We close down the cottage for the winter and drain the water for the season we would love to insulate and try to make it a 4 season cottage.
How to insulate a dirt floor basement.
Cover the dirt floor with a layer of 10 mil plastic sheeting to serve as a vapor barrier which will keep moisture from seeping through the dirt and onto your wood floor.
All too often a crawlspace will have nothing but a dirt floor and probably some un insulated walls.
The sill plate is the first piece of framing lumber and it runs on top of the crawl space wall.
We have an old house with brick foundation and dirt basement.
I have a 20 year old 2 story log home with a huge basement the basement has a back entry 2 levels and a what i call a shelf toward the front of the home the basement floor is dirt so i initially covered with 6 mil black plastic but have planned to cover the walls with either eps with foil backing or polyiso with foil backing minimum of 2 inches thick i live in 4 5 climate zone.
If vents are not present in your crawl space insulate the walls instead of the joist bays.
The result of that is an unending source of humidity as moisture in the ground evaporates into the air and can condense on cold walls and joists where mold can establish itself.
Only seal and insulate your basement in combination with concreting the basement floor to seal out moisture that rises from the dirt.
Molly has given good advice.
We are not sure if i should insulate the ceiling of the crawl space or to simply try to get a floor.
Some people say we can get foam insulation sprayed in which will harden on the dirt floor.
We will be tearing out carpeting in those rooms and want to know how we can insulate those floors before putting down linoleum and laminate flooring.
Fixing a dirt floor crawlspace.
Your best and first heat keeping are spent in insulating the attic and in sealing all the cracks that allow cold drafts into your house.
Lay the sheets in rows across the dirt floor.
Cover the walls with insulation from the sill plate to the plastic covered dirt floor.