Tag: basement

Categories
Cottage Life

Cottage Q&A: Should I insulate the basement ceiling?

By Maples Images/Shutterstock

I’m finally finishing my cottage basement, and will be closing in the ceiling shortly. (It is a four-season cottage near Parry Sound.) I have heard that insulating the basement ceiling is a good idea not only to reduce sound transfer but also to help maintain a more consistent temperature in the basement. Is that true?—Bob Wiley, Lake Manitouwabing, Ont.

You are correct! At least, you’re half correct: insulating the ceiling will definitely help curb sound transmission. 

Almost any insulation—excluding foam—will help “from an acoustic standpoint,” says Tyler Simpson, the principal with TWS Building Science in Hamilton, Ont. (You can also buy specialized acoustic insulation designed for soundproofing.) 

The problem with insulating the basement ceiling is that it may “thermally” separate the basement from the rest of the cottage. “My line is always, ‘You need to explicitly define what’s inside the building envelope and what’s not,’ ” says Russell Richman, a professor of building science in the architectural science department at Toronto Metropolitan University. “Is the basement inside or outside?”

No more cold feet with these DIY insulation methods 

We suspect that you wouldn’t be finishing the basement if you didn’t want it to be inside the cottage. And insulating the ceiling would significantly reduce the transfer of heat from the cottage into the basement, says Russell. So, you could end up making that space colder instead of more comfortable. 

If you’ve insulated the basement walls and put down subflooring, and you’re finding that the basement is currently too cold for your liking, “the next step would be to reduce any air leakage from the exterior and consider adding another heat source to the space,” says Simpson. “If it’s a ducted system, you might just need more registers.”

Installing radiant heating in your cottage

But what about the soundproofing? One option to dampen noise while letting heat move freely is to create “resilient channels” when you close in the ceiling. This technique involves using thin pieces of metal to suspend gypsum board to the joists. The drywall and wood framing won’t touch. This creates “a disconnect of a rigid pathway,” says Simpson. “Sound travels via vibrations through rigid pathways. The resilient channel breaks this pathway.” Done correctly, it can be a cost-effective way to soundproof. And it’ll probably work better than just insisting everyone on the main floor take off their shoes and walk very softly. Shh.

Got a question for Cottage Q&A? Send it to answers@cottagelife.com.

This article was originally published in the Winter 2022 issue of Cottage Life.

Build it, fix it, get it done!

Get Dockside DIY, for tips on how to maintain your cottage…and then some

Sign up here

Categories
Cottage Life

Cottage Q&A: What’s causing my basement dampness?

By cunaplus/Shutterstock

We have a cottage built on a slope. The unfinished basement floor is always damp, which results in high humidity levels inside the cottage, as well as a musty smell. We’re looking for a way to reduce the humidity and get rid of the smell. Would covering the basement floor in plastic sheeting and topping it with fine gravel be a solution?—Mieke Foster, via email

Yes, it would be a solution. But it might not be the best solution if you don’t figure out what’s making the basement damp in the first place and fix that problem before covering the floor.

Moisture can get into basements in all kinds of sneaky ways, but an obvious one, given that the cottage is on a slope, is that surface water is draining into the basement through “the inevitable cracks in your basement walls,” says Kim Pressnail, an associate professor emeritus in civil and mineral engineering at the University of Toronto. If that’s the case, yay for you! “Surface rainwater is often the easiest to control,” he says. Use topsoil and gravity; regrade around the perimeter of the cottage so that the ground slopes away from the walls instead of towards them. Create a “one in 12 slope—the soil drops one centimetre for every 12 cm from your cottage,” says Pressnail. “That will more than do.” And make sure that your eavestrough downspouts are directing water well away from the building. 

Is the cottage below the water table? Then both rainwater and groundwater could be getting in through those basement wall cracks. “Water also may be entering through the walls because they’re in contact with moist soil,” says Pressnail. “It’s known as ‘capillary wicking.’ The soil moisture can ‘wick’ through your masonry or cast concrete below-grade walls and evaporate into the interior basement air.” Or, water may be evaporating up from the unfinished floor. “It’s like a soggy cracker,” says Pressnail. 

So much water! These issues are more complicated to diagnose and treat, and you’ll probably need expert help (from, for example, a contractor). But once you get rid of the moisture source, “the musty smell should gradually diminish,” says Pressnail. “Operating a dehumidifier in the basement during the warmer months may help.”

The article was originally published in the June/July 2022 issue of Cottage Life magazine.

Got a question for Cottage Q&A? Send it to answers@cottagelife.com.

Categories
Cottage Life

Cottage Q&A: Basement flooding damage

By cunaplus/Shutterstock

How do we repair damage from basement flooding? Our cottage has a fully-insulated basement with a concrete floor. Thanks to a sump well and proper drainage, this basement has stayed warm and dry for years. But in 2019-2020 there were record-high water levels on the Great Lakes. The water table rose to just under our floor. As the water table started to drop, a white powder appeared on the floor, and also around support pillars and internal block walls. What is this white powder, and how do we remove it? Once that is done, is there a product we could use to coat the floor?—Bob and Joan Bowman, Sauble Beach, Ont.

The white powder is likely efflorescence: the visible salts and minerals left behind when water evaporates. It’s not pretty, but it won’t hurt you.

Try cleaning it with vinegar and a scrub brush—that should remove it. If not, you could use a dedicated efflorescence cleaner. (Check hardware or home reno stores.) 

Is your cottage at high risk of flooding?

As an absolute last resort, you could “upgrade to muriatic acid,” says Roger Frost of Napoleon Home Inspections in Barrie. (But PSA: it’s terrifyingly caustic stuff. The expert advice on using it ranges from “Cover every part of yourself in protection; consider installing an eye-wash station” to “Don’t touch it. Don’t even look at it.” We’d rather live with the white powder.)  

After cleaning, you could coat the floor with an epoxy paint, but it can be prone to flaking, peeling, and blistering—that might look uglier than leaving the basement bare. And it’s not going to provide much waterproofing. 

Cottage Q&A: A wet crawl space solution

“Stopping water from coming in is the best solution, and that could be impossible if the water table rises again,” says Frost.

Still, you have a few choices to handle future dampness problems, says Don Fugler, a building scientist formerly with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC): regular cleaning to deal with any stains, a “false floor” to hide the stains, or installing a pump to work with the sump and keep the water several inches lower than the floor. “But be aware that, if you are trying to stem the movement of water from a Great Lake, that pump might be running continuously for weeks,” says Fugler. A more extreme option would be to change the basement into an isolated crawl space, he says. Excessive? Maybe, but cottage country could be in store for decades more of high-water levels and flooding. “Who knows what eventually will happen with a changing climate?”

This article was originally published in the August/September 2021 issue of Cottage Life magazine.

Got a question for Cottage Q&A? Send it to answers@cottagelife.com.