Hi All, Hope this is posted in the correct spot as it somewhat involves barriers but the dry wall is the prime concern. We moved into our new home several months ago and i'm gonna get to doing some dry walling in our basement. The basement is a walk-out. The back wall is not your typical concrete wall, but it is framed down to the footing as it seems to be what some/most builders are doing on walk outs these days. Anyway, the inside of the studded walls have insulation and a plastic vapor barrier over the inso and studs. Now while I don't really see the need (contrary to pop belief) for a vapor barrier over 8 inches of concrete, I do understand why it may be useful over the inside of a studded external wall. So during our final walk through with the home builder, the project manager pointed out that if we ever dry wall the studded wall to be sure and remove the plastic vapor barrier so the dry wall can "breathe"....HUH ? Seems like the past years all we have ever heard from building "Professionals" is that there should always be a vapor barrier installed. So my question is...do I assume that the builder is not "confused" and follow his recommendation and remove it before dry walling?...or should I leave the plastic up ? Thanks for any opinions


Mod note:
This topic was posted in two forums. We keep a single topic contained in one thread.
Since the two starting posts are not exactly the same I left them both here.

 

I posted a thread with my question but don't see it so obviously I messed something up. So if I double play this question please bear withe me. Our new home has a walk out basement where the back wall is framed and not your typical concrete. On the inside the framed wall is insulated of course and has some plastic over it which I assume would be some kind of vapor barrier. When we did our final walk through the builder told us that we should REMOVE the plastic if we ever dry wall. This goes against all i've ever heard or read. So is the builder "Confused"....or is there some reason that you shouldn't leave the plastic on in such an instance ? Thanks for any opinions.

 

I would check back for a reply in a couple of days or so.
I'm pretty good at building but don't want to steer you in the wrong direction.
There are people here that can help you but it's a holiday.
Moisture problems are not something you want to guess at.

 

Good question. I don't know. I will watch this thread.

 

Well, I am a pro painter and have only ran against moisture barrier in bathrooms. In those cases the drywall was put up over the moisture barrier, so in short, I would leave the plastic so it can continue to do what it was installed for. It can't hurt to leave it, but can affect things if removed.