Insulation, Radiant and Vapor Barriers - insulating brick wall in basement

Hello,

I tried to search this forum before my post but I still have some doubt, sorry if this was already answered elsewhere. I would like to insulate basement walls in 1930 New England house. The walls shows some moisture in very humid days here in New England and I was wondering if there is any way to place insulation over such concrete brick wall.

I am not sure what kind of insulation (if any) is outside the foundation. My idea was to use vapor barrier aluminum foil all over the walls and over place 0.5" R3 Styrofoam sheets. Those sheets would be hold in place by screwing vertical 2x4 studs. Between those studs I would place R13 fiberglass insulation, and cover it with drywall.

1) I am not sure what to use as the vapor barrier
2) I am not sure if I should try to install insulation over brick wall that gets moisture in some days...

Any advice appreciated :-). Thank you.

I am no expert so take this with a grain of salt

I recently watched an episode of holmes on homes, and his method was to use thick foam panels, tongue and groove, like 3", on the walls, adhesive on the joints, and then tape all the joints. He then laid 1" foam board on the ground. All the foam board had about an inch gap from corners, and he then spray foamed all the corners filling the gaps. He says this was for expansion.
He taped all the seams like the walls, and then put on playwood subfloor overtop the foam.

And framed the basement, adding batt insulation between studs.

Hi petrs and aj, I saw the same show aj is talking about, looked great, however, every basement is different and worst of all even the experts haven't come up with an exact solution. Here is a link to help or confuse you, it may do either, but it presents some very interesting options along the line of what you have planned.

http://www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/building_america/pdfs/db/35017.pdf

Good luck,
Bud

Hi Petrs,

The first question is: Are you trying to eliminate condensation from the inside of the walls during extremely humid days, or trying to insulate and seal the basement walls against permeation of cold and moisture from outside?

If summer humidity and condensation are the problems, you might find that furring out the wall and drywalling provides enough of a temperature break so that humidity does not condense on the cold basement walls.

If the problem occurs in winter during humid periods and the basement walls are otherwise dry (no migration of water from outside to inside) in winter and summer, the basement wall is probably uninsulated, but may be sealed outside with mastic and drained properly so there are no head pressure issues.

Curing this type of condensation might be easier if you just blow in some fresh or drier air from upstairs.

Is there a source of moisture in the basement?

Is the problem continuous?