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I am researching how to finish one room in my basement, and not sure what to do with what I think is vapor barrier or wall wrap insulation. Its only on two of the four walls which I assume is because those walls are facing the outside. I watched a video that said I should not remove it because its already a r11 value and I would simply measure off 5 1/2 to 6 inches and snap my line. After that im not sure whats next and couldn't find any info. Most DIY sites show rigid foam as the insulation directly glued to the cement walls then furred out for the drywall, which was pretty straight forward. So basically:

  1. Do I leave the Wall wrap up?
  2. If I do, is 5 1/2 to 6 inches correct?
  3. After I frame it do I then use the rigid foam sheets?
  4. Should I just take it down and do the Rigid Foam?

panoramic of 3 of the walls

2 Answers 2

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Remove it unless you can verify that that plastic covering is vapor-permeable. Vapor barriers have no place in basement walls. Terrible idea. Those exterior walls should be insulated with rigid foam boards air sealed to the floor and rim joist. Then you can cover the boards up with drywall or an insulated stud wall.

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Hard to say from this pictures, but my best guess is that this is thermal insulation (mineral wool, and the foil which is around it is protecting it from moisture, because this type of thermal insulation really doesn’t like water/humidity. When it comes to how thick it should be that depends on several things like where do you live (local climate) what type of insulation is it (rock wool or glass woll, how compressed is it etc.).But to make it simple: if there is no mold or humidity everything is ok.You can remove it and use "rigid foam sheets" but I don’t see why? Best you can do is cover your insulation with some finishing layer (plasterboards) and that’s it

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