|
|
| I am making plans to put down 2'' of foam board insulation under my concrete for infloor heat. The building is a pole building that is already up. I see it is also important to insulate vertically around the perimeter to a depth of 2 or 3 feet. This is where my question comes in at. What is the easy way to dig a 4 inch trench right next to the wall? It could be dug on the inside or exterior of the wall. I see before someone mentioned pouring a rat wall. I assume this was vertical cement wall to keep critters out from your infloor plumbing? A 4'' trench would allow for 2''foam and a 2'' rat wall that would not have to be formed to pour.
1. I have been looking for a walkbehind trencher but it seems all the models dig 15 inches from the side of the machine. Does anyone know of one that digs on the side of the machine?
2. Use a Mini excavator. we actually have one of these but it digs an 8 or 10'' trench
Anyone have a better idea? What have others done? |
|
| |
|
Northern Illinois | We used a mini excavator, and dug a "way too big" trench..... 
We had hundreds of blocks of this insulation, so we laid a base down, and then built a form, and backfilled with chips... 
Not the simplest solution, but we used what we had available. I thought about the trencher also, but each post would have been an obstacle. I really wanted insulation on all sides of the concrete, and this method did accomplish that. You can see the whole project here... http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25112
Edited by zeebad1 12/16/2009 22:53
|
|
| |
|
| Wow, I will give you an A+ for that insulation job. Where did you find scrap foam insulation board. I should look for some since it all gets buried anyway.
Did you pour those voids with concrete? How neccesary do you think it is to have a wall to keep burrowing critters out from under the floor. I would think the odds of it being a problem would be small but a real pain if it happened to cause a leak in the floor.
Edited by donny 12/16/2009 20:10
|
|
| |
|
| I'm left wondering if it's 100% necessary to go completely to the wall if you can't find the ideal trencher for this situation. Are you going to be doing a lot of standing or working right next to the wall? The only effeciency lost would be due to the frost creeping under the area outside the trenched barrier. Just be sure not to put the thermostat over this area, or if you do -- keep in mind this area next to the outside perimeter might be cooler and the thermostat will have to be adjusted accordingly. Maybe you could mitigate the lost efficiency in that area next to the wall with 4" of horizontal foam? But you'll still have the potential for rodent or varmit damage to the insulation unless you can protect the bottom side of it. As the previous poster stated, use what you have. |
|
| |
|
SW MN | Are the trenchers that mount on skid steers off set enough? |
|
| |
|
Northern Illinois | donny - 12/16/2009 19:07
Wow, I will give you an A+ for that insulation job. Where did you find scrap foam insulation board. I should look for some since it all gets buried anyway.
Did you pour those voids with concrete? How neccesary do you think it is to have a wall to keep burrowing critters out from under the floor. I would think the odds of it being a problem would be small but a real pain if it happened to cause a leak in the floor.
Thanks for the passing grade.
There's a local guy, who owns a storage facility/auction house, and he had thousands of these blocks. Labor intensive, but the price offset that. (I "disposed" of quite a few that I had left over.)
The trench got filled with concrete. The spacer blocks don't touch the bottom, so there is concrete under them.
I was worried about burrowing critters also, and coated the outside of the foam with a brush-on material from Menards. It gets hard like mortar. I didn't get any pictures of that. |
|
| |
|
| Remember, youi can go down or you can go out. The standard is 4' wide with 2" thick insulation installed at an angle so water will drain off of it. Then allthat you need is a short piece on the inside to create a thermal break. |
|
| |
|
central - east central Minnesota - | On the outside of the wall . . . . consider this method.
 (insulaton a.jpg)
 (insulation.jpg)
Attachments
----------------
 insulaton a.jpg (22KB - 236 downloads)
insulation.jpg (65KB - 228 downloads)
|
|
| |
Insulating floor for infloor heat of a pole building.
