[Greenbuilding] Advice for a Rehab Newbie?

[Joe Killian]

    I hate crawl spaces.  And so will you after doing much work in one, 
even if you don't have to wend through many spider webs.  A high water 
table portends crawl space moisture issues too.
    Insulated slab on grade has worked very well for me.  Put moisture 
barrier underneath (Visqueen or equivalent works).
   If it's occupied all year, insulation on the perimeter down to the 
footing is best.  The thermal time constant will be very long, but 
you'll lose few BTU over the long haul.  An insulated break (1" foam) 
between the stemwall and slab as well as insulation outside the stemwall 
works well.
   If it's not occupied year-round, you'll want a shorter thermal time 
constant, so would then want to insulate under the slab - again with 
foam.  Keep the stemwall/footing insulation at the perimeter.  Most of 
you heat loss will be out the sides near the surface, whether you have 
under-slab insulation or not.

   I put very minimal pipes in the slab (ground floor drain only), and 
bring all else inside and construct chases for most plumbing & 
electrical.  Protects from freezing better and MUCH easier access for 
any maintenance (& even initial installation).

Joe


On 4/28/2016 5:44 AM, Norbert Senf wrote:
> http://dac.ca/index.html
>
> On Wed, Apr 27, 2016 at 9:33 PM, Lynelle Hamilton 
> <lynelle at lahamilton.com <mailto:lynelle at lahamilton.com>> wrote:
>
>     Hello Listers
>
>     I am on the third house and hope I can impose with a few questions
>     to those who've much more experience than I. I've only built from
>     scratch, so have no feel for the following.
>
>      1. Which is best: insulated slab on grade or an insulated crawl
>         space?  The conservation folks (and I agree) will not allow a
>         basement, due to the water table.
>
>

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