What are my options for attaching and protecting foam insulation to exterior concrete basement walls?
user-6932004
| Posted in General Questions on
I live in an area of frequent freeze/thaw. basement walls have foam insulation that has detached in some places, and has just generally degraded over the past 10-15 years.
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User-6932004,
First of all, can you tell us your name?
The list of materials used to protect the above-grade portion of rigid foam installed on the exterior of basement walls can be found in my article called How to Insulate a Basement Wall.
Here is the relevant portion of that article:
The above-grade portions of all types of exterior insulation must be protected from physical abuse and sunlight. Among the products than can be used for this purpose are the following:
A cementitious coating or cementitious stucco (for example, Styro Industries Brush On ST), with or without metal lath
A cementitious coating that includes chopped fiberglass (for example, Quikrete #1219 foam coating or surface-bonding cement)
An acrylic coating like Styro Industries FlexCoat or Styro Industries Tuff II
EIFS (synthetic stucco)
Cement backerboard, with or without a layer of stucco
Pressure-treated plywood
Metal flashing
A fiberglass panel like Ground Breaker from Nudo Products
Styro Industries FP Ultra Lite panels (XPS coated with mineral granules adhered to one side)
Protecto Wrap Protecto Bond (a flexible peel-and-stick membrane with a textured, gritty coating)
ProGuard Cement Faced Insulated Sheathing.
For more information on this topic, see How to Finish Exterior Foundation Insulation.