Quote:
Originally Posted by TimJFowler
No, your progress is quite impressive, but it's a bit of info to digest.
So, here's a few questions: - What is the new headroom in the basement?
- Did you consider building a cold closet in a corner of the basement?
- How are you handling moisture / water?
- What are you planning for windows and the exterior door?
- Why did you start in the basement? I'm guessing it was the least disruptive place to start a major insulation project.
- What are the basic stats on the rest of the house?
Good work, keep us updated!
Tim |
The headroom is under the 7' code requirement but only by a couple inches. Maybe 6' 10" or so.
I did consider a cold cellar but space is limited and I won't be keeping a garden that can produce enough roots to necessitate it for a long time so that project is on hold for 8 - 12 years.
The basement id bone dry. Every basement in the area is. The previous basement construction was cheap garbage and there wasn't a single sign of mold or any kind of rot. The previous owner was an architect and she kept her drawings down there. I was prepared to hammer out the perimeter and install drain tile but it appeared to be completely unnecessary. In fact, I took out a carpet they had on the floor that had a layer of poly under it. The underside of the poly was completely dry. This is why I decided it was OK to use polyiso instead of XPS like normal. I am taking extra measures to channel rain water away from the foundation though.
The windows will just be regular awning basement windows. Double pane. I'll make Lexan inserts for the winter with additional framing to fit a 2.25" piece of polyiso in at night or when not in use. The door is going to have to be custom made due to its size so I'm going to go all out with a fiberglass filled metal door with a magnetic weather seal like a refrigerator has.
The reason I started with the basement was that finishing it doubles the square footage of the house instantly. I value peace and quiet but my children don't and it's not right to expect them to. So I'm making them an entire floor where they can smash things and scream ride scooters in the winter. Also, right before I was getting ready sign papers my mother told me to be prepared for my daughter to move in. The last time she said that I brushed it off and then she moved in for 9 months so I took her seriously this time. I'm making her a bedroom down there. She's 11 and my other children are 5 and 2 so she needs her own space. Oddly enough two weeks before I began construction her mother had an episode displaying her unhealthy frame of mind and all kinds of insanity came to light. So my daughter is indeed living with me now.
The house is an 1100 sq ft ranch. I chose it because of how easy the geometry of a ranch is to work with. Finishing the basement effectively makes it a 2200 sq ft house. Crazy that you can double the size of a house and drastically decrease its energy usage for under $10 K. The foundation of 40' x 20'. It's pretty simple. Fiberglass in the attic and a little cellulose. Nothing much. Some outdated fiberglass in the walls. It's got an 80% efficient Buderus boiler for heat and hot water. One really key feature is that close to 1/4 of the wall space has baseboard radiant heat. The shear volume of radiator is allowing me to run a really low temp water. I had been planning on scrapping the boiler for 2 ASHPs but it would never ever pay off.