Thanks for the reply Worthy. There is actually no water running down the walls. They put the VB up only because they could not get there gutter system up against the floor / wall joint. The only way for the water to get from the holes drilled in the first course of block was to put in the VB to channel any water that "would" come in goes to the gutter system that is under the concrete at the floor / footer / wall joint. I have checked the access ports over the past year and they are always dry. The sump pump is not busy winter and late spring through fall. So the only action is sees is the wet spring and a good T storm in summer. After that it is quiet. If I have minimal water coming from the wall and all the action is from a high water table, how to proceed with insulating the basement.. I just want to insulate the best I can given my circumstances and move forward the best I can. An additional exterior system is water well under the bridge.

This is a project my dad I did the latter part of last winter. I had already gutted the kichen, it wasn't salvagable, and discovered pipes not really in the wall, but between the old plaster and drywall that a PO did (plumber said definately a diy project and done incorrectly). Before any plumbing was rerouted to not be in the wall, is when my dad and I blew in insulation. You could tell the 1 corner in the kitchen had insulation, but that was it. We were fairly confident there was no other insulation except some in the attic. We blew in cellulose. We did it from the inside by measuring over from a corner about 8". He then used a 1" hole bit. This is where my dad got creative :) He had me find an old wire hanger and he first straightened it out and then made a bend in it. He put it in the hole he had drilled out and went over to where he found the stud. Then he measured how far over to get more accurate for the next hole, measuring to try to be 16" apart. He made holes all around in each room on the outside walls and below windows. At Menard's, when you buy cellulose, you're given a days free rent of the blower. We spent one day drilling holes and the next day filling them. We started on the first floor...only to discover that we have a balloon structure and some of the cellulose came out underneath the baseboards upstairs (the quarter round had been removed long before us). We could have just made the holes upstairs, but live and learn. We did the upstairs the next week, using a blower the carpenter I'd hired had. The kitchen and 1/2 bath were different since I'd gutted them. In those 2 rooms, I used the roll insulation. Both were sooo easy to do and who knows how much it saved us by not hiring the job done. I can also say that the heating bill was virtually cut in half after blowing in the insulation. The holes were easy to fill with plaster when we were done, either the carpenter or myself did those. Tony's way was easier than mine. He already had plaster made up for another room he was working on and took a bag, filled it, cut a small hole in the bottom and squeezed out the plaster into the hole. Then it was up to me to sand them down (they tended to expand out). I was just using a putty knife and trying to get it in the hole. If you're not sure where the water pipe is, (is it between the interior and exterior towards the back, or more towards the inside) I'm not sure this would work for your pipe because of the reasons stated above. But it sure would work for the rest of the house!

I have to agree with mightyanvil, I can't think of any purpose to stapling building paper to the inside of the siding. If you have enough rain water infiltration to create "puddles" you have more serious problems. If it's an occasional errant leak onto the inside of the siding, I don't see that harming the fiberglass in any meaningful way. Now if you were putting in loose cellulous (which is more succeptible to moisture damage) you might have a point. I would guess the mold you see is more likely from condensation forming on the siding from warm inside air hitting it. Make sure your inside air barrier (i.e., the drywall) is as tight as possible and perhaps leave an inch of airspace between the siding and your batts (if possible) Another way to keep moist inside air from hitting you siding would be to cut styrofoam to be slightly smaller than each stud bay, then apply spray foam (e.g. great stuff) into the cracks all around to hold it in place. Even with this method, I would leave a little air space between the styrofoam and the siding to prevent any moisture from being trapped against the siding. And of course plug up any wire and pipe holes with caulk or great stuff as well.

LOL - but it's a "demising wall" - I guess that means its demise is imminent....so Steljoe just has to wait until the wall's demise...then put the wires in the new wall. I guess he/she needs to check the local codes but Chris probably has a point regarding it being a firewall - they probably need to use plenum cable, or maybe armoured cable... I would suggest, since it's a plain, solid wall - there won't be any windows in it - that it might be worth considering adding a false wall over it, it could be made with 2x2" or something, just deep enough for the electrical boxes. Existing boxes could be brought forward, if there's not enough cable, move them up the wall slightly or figure a way to splice extra in, whilst remaining in code (with a junction box or something.) Other advantage is - even better soundproofing, they could even add more insulation.