About 70% of homes in Cardston were built before 1991, and in the older part of that stock the space under the house is a cellar rather than a basement. The distinction is not pedantry. A cellar was built to keep food cool and hold the furnace. A basement is built to be lived in. Almost every basement job in this town is the first of those being asked to behave like the second.
What is actually holding the house up
Before concrete became standard, foundations around here were built from whatever was local and durable: coursed stone, rubble set in mortar, early unreinforced concrete poured in lifts with visible cold joints. These walls are irregular, they are not flat, and they often have no footing drain and no damp proofing on the outside face. Nothing cut to a dimension will sit against them. Foam sprayed in place follows the stone and the mortar lines and leaves no cavity behind it for air to circulate in, which is the only reason insulating a wall like this works at all.
Why the usual stud wall assembly goes wrong down here
The common retrofit is a stud wall stood off the foundation with batt in it and a poly sheet on the warm side. On an old masonry wall that assembly creates exactly the conditions for trouble. House air gets past the poly, reaches a cold irregular wall it can circulate against, and condenses out of sight behind the finish. Closed cell foam applied directly to the wall changes the arrangement: it adheres, so there is no air space, and at adequate depth it holds the dew point inside the foam rather than on the stone.
Water comes first and foam is not the answer to it
Older houses here frequently have no perimeter drain, grading that has settled toward the house over decades, and downspouts discharging at the wall. Foam is not waterproofing and it never has been. If water is entering, the grading, the eaves and the drainage get resolved before anything is sprayed, because an insulated wall with water behind it is a hidden problem rather than a solved one. We would rather tell you that at the walk-through than after.
Low headroom and a part cellar, part crawl layout
Another feature of this stock is that the space under the house is often not one space. The original cellar is shallow, a later addition sits over a crawl, and there is a step and a stub wall between them. That stub wall has heated space on one side and cold vented crawl on the other, and it is almost always uninsulated. On these houses it is frequently worth more than the main walls.
The order of work
The rim joist first, because it is the coldest accessible surface and the leakiest. The stub walls and the junctions between the old and newer sections next. Full wall coverage last, and only if the space is going to be occupied. Done in that order the house feels different before the largest part of the budget is spent, and that order is set by how this stock was built rather than by preference.
Who you are dealing with
Basement spray foam insulation Cardston is work we take care of ourselves. We scope it, we quote it, we schedule it, and our own installers are the ones holding the gun.
Basement Spray Foam Insulation Cardston: Common Questions
Can a stone foundation be insulated? Yes, with a sprayed layer that adheres to the actual surface. What cannot be done well is standing a flat wall in front of a wall that is not flat and filling the space with batt.
We get a little seepage in spring. Insulate anyway? Not yet. Grading, eaves and drainage first. Foam over an active leak conceals it rather than fixing it.
The addition is over a crawl and the old part is a cellar. Does that matter? It is often the main finding. The wall between the two sections separates heated space from cold space and is usually bare framing.
How much does basement spray foam insulation cost in Cardston? Priced per board foot over the sprayed area, so the number follows wall area and depth. On an older house the variable that moves it most is whether existing finishes have to come out first.
How do I choose a basement spray foam contractor in Cardston? Ask what they want to look at outside the house before quoting the inside. On this stock, anyone who does not mention grading and downspouts is quoting half the problem.
Size the assembly with the R-value calculator, then get a free Cardston quote. More on Basement Spray Foam Insulation Alberta province-wide.