Robert Dawn
New Member
HI, I wanted to mention a problem I have in my basement that has me baffled. I bought a 6 year old home recently, (and I had a home inspection done) and it is a 2 storey w/unfinished basement. The basement actually has an open ceiling, showing all plumbing and electrical, as well as joist construction(engineered). When I bought the home, the basement walls were framed over the concrete(floating) and had fiberglass insulation installed between the studs at 24" centers(non bearing, just built obviously to hold whatever covering that was to be put on the walls). The wall was covered with a vapour barrier which was glued to the studs with some black adhesive type crap. I have previously renovated 1/2 of the basement w/drywall 1/2", and laminate on the floors. Now 3 weeks ago I started the other half and just finished painting the drywall and the NEXT day, I see water pooled against a wall( really only about 1-2 litres, and the floor under the drywall is wet for 10 feet in 2 directions. The basement hasn't leaked prior except on 1 bad rain storm that blew so hard that it pushed water through my window area around my sill plate. This time I found the leak, there was snow piled up on my doorstep and it got very mild that day and I think water leaked around my siding somewhere. I moved the snow and hadnt seen anything since as the next day was mild also. There is also a window in that area and I only have a screen covering it on the exterior. I was here last year and no leaks. Anyone have a suggestion where I can start to look before ripping drywall? Is there something Im doing wrong( other than using fiberglass insul. in the basement). BTW as I have the open ceiling, I can move the batt insulation away from the wall above the basement framing and I can see that there is light frost on the plywwod sheathing above the sill and the top of the basement wall is frosty also. Thanks