Rubble foundation - insulating
pmakulski
18 years ago
Featured Answer
Comments (18)
sharon_sd
18 years agojamesbodell
18 years agoRelated Discussions
Foundation insulation/hydronic design
Comments (3)I would build raised beds with a walkway between them, and run the heating cable under the walkway. Slab heating works by the slab/flooring being in contact with the air, which it then heats. When you are heating a greenhouse at night, you want to heat the air. Slab heating does that slowly and steadily, which conserves energy, but it is still the temp of the air around the plants that is most important....See MoreGreenhouse wall and foundation insulation
Comments (12)boxcar, The foam is waterproof, so if you lay it under crushed stone with no place to drain; it won't. However, if you have the patience to fiddle with the crushed stone, grading and packing it firmly to the center or one end and can dig out a drywell, you could lay the foam over it, leaving the top of the drywell open from the foam, then more stone on top, and the water would drain to the drywell. But it would result in a much nicer and easier to keep clean floor, not to mention tracking the stuff, to just overlay the foam with concrete patio blocks or bricks. As long as the crushed stone is well and truly packed, the foam really will support the bricks or blocks, that will lay easily and could be butted tightly to avoid the need to fill between them. You could even broom mortar into any cracks, wet it and when it dried, would have a really solid floor. BTW, just in case you aren't familiar with drywells- They are just holes dug down to below frost line, lined in the old days with mortared brick or stones and now, plastic liners that can be bought for the purpose. Or, you can use a length of fairly wide plastic culvert pipe. You could also use the same heavy plastic channel drain as I did, except that instead of the section with the drain drop leading to a sump pit, it would go directly into a drywell. There are a number of options, but for any drywell, always- the deeper the better, then fill it with large stones to the top of the liner and either set a made for the purpose cap or channel drain drop section over it, or top it off with with 1/2 inch hardward cloth and lay a piece of window screening over that, to prevent anything other than water from seeping into it. I drain my GH with a channel drain that connects to a sump pit, fitted with a sump pump, that empties the pit to a 150 ft. long line, but I fitted out my GH out to serve as a tropical fish hatchery, so often need to dump hundreds of gallons of water at a time, and have a large utility sink out there too, with H & C water, so it's a different GH use and set-up than most. I also laid OSB over the foam, then topped that with 3/4 inch concrete board, but that was because I wanted a glazed quarry tile floor and it requires far more elaborate under pinnings than do patio blocks or bricks. The tile also lines the kneewall, but there too, my needs were different. All you really need for a GH in which you only grow plants, is a means to drain off excess water from the plants and avoid too much dampness that might cause fungus on them as well as the interior walls of the GH, although the ability to hose down a concrete block or brick floor with cold water is a nice extra, for keeping the GH clean and help cool it on hot days. It really all depends on HOW you want to use your GH, and WHEN in relation to your climate, and how much time, effort and money you are willing/able to spend to fit it out for your own maximum use and enjoyment. After all, a garden GH is really only for pleasure, because unless you are feeding an army of kids, for what it costs to build and maintain one, it's cheaper to shop for veggies at Whole Foods and buy started plants at any nursery. So by all means, put a lot of thought and effort into your foundation and if, after you have the GH you need to back off on the fittings until your wallet recoups; do so and in the end, you will have what you really want. We spent an entire season preparing the foundation for my GH and by the time we actually got to erecting it, all we had time for before winter set in was to install the heater, but as anxious as I was to use it, patience paid off. (Of course, we are also a pair of arthritic old poops, so everything takes us longer now.)...See Morerepairing a damaged rubble stone foundation
Comments (1)You need a geotechnical engineer to determine the soil type and bearing capacity. While a bond beam can spread loads out, it will not do any good if the rubble footprint is to small to support the additional load. The old footing can tend to concentrate the load, defeating the load spreading of the bond beam. This is a problem that needs a careful sight inspection to determine what the best way to proceed is....See MoreFoundation Insulation Board Repair/Patch
Comments (1)It is rigid foam board insulation that is stuck to the foundation with a mastic. It's sold in 4' x 8' sheets at Lowes, Home Depot, etal. The board helps with temperature control in the basement but there is little or no benefit at or just below grade level. Where it is broken away, you can apply brush-on foundation coating, sold in 2 and 5 gallon sizes, though it may not be called for if the wall already has a coating applied....See Morepmakulski
18 years agohousekeeping
18 years agojamesbodell
18 years agojamesbodell
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