertain doing this in the future. Everyday I learn I know less than I knew before!

Teken . . .