What is the disadvantage when building a basement wall without taking the silver backing insulation down ?
If you have this insulation installed all the way down to the floor of the basement, leave it in place and don’t insulate the walls you build. This type of insulation has only become common in the last 6 or 7 years, as communities began adopting the International Code Series, published by the International Code Council. Chapter 11 of the International Residential Code contains energy conservation requirements; and provides both prescriptive and performance based methods of complying with these requirements. Most builders choose to use the performance based method; which involves using a software program called “RESCheck” available from the Department of Energy. One of the places additional insulation can be added to meet the performance criteria of this software are the basement walls. Typically, this is an R-13 blanket with foil or white vinyl facing, and it extends either to the floor, or 4′ down the wall. This hasn’t been going on long enough in my area for me to determine if the sy
