basement insulation questions

joshs

Hi everyone. First post. Excited to be part of the community. I am planning on finishing my basement in the coming months and I have a couple insulation questions.

I live in Michigan so I'm a cold weather area in winter. My house was built in mid 2007. I know they had a basement waterproofing system put in. They had a black spray put directly on the concrete and there is a .5 inch fiber board of some kind over that. It only comes up to grade and does not cover the exposed concrete above grade.

We also have daylight windows on one end and a slope that runs down, so there is more exposed concrete above grade on one end than the other.

I was planning on using pink board to insulate floor and walls, bug I have read that insulating both sides of the concrete can cause problems since it can't drain anywhere.

First part of my question is will I still be fine using foam board for floor/walls and building a stud wall with batt insulation.

When the builder poured our basement, the walls were poured into a mold to give them the appearance of brick so it's not smooth. Will foamboard still be effective with this texture as long as it's sealed? I'm worried of all the little "grout" lines that may not be completely flush with the foam board.

Any thoughts are appreciated! Thanks!

Windows on Wash

If you don't have a moisture infiltration issue, rigid foam is a great option for a multitude of reasons.

Insulation (batt) work just fine with foam board and you are correct, properly sealed, foam still works great if it doesn't sit flush to the wall.

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Gary in WA

If it was mine, I'd fill them with grout; http://joneakes.com/jons-fixit-database/743

Gary

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joshs

Thanks for the replies guys. Sounds like it might not be as simple as I had hoped it would be. I think I might start taking out bids for spray foam insulation as that may save a fair amount of time.