Moisture Barrier - 3 Types

hi I'm Shannon from host improvements comm and in today's video I just want to show you three different products that you could use as your moisture barrier against the concrete base against the basement concrete walls on the inside kind of starting just from the left to right actually first all moisture barrier it's kind of a misunderstood item this is not the same as your vapor air vapor barrier the air vapor barrier is actually on the warm side on this side of the wall after the installation is done but before the dry walling the moisture barrier is actually behind that framed wall and this is basically just directing any moisture that comes through the concrete through frost and condensation even small leaks it's just to direct that moisture to the floor so it isn't soaking into your insulation now if you have a spray foam basement then obviously you don't need a spray foam to be sprayed right onto the wall so but this is if you're using bad insulation okay so just starting over at the left my left of what I would consider kind of the best method other than spray foam is to attach rigid foam to the wall okay so we actually have a video showing you how to actually attach it so I'm not going to go into that detail you can watch the other video for that but basically in this case we've attached one-inch rigid foam to the wall we've sealed it can you see in the corner there maybe down at the bottom you can see I've sealed it with canned spray foam so any spaces and gaps and in the corners and stuff we we've sealed it with some spray foam so simply get it attached seal it up and then you can you're ready to frame your wall on that in front of it okay so that's that's one way the other two ways are dealt with a little bit differently now it with the spray foam it was going rate from floor to underside a joist so these ones don't these ones here first we want to attach some type of a wood strip to the concrete wall that's 12 inches above the exterior grade so if your dirt outs I'd is you know somewhere down here this needs to be about 12 inches above 6 to 12 inches we'd be fine attach it to the wall it doesn't take very much to do that but you will need a hammer drill I've just used a screw in type anchor attach that to the wall and that's just simply there to hang these two products from okay so the the first product that you could use would just be a six mil poly sheeting so plastic sheeting and obviously this is just a little wee strip just a sample right here you're covering your whole wall if you're doing this so it would be hung just simply by stapling it up here hung down to the floor level so then it directs any moisture down to the floor and it isn't soaking into the to the studs and into the insulation and creating a mold problem okay so that's that's one the other product that you could use would be a house wrap like an exterior house wrap and same idea just simply get stapled to this wood strip that's 12 inches above grade and hung down to the floor just like that okay and that's all really all you need to do now with either one of these products as you're going along anywhere where you've got to overlap at a joint or whatever overlap it by two feet don't tape it or anything just overlap it the idea is here to direct the moisture down but also still allow the wall to breathe because there's no insulation value to this with bad insulation walls heat and moisture from inside the house can transfer through the wall cavity and if it hits a cold surface it creates condensation or Frost the condensation creates the frost and you have a moisture problem so this this isn't supposed to be sealed in order so that it can kind of dry from either side because the wall breathes both the concrete wall and the wood wall breathes this is a little different situation it we do want to seal it because it is creating some r-value so we're trying to stop any warm moist air from the inside of the house from getting in contact with this cold concrete in the winter okay so this one we are sealing it right off so the spray foam and red tape on any joints these these sheets come in usually two foot by eight foot link's or or 4 foot by 8 foot lengths so anywhere where the joints are tape it up also if you look here this is a piece of the rigid foam it's got a joint like this so the joints kind of overlap each other it isn't just a straight joint Rea back there and it prevents the cold from transferring through because of the lab so the other sheet would have the opposite lap and it would just butt right up against there and you tape this on the inside okay I think that's pretty pretty much all you really need to know like I said we do have a video on showing you how to install this already and we actually do have another video dealing with moisture barrier we were doing the poly one there in a bi-level so it's a little little bit different but if you want to watch how it's actually installed you can go there and watch that in order of preference to me spray foam would be my first choice but obviously cost is usually the determining factor in that process number two choice would be the the foam the one-inch foam on the wall number three would be the house wrap and my last choice kind of would be the poly so the only reason there is because this breathes a little bit better but yet it sheds water where this sheds water but doesn't breathe as well okay so hopefully that kind of cleared up some of the misrepresentation of what a moisture barrier is and also showed you a few different options that you could use - what if you are redoing your basement and want to one out figure out which which one of these products you prefer to use so so again if you have any questions just like I always mention I prefer that you come to our forum and post your question there as opposed to commenting here on the video if you just have a general comment you know you love the video or whatever a great post it down there click the little thumbs up - that really helps us subscribe to our channel but if you actually have a question that you want an answer - go to the forum post it up there and I'll be sure to get an answer off to you quite quickly you can also follow me on Facebook and on Twitter if you aren't sick of listening to me already you can do that and we also have a patreon campaign going right now and if you're interested in making a pledge towards us that'd be great and you can do it there so thanks a lot for watching and hopefully everything here is going to help you on your next project

Channel: HouseImprovements

Views: 302,370

Keywords: moisture, barrier, house, wrap, tyvek, typar, poly, 6 mil, plastic, ridgid, styrofoam, foam, spray, insulate, insulation, wall, basement, home, improvement, reno, decide, type, types, DIY, leaky, drafty, draft, seal, r value, framing

Id: P5E2X8Q5jcQ

Length: 6min 58sec (418 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 30 2016