6. Insulation installation

To date I have installed insulation on 2 of the 3 primary walls (west and north). These photos show the 2 inch foam insulation held in place by horizontal 1x4 boards and then vertical 1x4 furring boards on top.  Some will ask why I didn't just use the vertical boards to hold the foam insulation in place and forgo the horizontal boards. By using two layers of 1x4 boards, I create a 3/4" chase both vertically and horizontally to run my electrical conduit and the main water line from the well tank to the other end of the basement where the water heater and softener are located . Also, my electrical boxes can be installed flush with the interior drywall surface and only require me to remove little to no foam behind the boxes (depending on the size box used) instead of digging out almost all of the foam to allow the box to be recessed sufficiently to be flush with the interior drywall surface.

   

I installed half of the insulation on the east wall Friday. It rained Friday night and Saturday morning and when I went to install the rest of the insulation - you know where this is going, right - I found 2 puddles of water on the floor, one on the north wall that had the insulation glued and nailed in place and one on the east wall in an area to be finished today. Here are photos showing the 2 areas. The water has collected inside the area I marked with a Sharpie and is a little hard to see, but it's there. The leak on the unfinished wall is readily identifiable as a crack on the outside of the wall that can be easily sealed. Unfortunately, the leak on the north wall that is already insulated will require me to dig out away from the foundation to find the location of the leak and seal it. Not looking forward to that task!

 

Also, while working on the north wall around the two windows, I decided the 40/50 year old single pane, aluminum framed windows should probably be replaced at this stage. I removed the security bars that were on them and have framed around them and now waiting for replacement windows to be installed.

 

With the main line track elevation at about 50", it will be about half way up the larger window. Then with a 20-24 inch backdrop height, the window will be about 90% covered while the railroad is up. Whenever it is removed, there will not have to be any repairs made to the walls or windows since the bench work will be free standing but built against the walls.