Hello!
I am new here and plan to tear down wood-framed walls and floors to dehumidify a basement where there is moisture but which was drained last year. I want to avoid using steel framing and am considering using plaster/spackle/paint on the walls and laying stone with underfloor heating on the plaster on the floor.
The house is from 1936.
My questions are:
What type of plaster should be used (I am doubtful about drywall since it has been quite humid before the drainage)?
Any tips for the floor installation, something to keep in mind?
Thank you/Cecilia
I am new here and plan to tear down wood-framed walls and floors to dehumidify a basement where there is moisture but which was drained last year. I want to avoid using steel framing and am considering using plaster/spackle/paint on the walls and laying stone with underfloor heating on the plaster on the floor.
The house is from 1936.
My questions are:
What type of plaster should be used (I am doubtful about drywall since it has been quite humid before the drainage)?
Any tips for the floor installation, something to keep in mind?
Thank you/Cecilia
Underfloor heating can become unnecessarily expensive to operate if you don't first remove the old floor and lay ground insulation underneath before pouring a new floor. A house from -36 probably doesn't have any insulation under the floor, and likely only a rather thin concrete slab in the floor. Much of the heat therefore just dissipates into the ground.
If you remove the old floor and insulate, it will also become drier in the basement. Your new drainage doesn't help much against moisture from below.
If you remove the old floor and insulate, it will also become drier in the basement. Your new drainage doesn't help much against moisture from below.
b8q is absolutely right in everything he says, but I want to add our experience just to give a "well-rounded illumination" of the issue...
Our house is from 1927 and nearly thirty years ago, previous owners installed hydronic floor heating and tiled floors in the basement—without insulating downward.
Even if it’s not optimal, it does work... it gets warm... and the energy consumption doesn’t seem to be as hair-raising as one might fear. With an air-to-water heat pump, we are now using slightly over 17,000 kWh/year in household electricity, heating, and hot water in an old, albeit additionally insulated house with nearly 130 sqm of living space, over 60 sqm of basement, and a heated garage. The difference that the floor heating in the basement makes becomes obvious when it’s turned off in the summer—it gets really cold and damp down there!
These are pretty tough conditions, clay soil with groundwater at a depth of one meter...
Still, if someone these days takes the trouble to install hydronic floor heating in the basement, it seems foolish not to break up and insulate while you’re at it. Besides the energy savings, you probably also increase comfort during the part of the year when you might have the heating turned off. Running uninsulated like we do poses a great risk of so-called reverse moisture migration when the heat is turned off (the basement's concrete slab cools down faster than the heated soil beneath, causing moisture from the soil to be pushed up into the basement).
Our house is from 1927 and nearly thirty years ago, previous owners installed hydronic floor heating and tiled floors in the basement—without insulating downward.
Even if it’s not optimal, it does work... it gets warm... and the energy consumption doesn’t seem to be as hair-raising as one might fear. With an air-to-water heat pump, we are now using slightly over 17,000 kWh/year in household electricity, heating, and hot water in an old, albeit additionally insulated house with nearly 130 sqm of living space, over 60 sqm of basement, and a heated garage. The difference that the floor heating in the basement makes becomes obvious when it’s turned off in the summer—it gets really cold and damp down there!
These are pretty tough conditions, clay soil with groundwater at a depth of one meter...
Still, if someone these days takes the trouble to install hydronic floor heating in the basement, it seems foolish not to break up and insulate while you’re at it. Besides the energy savings, you probably also increase comfort during the part of the year when you might have the heating turned off. Running uninsulated like we do poses a great risk of so-called reverse moisture migration when the heat is turned off (the basement's concrete slab cools down faster than the heated soil beneath, causing moisture from the soil to be pushed up into the basement).
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