Cold room / basement insulation

I have a "cold room" in our basement. It was originally the area under what would of been the front porch. At best guess 30 some years ago the porch was closed off and converted into living space.

The area underneath is a block wall room with fiberglass batt insulation between the joists, then covered with cheap wood paneling.

I'm in the process of rewiring and have pulled down the old insulation to gain access. I've found a lot of air infiltration all around the sill plate. (filthy insulation, newspapers packed into the voids, birds nests, bees nests, etc)

My inital thoughts are to fill the large gaps with great stuff, then spray foam the rest of the voids to seal them. And then put new fiberglass batt back in and drywall the ceiling with mold resistant drywall.


Does this sound like a good idea?

I'm not sure if this area is even technically a "cold room", it's really no different then the rest of my unfinished basement.

For what it's worth, it never dips below freezing in it and no moisture issues. Also most of the exterior walls are below ground.


Sorry for the long winded explanation, I didn't know how else to explain it.

 

Difficult to say. Here is a link on finishing basements: BSD-103: Understanding Basements — Building Science Information

Bud

 

Is any of the sill plate rotted? Because you really shouldn't be having that much trouble if the sill meets the basement wall properly with the rest of the house. You did mention bees and bees really don't like going into sills unless there is rot. So my thinking is that you should first have an exterminator come out and check for termites. Then after they have finished inspecting with you looking the damage over have them wait to spray until you replace the sill with a pressure treated one and then have them treat your house. The best treatment is a borate solution it will keep the termites and other insects away and also hold back any mold that might want to form. Just be sure to clean up any mold you might see with bleach and then have them spray inside where the insects were spotted and you shouldn't have mold.
As for insulation when you get to that I suggest you call a professional service and have them spray a closed cell foam insulation as they can get it done very quickly and insulate in areas that are hard to insulate. Also in basements not matter what insulation you use be sure to buy fiberglass wall board and not paper as the fiber glass wall board will not attract mold. Good luck to you!

 

I would do what hedgeclippers said as far as bugs, sealing voids, etc., then use a rigid foam board on the walls, seal all the seams with tyvek tape (or similar) and seal along the floor with spray foam. This will give you the best thermal break. I have a similar setup, but when the previous owner finished the walls, they didn't add insulation. They left what was there (foil cover insulation covering the top half of the concrete wall) and covered the studs with wood paneling. I will eventually tear everything out and do it properly, but that is last on my list.

 

When we moved in there was a good half inch gap exposed to outside in one place, filled only with fiberglass insulation and newspaper. This is right near where the nests were. I think there may of been a door there at one point in time.

There must be a gap along the front wall too because there were signs of air movement. When we moved in, I used great stuff around the perimiter outside to seal some gaps I didn't like. From the inside I can see where some of that great stuff expanded to seal the gap.

I'll get an opinion from a bug guy before getting spray foam quotes to be safe.


[edit]
I didn't take a pic of the big nest before I took it down, but it looked just like this one:
Bees' Nest | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
The details say it's a wasp nest

 

You may very well be right about a door being there and it could have been and entrance to a walk in basement. In the old days they put stairs to basements about anywhere even in very unsafe areas. I remember once being in a restaurant I think in West Virginia, it was a long time ago,and I was getting ready to leave the restroom only to find a hole in the floor. Really scary finally they put the floor back down and it was safe again.
As to your situation I am thinking that once there were steps going down to your basement. I would use some thin concrete block and just cover that wall until you reach the sill. That will definitely take away the gap for good. I am glad you are getting a bug person out you will feel better about your house afterwards and shouldn't have anymore problems with wasps. Thank you for the update good luck to you!

 

Come to think of it, wouldn't closing the basement returns be better than leaving them open? After all, isn't the goal to pull as much heat out of the house as possible? Seems like if you close off your basement return, the upstairs returns would pull harder thus eliminating the warm air on the upper floors quicker. I would think that this would have a more noticeable effect than trying to aid the process by letting cool basement air into the system. Perhaps a combination of the two would make sense. I just closed my basement return half way and closed on the registers. We'll see how it goes.