Basement foam insulation - step-by-step technology + Photo and Video

While just planning to build a house, you should think about how to safely and efficiently insulate and protect its future foundation from moisture. As a rule, there is no extra money and time for this. That leaves many "for later" such an important matter. The construction of the house is coming to an end, and the “cart and now there” - the non-warmed foundation remains in its original form.

It takes several years, and it becomes clear that a mistake has been made, which has negatively affected the entire structure of the building. One should have taken care of the basis of this construction earlier, and now it remains only to sadly shrug. Warming of the base with polystyrene foam - a popular modern heat insulator, is the most practical and effective method of thermal insulation of the foundation. Today we will talk about how to make insulation using this material including the preparatory work and the process of insulation.

We clean and align the foundation

When our base of the house is ready, you can start cleaning the basement. We will arm ourselves with a rough synthetic brush, and begin to pick out every single grain of sand from the small pores of the foundation, as well as particles of dirt. We work until the surface is clean enough.

As a rule, at the foundation, not only the walls are not very even, but the corners are far from ideal. If the differences in the basement are large enough, then to make the base geometrically correct, you can align the surface with beacons. To do this, through the meter and a half from each other, you need to fix the guide beacons. Now you need to prepare a cement mortar, for which we take 4 parts of sifted sand and 1 part of cement grade M500. Diluting the mixture with water until the consistency is not very thick dough, apply it to the walls with a trowel. We work from the top down. Keep in mind that with too much water, the mass will slip from the walls, not having time to dry.

It is necessary to level the walls of the foundation in several stages, each time giving the time for the mortar to dry no less than a day or two. If the walls are not very curved, then only two layers will be needed - the upper one will serve for the final leveling of the surface. Smoothness can be added to this layer using a two-meter building rule made of aluminum. Working with this tool, it is necessary to lead it along the wall in waves. Once 5 or 6, this operation is repeated.

In the case when the deviation of walls from the norm is 2.5 centimeters or more, reinforcement is carried out using a chain-link mesh. It is attached to the wall with metal straps. However, it is possible to do without the grid, taking, for example, not very thick (from 8 to 10 millimeters in diameter) reinforcement rods. They are connected to each other using knitting wire.

Everything is done, the walls of the foundation have finally become even. Next, we wait about a month for all the excess moisture from the base to evaporate. Now it's time to apply a layer of special acro glue with a spatula. This adhesive is well suited for working with porous materials, so they glue foam polystyrene plates to reduce surface adhesion. Next, we organize waterproofing.

Protecting the foundation from moisture

Basically, liquid bitumen has always been used for this purpose, which is rolled over the entire foundation. That's just to work with this material is not very convenient. It has to be constantly heated, otherwise it quickly freezes and then it melts for a long time. When applying bitumen, it is necessary to wear a respirator or a mask, since vapors of harmful substances are released. And after it is difficult to wash. A hot shower with ordinary soap does not help - but bitumen is easily dissolved with acetone.

It is possible, however, to isolate the foundation with the sheets of technonicol — many adopt this method by rejecting bitumen completely. TechnoNIKOL glue ordinary gas burner. It is, of course, convenient to mount such sheets, but they only save from moisture at times worse than a bituminous coating. After all, only bitumen can well cover all microscopic pores and cracks in the basement. Therefore, sometimes it is necessary to first apply this coating, and from above - technonicol.

Bitumen is usually sold in bars. They need to be melted, for which they take a barrel of metal with a volume of 200 liters. Underneath it lay a few bricks to make a gap for heating. In addition to bitumen bars, waste oil is poured into the barrel from the engine (either diesel or gasoline). It gives the composition the desired plasticity, so that in the cold the bitumen layer does not crack. At 130 or 150 kilograms of bitumen take 50 liters of oil. Mass is applied to the underground part of the basement, from two sides, and from the front side - to its surface part.

TechnoNIKOL sheets are glued after bitumen hardens. They need to be constantly smoothed out to squeeze out excess air. We work from the top down, driving the gas burner at some distance from the sheets.It is best to keep this distance about 20 or 25 centimeters, otherwise the material will melt. When all the sheets are glued, let them be mastic. That's all - now the basement insulation can be made with foam plastic.

Bitumen waterproofing can be applied with a roller or a special sprayer.

Making the foundation warm

To begin with, we will decide with which material we will warm the base of our house. As a rule, for these purposes they use expanded polystyrene, which is commonly called foam plastic. It can be both ordinary and extruded, having a dense foamy structure. The second option is preferable, as the usual foam is fragile, and it is easy to crumble even with little effort. And he has too much thermal conductivity, and he is baked from exposure to sunlight.

Expanded polystyrene obtained by extrusion has a not very high density - 35 kilograms per cubic meter. It is an excellent heat insulator, protects against moisture, is quite hard. Although it costs 2 times more expensive than regular foam, in this case it is better not to save. Otherwise, you can pay the quality of insulation. It should be noted that polystyrene plates are produced with a smooth side surface, and with projections for the castle connection. The latter are very convenient - they form a plane with almost no joints, so these plates are more in use. Sheets of foam should be laid vertically on each wall.

It is possible to glue sheets of expanded polystyrene with the help of special bitumen mastic or with the help of ordinary glue for expanded polystyrene.

For the installation of expanded polystyrene plates, you need dowels-nails, so-called "umbrellas", as well as plastic nails. Thanks to this cold bridges will be avoided. The dimensions of the dowels should be calculated on the basis of how thick the foam polystyrene we use. So, for sheets 5 centimeters thick, you need to buy umbrellas with a length of 12 centimeters and a diameter of 1 centimeter. For one square meter of slab, you need 5 or 6 such dowels.

We work as a punch drill. Since the walls are made of concrete, the rotation together with the shock mode will do. The SDS / plus type centimeter diameter drill should be 16 centimeters long. 5 or 6 holes are drilled in the slab - one in each of the corners, and one or two in the center.

You do not need to make more holes. After that all the dowels should be hammered all the way. Then comes the turn of the nails. By the way, after installing the dowels, you need to cover up all the resulting dents with acro-glue. It dries hours 6, no less - and then, if the weather is dry and warm.

Last sheets, in order not to make many pieces, and accordingly joints, it is better to lay horizontally.

When we assemble the polystyrene foam layer, we can notice that the wall surface does not stand out above the foundation level. Therefore, we begin to insulate the wall so that the wall hangs slightly above the base of the house. We take a layer of heat insulator not very thick - a centimeter of 2.5 or 3. In conclusion, we add that the layer of polystyrene foam insulation should be solid, without holes and crevices. If you take the plate with the castle connection, to achieve this is easy - firmly mating with each other, they form an even layer.

If there is a hill above the basement surface, then with the help of any, even blunt, hacksaws, we cut off the excess polystyrene foam.

Protecting insulation

The last stage of insulation of foundations with extruded polystyrene foam is the application of a reinforcing layer. He will hold on to the same acro-glue. By the way, this kind of glue made in Poland showed itself the best. It is inexpensive and holds perfectly. For each square meter of walls, take 3 or 4 kilograms of acro-glue, depending on whether the plates are neatly mounted. And in the reserve, take a couple of bags for every fireman.

Expanded polystyrene stucco is made in the same way as when insulating the facade of a building.

Fiberglass mesh is used for reinforcement. Moreover, it should be a facade, that is applicable to external works. The grid for interior works, although it is cheaper, but does not withstand weather conditions, collapsing in 7 years, the maximum is 10. Believe me, there is no small savings on those serious unpleasant consequences that will occur.

The pieces of the grid are cut to length and glued overlapping, going behind each other by 10-15 centimeters. This will avoid cracking and chipping off the reinforcing mesh at the edges. We should not forget that to reduce the number of seams, the grid should be positioned horizontally relative to the wall plane. We glue the adhesive in two steps - first, gluing the mesh to the plates, we pass it with a construction spatula. In a day, not less, we carry out a fair alignment. To strengthen the corners, we mount the perforated corners of metal.When will be another day, take a grater of rigid foam and smooth out all the irregularities with sandpaper. Then, after 3-5 days, apply a primer on the surface. For this it is best to take a soft roller, but not foam.

When finished, we examine it carefully and meticulously. It is necessary to check whether we have achieved that the wall of the house is no less than 3 centimeters in comparison with the wall of the foundation. With such a ratio, an improvised canopy is formed above the base, which will not allow moisture to penetrate under the foundation and destroy it. The best option: the total thickness of the layer of plaster and heat insulator on the walls is 3.5 centimeters. It is necessary to know at the very beginning, erecting walls. If you make a slight displacement of the first row of bricks or blocks on the outside, then the desired result will be achieved.

As you can see, the technology of warming foundations with expanded polystyrene reminds of the preparation of a certain "puff pie". In this way, you can achieve high-quality waterproofing, as well as, of course, thermal insulation. After that, it remains only to perform a blind area around the building and to engage in finishing work. The base can be trimmed, for example, with facade tiles, lined with decorative stone or painted with paint that is not afraid of water.

Video: Basement Warming - Part 1

Video: Basement Warming - Part - 2