Basement Insulation Tips

Being below grade, your basement is probably the most efficient to heat and cool room of your house. The earth makes a great insulator, and you really don't need to insulate the walls of your basement if it was not for the problem of moisture. It is best to keep the walls of your basement at least 1 to 2 inches away from the foundation. Insulation will wick up any moisture or condensation that may occur on or near the foundation. It is best to use properly installed R11 or R13 PAPER FACED insulation, making sure it fits snugly, but not too tightly between the stud pockets, Making sure that the back of the insulation does not touch the foundation. This is code in most towns in the Chicagoland area. The air gap between the walls and the foundation allows for some circulation of air, and keeps the insulation and the drywall free from mold and mildew. If the wall needs to be built closer to the foundation, i.e. if there is a tight fit around a staircase, use rigid foam insulation cut fairly precicely to fit into the stud pocket. Some types of the rigid panels can be places directly up against the foundation, as they do not provide a medium that would grow mold.

The vapor barior that the paper backing is the only real important part of the insulation system in a basement. It allows the walls to breath moisture back and forth through the insulation and drywall, where plastic would not. Plastic should never be used in the walls because it traps water in the walls and facilitates mold growth.

Call for a free estimate if you live in Bolingbrook, IL. or in the Chicago area. Call 708-479-4570 or visit nantom.com for more information!

Your pump will fail

Unfortunately its not a matter of if, but when your sump pump, ejector pump, backup pump or any of their switches will jam or fail. There are a few easy things to do to prevent this from happening. First, make sure your pit is clean. Debris from the building of the house can eventually damage the impellor and cause the pump to jam and short out. Second, make sure nothing else is plugged into the pump, and the pump is on a dedicated 20amp circuit.

I have two separate pumps in my pit, and a backup, and each is on a dedicated 20amp circuit. I had a customer that lived by the river with three pits, and three circuits, but the plumber accidentally plugged two of the pumps into the same circuit and when both kicked on at the same time it blew the circuit and flooded the basement. I also had a customer who heard the sump pump running in the basement and assumed all was well. The sump pump switch had stuck, and what they were hearing was the ejector pump running as the basement floor had flooded and was draining into the floor drain on the other side of the basement. They were home at the time, and it was flooding for at least 8 hours.



The very minimum option is to buy a floor water sensor with piercing alarm for $11 at Home Depot, with a detatchable sensor that you can dangle 6 to 12 inches into the pit, and buying you time to fix the problem before the water table overflows onto the basement floor.



A battery backup pump system will work, but assume the power is out for more than 8 hours, the battery will die, and then the basement will flood.





A great additional option is to add a alarm with phone dialer. For as little as $70 The ControlProducts WaterAlarm Plus comes with one sensor that will dial a phone number if it detects water.




The better system is one like the Skylink emergency dialer. The dialer unit can be purchased for as little as $80 and can have up to 16 wireless
alarm accessories added.


You can put one by the hot water heater, under sinks, by the washing machine, and by the sump pump and the dialer will dial up to 9 phone numbers and stores a 40 second message. You can even add door, smoke, and motion sensors to it as well to use as an burglar alarm system without the need for a monitoring contract. It is all wireless with lithium battery back up, and low level battery warning, and is a great solution for vacationing worries, especially during a wet chicago spring!

Call for a free estimate if you live in New Lenox, IL. or in the Chicago area. We can install sump pump battery back up systems and water alarms, and even finish your basement! 708-479-4570 Visit nantom.com for more information!

Steel vs. Wood Stud Framing

There are definitely positive and negatives to both framing with wood or steel.

Steel can be cheaper, and is straight as an arrow. It is lighter, but residential grade steel studs are very flimsy and can have that office tinny feel. The higher gauge studs are more sturdy, but are more expensive, heavier, and can not be purchased at a big box store.

An experienced commercial framer can tackle a steel basement with little difficulty, but it can be a very frustrating experience for the faint of heart. Steel, if lined up properly, allows conduit to pass through the pre-stamped holes through the studs, which is a time saver. Special small steel stud screws must be used to fasten the studs to the track, and to fasten the drywall to the studs. Wood must be placed in the door jams, because there is nothing more frustrating than hanging a door with using only screws. Also wood framing must be added if cabinets or vanities, or plumbing fixtures are going to be hung, because steel is not strong enough to hold these things securely for the inexperienced.

Soffits can also be more difficult to manufacture out of steel, but they are light, and very straight. Cornerbead must be done with spray adhesive, or the mud adhering type, and baseboards and trim must be screwed in place with special small square headed screws.

Steel studs can be cut with a metal sawblade, or the lighter gauge residential studs can be cut with metal snips. Framing long walls goes quickly, and if that is the majority of the job, it goes quickly. Unfortunately there are usually many angled, lowered, and other more difficult types of walls to be constructed in a typical basement.



Nothing can beat the fire resistance and mold and mildew resistance of steel. Also nothing can beat the amount of damage a sharp stud can do to the human hand.

If you are going to build round walls or soffits, flexible steel track with wood studs is the way to go for residential basements.


Call for a free estimate if you live in Frankfort, IL. or in the Chicago area.
708-479-4570 Visit nantom.com for more information!

Firestopping Before You Build

Basement fire stopping codes are new in some areas, but not for long. It is easiest to fire stop the basement before you do any framing or electrical. Since basement walls are not load-bearing, there is no continuous framing between the walls and the ceiling. Any fire (most likely electrical) would easily spread between and behind the walls and ceiling and up to the first floor.

Before building the walls, drywall the area on the ceiling between the ceiling joists to the rim plate about 1 inch behind where the wall will be framed. they are usually about 5 inches wide and cut them to 4 feet long.



Screw them to the ceiling framing, and use fire caulk to seal the crack between the drywall and the foundation. Tape and mud the drywall seams, and around exposed electrical conduit. When you build the walls, this forms a fire barrier between the ceilings and the walls, and also isolates the area behind the wall.

Soffits are a little trickier. These have to be isolated from the space behind the wall pocket, behind the wall and inside the soffit. Blocking (drywall) can be installed horizontally behind the soffit opening to the foundation, and then solid blocking (wood) can be installed between each stud. Any gaps can then be caulked with fire caulking or mudded and taped. Keep in mind that you want to have no air spaces between direction changes (walls to ceiling, walls to soffits, etc.) Soffits are considered part of the ceiling and only have to be isolated from the walls.





Beams, stairwells and columns also have to be isolated from direction changes, and this can be done with gluing tightly cut drywall into the space and then fire caulked. Smaller spaces can be filled with fire barrier, which is non-flammable and is easy to rip and jam into spaces too big for caulk and too small for drywall.




The bottom of stairwells needs to be drywalled and taped as well, even in unfinished storage spaces, to keep fire from spreading through the basement stairs to the first floor.

These steps are easier to do before the walls are up, and before the inspector comes to do the rough inspection, if you missed the fire code specifications on your permit.

A good basement finisher should know all these codes and should be able to do this step quickly. It may seem like over kill, but properly installed fire stops can starve a fire, and it could go out, or it may give the homeowner enough time to evacuate the house if the fire should be big enough to burn through to the next area. Forty-five extra minutes might not seem like a lot, but it is when it comes to the safety of your family.

Call for a free estimate if you live in Naperville, IL. or in the Chicago area. 708-479-4570 Visit nantom.com for more information!

Framing Basement Walls: Moisture

Typically you build the walls for a basement right on top of the cement floor. There is usually moisture inherant with locations below grade. Even with a vapor barrier under the cement floor, it is damp. There are a couple of key things to do to minimize the problems that come with these conditions. First, pressure treated lumber must be used anywhere that the wood comes into contact with the cement. This will minimize rotting that is caused by mold and mildew that could grow in untreated wood. Metal studs could be used instead of wood, but there are more negatives than positives when framing with metal over wood in a basement.

It also is a must to leave at least a 1 inch gap between the framed walls and the foundation. This allows for there to be air circulation behind the walls, and it keeps moisture from wicking into the wood and insulation from the foundation.



Once the basement is finished, it is a good idea to run a higher-end dehumidier with a moisture sensor and drain next to the furnace. This keeps the mositure in the house and basement in comfortable levels, and can help cut down on extra moisture that would facilitate mold growth and the musty/mildew smell.

Call for a free estimate if you live in Orland Park, IL. or in the Chicago area. 708-479-4570 Visit nantom.com for more information!

Basement Foundation Cracks

The quickest way to ruin a finished basement is to cover up cracks in the foundation. Not all cracks will leak, but if you have cracks you should investigate them before building walls in front of them. It typically costs around $150 to fix each crack so if you have lots of cracks, it could get very expensive to fix them. But, so is the expense to tear open your wall AFTER finding the leak, dryout or replace carpet, fix the crack and then repair the walls and trim.

Think of the foundation as a fishtank, except the water is on the outside of the tank. Newer houses have a seal proofing that goes on the outside of the foundation, as well as a sealer that covers the spots where the foundation forms were held in place, but if you live anywhere it freezes, your house will expand and contract and move just enough to let water through the fishtank walls.

Under the floor inside and outside of the basement is gravel about 4 inches down. Any water from your yard should drain down to this gravel and go into the earth or into the drain tile that leads to your sump pump.



To help any water that makes it through the foundation go to this gravel, you can drill a row of 5/8 inch holes, through the basement floor, just under that crack, so if the crack leaks in the future, water will flow down the holes into the gravel; instead of into the finished room. Some crack fixing contractors can break up the floor around the foundation walls and install a channel to do this that drains into the drain tile.



If you are lucky enough to think of this before your house is built, a gap can be left with spacers and plywood used as forms, between your basement walls and floor, so the floor does not abut against the foundation, and ANY leaks that ever occur will always drain into the sump pump.

Call for a free estimate if you live in Homer Glen, IL. or in the Chicago area. 708-479-4570 Visit nantom.com for more information!