Hello,
You guys seem so knowledgable! I appreciate any input on this. Please bear with me, I promise there's a point to this post
About a year ago I bought a small house constructed of this block material called Plasticrete. It's built on a hill so the front is ground-level and the lower level is walk-out from the back. If you look up from any room in the lower level, the ceiling (which is obviously the floor of the room above it) is all block. It's pretty cool, built somewhere during the 1940s / early 1950s.
The exterior has a painted concrete brick-looking veneer and the anchors have been rusting for a while, as is evident by orange streaks here and there on the exterior.
The basement walls were painted (probably a million years ago) and there are a lot of places on the exterior below-grade walls where the paint is gone. I'm assuming it is from moisture.
So, my questions are 1) is the moisture wicking through from the ground since I'm sure there's no barrier on the below-grade exterior walls OR 2) since the veneer anchors are also rusting above ground, I assume moisture is constantly being created in the small space between the exterior veneer and the interior block. Of course, no one would have known about giving the water a place to go (no weeping ability here) back then. So, could that moisture be 'dripping' down in between the interior and exterior walls then, when it gets below grade, being absorbed into the basement walls?
And, finally, does anyone see a problem with my solution of installing (glue AND anchoring) fir strips with foam insulation between them and vinyl siding to minimize the temperature difference between the inside and the outside of the building. Leave it to me to move to Connecticut during the worst winter on record...shesh.
Thank you!!!
-Danielle
You guys seem so knowledgable! I appreciate any input on this. Please bear with me, I promise there's a point to this post
About a year ago I bought a small house constructed of this block material called Plasticrete. It's built on a hill so the front is ground-level and the lower level is walk-out from the back. If you look up from any room in the lower level, the ceiling (which is obviously the floor of the room above it) is all block. It's pretty cool, built somewhere during the 1940s / early 1950s.
The exterior has a painted concrete brick-looking veneer and the anchors have been rusting for a while, as is evident by orange streaks here and there on the exterior.
The basement walls were painted (probably a million years ago) and there are a lot of places on the exterior below-grade walls where the paint is gone. I'm assuming it is from moisture.
So, my questions are 1) is the moisture wicking through from the ground since I'm sure there's no barrier on the below-grade exterior walls OR 2) since the veneer anchors are also rusting above ground, I assume moisture is constantly being created in the small space between the exterior veneer and the interior block. Of course, no one would have known about giving the water a place to go (no weeping ability here) back then. So, could that moisture be 'dripping' down in between the interior and exterior walls then, when it gets below grade, being absorbed into the basement walls?
And, finally, does anyone see a problem with my solution of installing (glue AND anchoring) fir strips with foam insulation between them and vinyl siding to minimize the temperature difference between the inside and the outside of the building. Leave it to me to move to Connecticut during the worst winter on record...shesh.
Thank you!!!
-Danielle
