MGO Board (Huber Exacor) for walls of basement garage
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Hi,
In Zone 5 and renovating a house. It will have a two car garage in the basement (three sides underground). I will use 2″ rigid foam on the exterior of the 10″ thick foundation wall (& under slab with permitter break) and 4″ cc on the interior of the foundation walls. Don’t like the idea of paper/sheetrock covering the foam and wonder if using MGO board would be a reasonable idea. I have a sample of the EXACOR product and it seems like a solid product. Any feedback would be helpful. Thanks
Andy
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Replies
Hi Andy,
You will want to read Martin's article on insulating basements if you haven't already. It's at https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/how-to-insulate-a-basement-wall.
If it were me, I would install the 2 inches of rigid foam (lower cost reclaimed material) on the interior followed by a 2 by 4 framed wall.
I was really interested in MGO about 10 years ago as a more robust alternative to drywall. It looks like Huber has resolved the quality issues that plagued the product, but I would check on cost and availability. If it turns out to be pricey but available, you might want to consider installing a band (maybe 3 feet) at the bottom of the wall where water damage is more likely.
MGO looks like great stuff. I'd be curious what you learn about cost and availability. The one caution I'd offer is that it's quite a bit heavier than drywall, so factor that into your plans for how to do the work.