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What are my options for attaching and protecting foam insulation to exterior concrete basement walls?

user-6932004 | Posted in General Questions on

I live in an area of frequent freeze/thaw. basement walls have foam insulation that has detached in some places, and has just generally degraded over the past 10-15 years.

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  1. GBA Editor
    Martin Holladay | | #1

    User-6932004,
    First of all, can you tell us your name?

    The list of materials used to protect the above-grade portion of rigid foam installed on the exterior of basement walls can be found in my article called How to Insulate a Basement Wall.

    Here is the relevant portion of that article:

    The above-grade portions of all types of exterior insulation must be protected from physical abuse and sunlight. Among the products than can be used for this purpose are the following:
    A cementitious coating or cementitious stucco (for example, Styro Industries Brush On ST), with or without metal lath
    A cementitious coating that includes chopped fiberglass (for example, Quikrete #1219 foam coating or surface-bonding cement)
    An acrylic coating like Styro Industries FlexCoat or Styro Industries Tuff II
    EIFS (synthetic stucco)
    Cement backerboard, with or without a layer of stucco
    Pressure-treated plywood
    Metal flashing
    A fiberglass panel like Ground Breaker from Nudo Products
    Styro Industries FP Ultra Lite panels (XPS coated with mineral granules adhered to one side)
    Protecto Wrap Protecto Bond (a flexible peel-and-stick membrane with a textured, gritty coating)
    ProGuard Cement Faced Insulated Sheathing.

    For more information on this topic, see How to Finish Exterior Foundation Insulation.

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