I had been planning to insulate the foundation walls of my crawl space to keep my pipes from losing heat and to protect against them freezing if I ran my wood stove and the zone pumps stopped circulating.
I picked up 14 R10 sytrofoam 2 inch thick panels and had planned to attach them tomorrow.
SamClem pointed me to a Dept of Energy web site and I saw a footnote that warned not to insulate the walls of a ventilated crawl space. This made me start to worry that I would be building up moisture if I put the foam panels on the walls and also had under-floor insulation.
At this point I think I am going to cancel the plan to insulate the walls and attempt to build some sort of additional insulation around the pipes themselves.
The pipes have the black foam jackets that are slit and placed around the pipe. One pipe has foam that is very brittle - does this mean that it is worn out and should be replaced?
I am thinking that I will try to use some of the styrofoam to make a block around the pipes a couple inches thick or more and maybe hold it in place with wire that I wrap around and twist.
I live in CT, so I am listed as zone 1 on the insulation charts.
While I was under there I noticed that the current setup is R19 six inch batt insulation between the joists. However, the kraft paper vaper barrier is on the bottom facing the crawl space rather than on the top directly against the floor of the living area. In addition the entire bottom of the insulation is covered by clear plastic sheets.
I also discovered that the dryer hose is venting into the crawl space. I will be fixing that today or tomorrow. I think it has been like this about six years. When I had the new siding the contractor installed a four inch vent in the wall above the crawl space but the hose did not reach. I think I was supposed to add hose but forgot about it.
When I look up at the existing insulation there are several sections that seem to be definitely wet. In some of these the kraft paper is torn or missing. I think that this may be due to mice living in the insulation since the way it is set up the clear plastic and kraft paper make a nice floor for their little house.
Am I correct in assuming that the insulation is installed backwards?
Most of what I see says the if you live in a cold area the vapor barrier should be directly against the interior floor. It would only be in the deep south or in a very wet area that you would have a vapor barrier below the insulation.
I am thinking that I should reverse the insulation so that the vapor barrier is on the top against the floor.
It would seem that I definitely need to pull down any that seem to be really moist and replace them.
I am thinking that I will hold the insulation up with chicken wire stapled to the joists or maybe with some wire run in a zig zag pattern.
At this point I am pretty sure that I am not going to install the foam panels tomorrow, but any advice or reassurance will be appreciated as always.
Thanks. I don't know how I would be able to deal with this without all the help I am getting from this group.
I picked up 14 R10 sytrofoam 2 inch thick panels and had planned to attach them tomorrow.
SamClem pointed me to a Dept of Energy web site and I saw a footnote that warned not to insulate the walls of a ventilated crawl space. This made me start to worry that I would be building up moisture if I put the foam panels on the walls and also had under-floor insulation.
At this point I think I am going to cancel the plan to insulate the walls and attempt to build some sort of additional insulation around the pipes themselves.
The pipes have the black foam jackets that are slit and placed around the pipe. One pipe has foam that is very brittle - does this mean that it is worn out and should be replaced?
I am thinking that I will try to use some of the styrofoam to make a block around the pipes a couple inches thick or more and maybe hold it in place with wire that I wrap around and twist.
I live in CT, so I am listed as zone 1 on the insulation charts.
While I was under there I noticed that the current setup is R19 six inch batt insulation between the joists. However, the kraft paper vaper barrier is on the bottom facing the crawl space rather than on the top directly against the floor of the living area. In addition the entire bottom of the insulation is covered by clear plastic sheets.
I also discovered that the dryer hose is venting into the crawl space. I will be fixing that today or tomorrow. I think it has been like this about six years. When I had the new siding the contractor installed a four inch vent in the wall above the crawl space but the hose did not reach. I think I was supposed to add hose but forgot about it.
When I look up at the existing insulation there are several sections that seem to be definitely wet. In some of these the kraft paper is torn or missing. I think that this may be due to mice living in the insulation since the way it is set up the clear plastic and kraft paper make a nice floor for their little house.
Am I correct in assuming that the insulation is installed backwards?
Most of what I see says the if you live in a cold area the vapor barrier should be directly against the interior floor. It would only be in the deep south or in a very wet area that you would have a vapor barrier below the insulation.
I am thinking that I should reverse the insulation so that the vapor barrier is on the top against the floor.
It would seem that I definitely need to pull down any that seem to be really moist and replace them.
I am thinking that I will hold the insulation up with chicken wire stapled to the joists or maybe with some wire run in a zig zag pattern.
At this point I am pretty sure that I am not going to install the foam panels tomorrow, but any advice or reassurance will be appreciated as always.
Thanks. I don't know how I would be able to deal with this without all the help I am getting from this group.