0:00
It's Steve Maxwell here from BaileyLineRoad.com and over the years I've taught hundreds of people how to finish their basement
0:07
properly with my online basement finishing course. So naturally I'm always on the lookout for great new
0:13
basement finishing products and I have found one here that I want to tell you about. It's called Drycore InsulArmor
0:19
and it's an all-foam basement subfloor product. Now one of the things that I mentioned to my learners is that you absolutely have to have a
0:29
basement subfloor product of some kind in place if you want to have an optimally finished basement. Until now
0:35
Drycore has offered two subfloor panel options. There's the Drycore subfloor. That's what they call this. It's the product name
0:44
It's got oriented strand board on top and this dimpled plastic layer on the bottom that raises it up off the concrete
0:51
Total R value for this is 1.4. So this is considered the good choice and it's worked well for years
0:59
Lots of this stuff is going down. It still does a great job. The next level up would be the subfloor R plus panel
1:08
which has actual foam on the bottom of OSB like this. That's considered the better option and it delivers R3
1:15
And then we have the Drycore Insular panel which delivers a whopping
1:21
R4.1. So in terms of floor insulation, this is the best option. This delivers the most insulating value
1:28
you're going to get in any subfloor panel. And there are other advantages to this as well. It's
1:34
super light. It's expanded polystyrene foam and one of these is a fraction of the weight of
1:43
a smaller typical subfloor panel. So if you get the scale out
1:49
and you put one of these on top of the other, you're looking at
1:55
7 pounds, almost 6 ounces, you know 7 pounds 6 ounces for the one panel. Now by comparison
2:03
the Insular Armor, which is twice as large by the way, so that's a big advantage because it means these things go down faster, but a panel that's twice as large
2:12
weighs, let's see, wait for it here, just under 1 pound 10 ounces
2:22
for twice as big. So that's a huge advantage for transporting. Now in the event of a small basement water leak, these drainage passages underneath allow the water to
2:33
flow to a floor drain somewhere or even just to sit and percolate down through the porous concrete and disappear that way. So this is a
2:43
this drainage capability is a feature of all of the best basement subfloor panels and if you look at a typical panel, you can see it's got something like the same thing going on
2:56
but in this case, you've got much greater insulating value because the whole thing is foam
3:04
Now another advantage that you'll find is that these pieces fit together very well
3:09
Because it's all foam, you can just simply slip the tongue and groove edges together
3:14
by hand and they will mate perfectly. You don't have to use a mallet or anything like that to get them together
3:21
Another advantage is cutting. The dry core InsulArmor panels, because they're made entirely of foam
3:27
can be cut with nothing more than a straight edge and a utility knife
3:31
That's easier, quieter, and less messy than the sawing you'd have to do with OSB based panels
3:38
Now right about now you might be thinking, well, that's all fine and dandy, but the stuff is just foam. Isn't it going to squish under the load of a floor
3:47
And the answer is no, because this stuff is rated to be able to support
3:53
3,650 pounds per square foot, which is quite substantial. Any kind of hard surface floor that goes on top of this is going to be more than well supported
4:03
So you don't have to worry about anything like that. Most basements nowadays are not finished optimally, and a big problem is the lack of the use of subfloor panels
4:13
which are essential to really discourage mold and to ensure indoor air quality remains high throughout your whole house
4:21
So products like this and others that are advancing the cause of basement finishing quality are coming on stream all the time
4:29
I'm keeping my eye out for them so I can alert you to what's out there
4:32
but I think this is going to be a big thing. This is going to be a very popular as people come to know about it
