Velvet Elvis
Ahh humma humma humma
Hey guys,
Got a little bit of a quandary and wanted to expert advice. My house is only 5 years old and we are just starting to finish the basement. Recently we ripped out the insulation (was there by code) to do some wiring and found MANY places with mold due to condensation on the cement walls. The people who have looked at it (a half dozen or so contractors etc now) said that its nothing significant and should go away once there is drywall up. We of course cleaned it all and such first.
A couple people told us to fill the walls with expanding foam insulation prior to putting the drywall up because it will seal ALL air that is causing the condensation.
This would be fine, except some of the areas are studio walls where I was planning on putting rockwool.
Here's my question. The outer leaf is the concrete wall. The inner leaf will be 2 layers of 5/8 drywall hung on RC. Would the foam be a BAD thing? It seems like it would help the mold issue, but hurt the isolation/STC of the wall.
The other thing is the sill on top of the foundation seems to be where the suspect the air is coming from. The foam would completely encase that, which stops the air... but would this be good for sound as well (vs attempting to caulk and backfilling with rockwool along the sill)? Some areas I CAN'T get to for rock wool, but the foam would be able to.
I've read that the foam is worthless from an STC perspective, but I'm wondering if its worse/better/indifferent than rockwool when used in a decent two leaf wall?
Any comments would be great - we need to let contractors know what we want to do TOMORROW (Monday). Grrr... stupid timelines and house problems!
Jim
Got a little bit of a quandary and wanted to expert advice. My house is only 5 years old and we are just starting to finish the basement. Recently we ripped out the insulation (was there by code) to do some wiring and found MANY places with mold due to condensation on the cement walls. The people who have looked at it (a half dozen or so contractors etc now) said that its nothing significant and should go away once there is drywall up. We of course cleaned it all and such first.
A couple people told us to fill the walls with expanding foam insulation prior to putting the drywall up because it will seal ALL air that is causing the condensation.
This would be fine, except some of the areas are studio walls where I was planning on putting rockwool.
Here's my question. The outer leaf is the concrete wall. The inner leaf will be 2 layers of 5/8 drywall hung on RC. Would the foam be a BAD thing? It seems like it would help the mold issue, but hurt the isolation/STC of the wall.
The other thing is the sill on top of the foundation seems to be where the suspect the air is coming from. The foam would completely encase that, which stops the air... but would this be good for sound as well (vs attempting to caulk and backfilling with rockwool along the sill)? Some areas I CAN'T get to for rock wool, but the foam would be able to.
I've read that the foam is worthless from an STC perspective, but I'm wondering if its worse/better/indifferent than rockwool when used in a decent two leaf wall?
Any comments would be great - we need to let contractors know what we want to do TOMORROW (Monday). Grrr... stupid timelines and house problems!
Jim