Electrical and plumbing clutter alongside foundation sill
I have been working out the details of how I go about insulating my pour concrete interior basement walls. I have researched the options and read a ton of discussion on many web sites. I have basically decided to apply EPS rigid foam board directly to the concrete and then a stud wall filled with mineral wool and covered with sheetrock.
Then there is the space between the top of the foundation wall and the sub flooring of the first floor – basically the rim joist space. I want, if possible, to seal and insulate a continuous layer from the top of the wall insulation to the bottom of the sub flooring such that the top of the foundation, the sill plate, and the rim joist are all covered. I should be able to do that along most of the foundation perimeter. However, there are sections where that is going to be difficult because of electrical wiring and plumbing fixtures that also occupy that space. Then there is the rim joist cavity above the electrical service panel which is full of a maze of wires. I don’t know what I can do there. Due to space constraints, I can only attach one photos here showing what I am talking about.
The plumbing and some of the electrical in the photos can probably be moved further off the wall in order to create space for the foam boards to be applied directly and continuously to the wall. However, I don’t know how much slack there will be in the wires that run along the top of the foundation just inside the sill. I would want to get a layer of foam board underneath those wires along the top of the foundation wall and spray foam the sill plate itself. However, I don’t want to bury the wires themselves in spray foam.
Does anyone have experience dealing with this sort of problem and have any suggestions about how to go about this? Is there anything at all I can do in the rim space above the service panel?
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Replies
David,
First of all, electrical cables are buried in spray foam all the time. There is no code prohibition against the practice.
Second, if you want to move electrical cables, the work isn't that complicated. But the work usually requires an electrician, and therefore the work may be expensive. If moving the electrical cables is important to you, talk to an electrician.
Thanks for the clarification on encasing the wires in foam. I haven't started the project and actually gone up top to see how much play there is in the cabling along side the sill plate. I know that they are stapled to the side of the sill plate in a few places. I am used to working with electrical matters in general and I am not intending to "relocate" wires from their basic location along the top of the wall. What I am hoping is that if I remove the staples, there will be enough play to allow me to slide a strip of foam board underneath them to butt up against the sill plate and out to the top of the foam board on the wall.
I am also thinking that the top of the sill plate itself ought to be encased in the spray foam that I use when I am sealing around each piece of foam I am going to install to insulate each rim joist position. Thus, as I indicated, I would have a continuous of layer of insulation from the bottom of the subfloor to the basement wall. In the latter process, especially if I can't lift the cabling along the top of the wall an inch, then I would have to encase the wiring along the top of the wall in foam in order to create that continuous layer.