Need advice on insulating slab from foundation
Last Post 04 Nov 2010 05:42 PM by Dana1. 2 Replies.
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M4dudeUser is Offline
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28 Oct 2010 06:25 PM

In reading many of the advice posts it appears that in a mild climate like the Southern Oregon Coast most of the slab loss will be through the foundation if the slab is not isolated from it. That's based on a worst case air temp of 30F and ground temp of 50F. The structure is a 105' by 60' steel building with 20' wall sitting on a 2' concrete stem wall. The interior is completely insulated with R5 except for windows and light panels. Here are the things that worry me. 1) We have two seasons here, 6 months of rain, and 6 months of road repair. What do I need to put under the slab to keep it dry? The pad is part excavation part fill on the side of a hill. I put a French drain around the two sides that are below the banks. How much rock above grade do I need under the slab? 2)  And my main question is; how does one insulate the slab from the foundation/stem wall? The method I have seen described here is 2' rigid foam running from the surface of the slab down to the frost line. We don't have a frost line here but the insulation will nevertheless be useful. What does one do with 2" of foam separating the slab from the stem wall? Seems it would be a dirt catcher, which in turn would diminish the R value. I am considering extending the foam to the top of the stem wall, covering it with exterior plywood, and capping the entire top of the stem wall with flashing.  Any advice will be gratefully accepted.

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03 Nov 2010 11:19 PM

 

Dude, I live north of Seattle.. So pretty close to the same climate. I insulated the stem wall inside and out (ICF) leaving 4" of insulation above the concrete, in other words stopped the pour 4" short  of the top. Then  I cut back 4" of foam off of the inside, poured the 4" slab over the top of the stem wall up to the insulation, giving me a fully insulated slab. I learned of this method from the ICF forum. The thread is about a year old if you want to look it up.

Dana1User is Offline
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04 Nov 2010 05:42 PM
Is if this is a retrofit to an existing dirt-floored building, insulate it down to the footing, and make sure the foam extends beyond the top of the foundation lapping the above-grade wall insulation by at least 4". Covering it wth 1/2" ply or OSB as you described would meet code for an ignition barrier.

If this is new construction, consider using insulating concrete forms (ICF).

As for the drainage issues, no easy answers- they're all site-specific.

FWIW: Using EPS instead of XPS you get ~50% more R/$, but it takes ~50% more thickness to achieve that R. Wet ground or dry, it's a good value. Carpenter ants and termites will tunnel through it up your stem wall if you're in a likely-infestation area though, but using borate-loaded EPS (eg Perform Guard) will stop that. Under the slab "Type-II" ~1.5lb density stuff is good enough for all but the heaviest-duty industrial purposes. (Are you running a large forge in there?) Lighter duty Type-I (~1lb nominal density) would be fine for the stem walls in a retrofit. ICFs are usually higher density to withstand the mechanical stressed during a pour, but otherwise wouldn't need to be.

They all run about R4/inch, with only a 10-15% difference in R value between the 1lb and 2lb densities, 2" thick Type I runs ~ R7.3 but 2" Type-II runs ~R8. Both are far cheaper than the 1.5" of XPS it would take to hit similar numbers. And that's at 75F- the R-value increases when colder hitting ~R5/inch at 20F. For under-slab in heating-dominated OR, assuming R4/inch would be about right even for the low density stuff in an under-slab situation. (But back that off to R3.6/inch if it's under a radiant heating slab.)

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