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Basement Finishing Student Absolutely NAILS Rigid Foam Installation
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Feb 22, 2024
Jake's immediate boost in confidence is a common theme with folks who decide to take up a tough project and see positive results. That's why I love what I do. I may just be walking through a basement finishing project with a student, but at the heart of the interaction was a feeling of pride, satisfaction, and competence. It goes to show that something like finishing a basement can represent so much more. It's a representation of conquering your intimidations, and moving forward into the unknown. And the funny thing is... It's never been easier to accomplish. All you need is the right knowledge delivered in an easy-to-understand fashion and a personal coach to guide you through it. Which is exactly what you get here: https://bit.ly/basementfinishing 🔨 Do it yourself, not _by_ yourself : ► https://baileylineroad.com/
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0:00
I don't know how this comes back to me, but I'll send it to you
0:03
Okay, perfect. Here is just to show you that's what I've done so far. That's the one bank of..
0:11
That's very nice. Well, you've done some neat work there. That's nice, tidy work
0:16
Oh, you're building up my confidence already. So how did you fasten that foam to the stuff behind
0:23
That's my second layer. Okay. I've got the first... the first layer is two inches
0:28
Right. Second layer was one and a half. The first layer, I just hot melted the glue with a little gun
0:36
and put it on as fast as I could after I got it laid down. And it seemed to take
0:41
I wasn't sure if I just even knocked it, whether that would just drop off, but it seemed to hold
0:46
I put in nails on an angle after I had it in, on an angle, just on the edges
0:53
just to hold it there. Because when I was putting on the, the insulate, the blowing foam, which you can kind of see there underneath
1:01
I only put it around the first, the first layer. I gotta do this second layer. Ah, right. Gotcha
1:07
Do you see it there? Yes, yes, I do. Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's beautiful. You've done a very nice, neat job
1:13
Yeah, here's a, here's sort of, you can see it a little more obviously here under the window
1:21
Yep. Oh, great. Excellent. I was worried that the pressure of the foam, you know, curing and expanding might push off the
1:29
the stops. So that's why I put the little nails in on an angle, just to hold it there. So it
1:34
wouldn't be, because you know that hot glue, once it, once it dries, it's kind of brittle
1:39
and you just knock it and it can kind of just, just fall off. It can sometimes, although I have found that it works pretty well with the foam and you know
1:48
it's, it's, it's only needed temporarily because once you get that foam around the outside, then
1:54
that's really what's holding it in. Yeah, I just, that's, I want to get it to that point and then I, then I'm okay with it. That's
2:01
why, that's why I, well, the glue was holding it, seemed to be okay. It never, none of them actually
2:06
came loose, but I did put four or six nails around the edges on an angle. Just, just tap them in
2:12
just to hold it there while I put the foam around. And the foam seemed to work okay
2:18
I've got that, that, that bomb, which you use upside down. Right
2:22
And yeah, it seemed to, interestingly, the first, the first can, I seem to go through it very fast
2:29
I took it back to Home Depot. The guy, guy just looked at me as I'm walking in the store, he says
2:34
I walked over to the area where they're selling them. And he said, something wrong with that. And I said, well, yeah. And he said, did it ran out too soon? I said
2:41
yeah. Like he knew. Here you go. Handed me another, another bomb right away
2:47
There's no receipts, no signing, his name or anything, but. Well, I wonder if they knew about a bad batch or something that wasn't filled properly
2:57
I didn't pursue it. I just said, thanks. And got some more help. The guy was very useful. He
3:03
he had been up before, so he knew what I was doing and he was able to give me some tips
3:07
Excellent. Well, that looks great. That's a, yeah. First rate. Well, let me show you here. I don't know if you can see this so much
3:14
I'm not showing you the rim joist area. Right. I can see that
3:19
There's this pipe right here. That's that's, that's actually, that's the pipe that I was using for my HRV, which I haven't reconnected yet. But up there, it's kind of, there's not much room
3:29
and you can see there's a double, there's a double header there along where the window goes
3:35
So I'm not right in that spot there. There's no real space to put much
3:40
No. With that, with the, with the original, whatever you call that end board there
3:45
two by 10 or two by eight, that's already there. And now there's another one over there's double
3:50
layer there. There's hardly any room to put in insulation on top of that without it coming out
3:55
Now I will be finishing, I'll be putting some sort of a drop ceiling or something along there
4:01
to finish off that top area. So I could, I could conceivably just pack on some more of this
4:06
of this stuff. But I'm, I'm, I'm, I know you're supposed to cover this with drywall when you're
4:13
done because it's a fire hazard, right? Or a burning hazard, I guess it's a fumes hazard
4:19
as opposed to burning so much. So you have to cover it with something. Right. So I would
4:25
if I did put on some more pieces there and brought it out into the room a little bit
4:29
I'd have to kind of seal all around it with drywall, I guess, to seal it off
4:34
Well, it is, is, is your ultimate plan to, to finish the walls and ceiling with drywall or
4:42
something like it? Yes, the walls, but not the ceiling I'm going to put because it's got so
4:46
much junk up there. Yeah, yeah, that's true. I'm going to put a drop ceiling to kind of keep all
4:51
that stuff available if I need to get access to it. And this, this hanging down vent here
4:56
I'm just going to sort of build around that or maybe leave that exposed and painted or something
5:02
Sure. Well, I'll, I'll tell you the I, I don't know why they would have put two layers of wood
5:10
in that rim joist area there because to the right they had around the, around the window that one
5:17
that's, that's the reason, isn't it? Well, I'm not sure, like it wouldn't really
5:23
it's not going to add any strength because the, the chunks of water and pieces, they're not
5:29
they're not all together, but maybe that's what they were thinking. I'm not sure that it really
5:34
would add strength to it, but the good news is that I think you can go right ahead and
5:43
and go ahead with your foam, even if it is going to stick in somewhat, because the idea with that
5:49
foam is that it does need to be covered. The reason it needs to be covered, as it was explained
5:56
to me, is because the foam is too flammable on its own. So, the main concern is that something
6:04
might get it burning. So, the requirement is that it be covered by something and that something is
6:11
usually drywall when it's on the walls, but if you put some of that foam in there in the rim
6:16
joist area and even if it's stuck, you know, past the edge a little bit, it's still going to be
6:22
covered by your, your drop ceiling and it's, it's not covered tight, but it is sufficiently protected
6:30
that it's not going to catch fire accidentally. I mean, that's, that's kind of the thinking. So
6:36
I don't think you'd have any trouble with that. I mean, you're going to have to do some more of
6:42
your fine work in order to get the foam to go around. Well, for instance, there's a spot there
6:49
where the extra wood stops. Yeah. So, you kind of have to do that in two layers. You might want to
6:56
since that wood is an inch and a half thick, I think it would be easiest for you if you started
7:01
with inch and a half because that's going to bring that one section there flush. Like, the foam will
7:07
then be flush with the wood and then you could add another layer on top of that and as I said
7:12
it's going to stick in a little bit, but, but I, there, there's no problem with that. Now, if you
7:18
go further over to the right, that looks like a duct there, maybe it's a dryer vent pipe or
7:24
something. It's just a pipe that happens to be lying there, actually. It's not, it's not going
7:29
through. I've got. Oh, I see. Okay. The two, I've got a vent there, which you can see
7:36
sorry, that vent there, that's the, that's one vent for the HRV and the other vent is
7:44
you can see it over here. Ah, yes. There, that's the other vent and I'm just right now
7:50
but I can see I've got a hockey sock stuck in there. Sure. I'm going to leave them there
7:55
because I've got to probably put up the HRV after, after I got all this finished up. Yes. Yeah. No
8:02
I think you're doing it, you're doing an excellent job and I would just continue, you know, in the same procedure in that rim joist area and, and as long as, as long as the foam is
8:14
the perimeter of the pieces of foam are sealed, so the warm air, moist air can't get in there
8:19
Right. You're going to be, you're going to be great. That's going to work very well for you
8:23
Now, again, I'm just thinking about sealing off the, that foam. Once it's up there, I can
8:28
I can slap a piece of drywall on, on sort of the flat part, but the edges of it, should I actually
8:35
cover them as well with something? Well, I don't think you need to do any of that because your
8:39
your drop ceiling is going to be covering everything. Now it's, now you, you might want to
8:46
I have never seen a problem with that because, for instance, this, this requirement to cover foam
8:54
it applies to all foam. So even if you were say, having that professionally spray foamed up in
9:00
there, which is an option that some people choose, you wouldn't be able to cover it like in
9:07
with drywall because it's going to be kind of rough and undulating. It's not a smooth surface
9:12
So, you know, in that case, you'd still be going with just the drop ceiling. So it's kind of like
9:18
the same as that, except instead of spray foam, you have the rigid stuff. Okay. But
9:25
yeah, that'd be nice and simple. And you know, I, I like, let's just imagine for a moment that
9:30
that pipe I'm seeing there on the top right-hand side, let's just say that was going right out
9:34
It wasn't just sitting there. That would be a very difficult area to cut pieces of foam for
9:41
even to the right of the pipe. It'd be hard to get it in there. And if you run into situations
9:46
like that elsewhere in your basement, you know, areas that are really kind of small and finicky
9:52
and, you know, difficult to cut a piece of rigid foam to fit, you can just go right in there with
9:57
your can of spray foam and kind of, kind of clear the area, you know, and so it's not going to look
10:03
as neat, but it is going to be just as effective. You know, maybe even more effective because you'll
10:08
be able to get a proper seal around things like pipes and stuff like that. But I don't know if
10:13
you'll run into that, but just keep that in mind. When you say that, I know that one area underneath
10:18
the windows that I did was pretty thick, like it was about, I just sort of put the thing on full
10:29
open and put big beads in and just made it up. So I can, I kind of got the knack of what you're
10:35
just explaining there. Right. Well, you've probably noticed too, there's another knack, and that's
10:41
using this stuff neatly because, you know, I mean, if it gets on your, you know, if it's very sticky
10:48
stuff and there's, and it's, it takes a pretty, pretty powerful solvent to remove it when it's
10:52
wet. And if you let it dry, there's no solvent that'll touch it. So how have you gotten pretty
10:57
neat with the application? At the expense of a pair of sweatpants, yes
11:03
Well, maybe you shouldn't throw those sweatpants out until you've completely finished the job
11:10
Keep the sweatpants going. Anyways, well, that's, that's what you've just told me is perfect. Cause I, I can cut a piece
11:19
that's pretty close to that, leave a little space, just as I've been, as you see, I've done here
11:25
So I allow it to do the sealing part with that foam. And this, this idea has been great. When I
11:31
when I think I told you, I did get a guy over to look at it. He never even got back to me. He said
11:36
he was like six months ahead and get back to me. I never even heard from him. When I watched a few
11:41
videos of that stuff going in and the frigging space suit, the guy what had on one, this can't
11:48
be any good for him or for me. I don't want to even be in the house when this stuff is going in
11:53
and this time of year, everything's so bad. So that just doesn't look like it. This is so much
11:58
cleaner. And the little spray bomb, I mean, I do wear a mask when I put it on, but I can't smell
12:03
a thing coming on. No, no, it's it's it's it's messy, but it's, it's quite safe to use. And
12:10
and, you know, I can tell from your work here that you're the, the kind of man who, who kind of
12:17
likes to have things under their own control and to take your time and to do a good job. And
12:23
and, and this, this approach, as opposed to the spray foam, it allows you to do that. And
12:29
it's saving a ton of money too, because, you know, that guy who doesn't really want to come out
12:34
you know, in the, in the construction business, when you don't really, when you don't really want a job, you don't, you don't say no, you just say no by raising the price, right? So he probably
12:44
would have been faced with a pretty scary estimate there. He was talking to 500 bucks just to do this little bit
12:51
Yeah. He was putting me on a six month wait to get there. Well, this is so, it's clean. It's, it is completely under my control and my speed
13:00
And if I don't like exactly how it's working out, I can sort of stop and
13:04
kind of do something to make it. And I mean, you see where the guys are wearing anything while they're wearing all that
13:12
it clearly is, it's not the best thing to have in your house. I know it's only there
13:16
it's yours, fast and all that stuff. But anyway, this, your method is, I think it's
13:21
I think it's the way to go. And it's, plus when you're doing it, it's kind of clean. Yes, it is
13:26
You see there, those pieces, they stick up there, they fit nicely
13:30
And it's really easy to cut that with a razor knife. Oh, it is. It's, it's wonderful stuff to work with. And I'm very glad to see that you've used
13:38
the extruded polystyrene instead of the white beady expanded, because that white beady expanded
13:46
stuff, the warm moist air can go right through it. Not very quickly, but quickly enough that
13:54
you get condensation behind it. So, but this acts as its own vapor barrier. So
14:00
And it's, it's light, very easy to deal with. I mean, I bought two pieces of the
14:09
two inch stuff, sorry, one piece of two inch stuff, one, one piece of the inch and a half
14:13
So I spent 60 bucks and the, and the couple of cans, the other 30 bucks, I guess, or no
14:18
that was more than 40 bucks, I guess. That's all I've spent so far
14:23
Right, excellent. So anyway, all is good. Thanks for the tips about that. It seemed like a great area
14:30
Your thoughts on wool, wool insulation, it kind of, kind of cool
14:37
But you're right about moisture barrier and all that sort of stuff that it's
14:42
other than the fact that fibers maybe aren't as dangerous for me, it still will be fibers around
14:47
Right. Excellent. Well, it's, I'm, I'm very happy to see your, your success and your progress there, Jake. That looks terrific
14:59
So much more to go, but at least progress. I know how all these things go. One, just
15:04
to see what got over one step. Now the next step I'm down one, I can, now I got more, I can see
15:11
what I'm doing. Anyway, Steve, this is great. Thanks for putting me in schedule for a few
15:15
minutes. You're very welcome, Jake. And you, you keep in touch. I'd like to keep posted on how
15:20
things go. Well, if you're okay with that, I will. Okay, excellent. Take care. Bye for now
15:29
Bye
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