The big advantage of rigid foam is that it breaks the thermal bridge of the studs. Putting it ONLY between the studs would be a waste.

You've mentioned it here repeatedly. I'm sure you mentioned it to the GC when the plumber was doing his thing. There's no excuse for them "forgetting". Have them rip it out and do it right.

And even if there are no bedrooms down there, improving the heat loss in the basement will improve the heat loss on the entire home.

If they refuse, I'd either fire them, or not buy the house, depending on your situation. If they refuse to build your house the way you want, it's not going to get any better.

Ok.. Update.. Apparently the sub contractor messed up.. They were told NOT to put any perimeter walls up.. But now I am even a little more concerned. .Apparently they have no permits to put any perimeter walls up in basement.. They claim that they can "get away" with partition walls but they would have to submit for a new permit or update existing permit to put up any framing on the perimeter of basement.. This confuses me as we just discussed the basement and I was under impression they were going to frame and insulate the perimeter and do all the electrical.. Apparently they are concerned with "updating" the permit since I cannot fund a complete finished basement at this time.. I discussed just doing the rigid foam board, framing, and electrical and then after a few months I would do the floors and sheetrock.. They don't want to chance that the basement will effect things when it comes time for the Certificate of Occupancy and the basement isn't finished..

Also needless to say I was a little annoyed that the basement and garage slab pour didn't look quite like I imagined a fresh pour to look.. I remember watching so many videos of slab pours and they looked so sleek and fresh.. I checked mine and there are a TON of air bubbles/holes.. Plus all the brush marks which I hope come out and don't stay permanently..

I know that here, finishing the basement is a separate permit. Some friends of mine had the builder put up framing for partition walls in the basement, and the final inspector had a fit because the permit didn't allow for a finished basement, and they were obviously planning to finish the basement. So they got a permit for the basement, and 5 years later, it's still in framing.

But insulating the basement does NOT mean a finished basement.

You might be able to spray foam insulation between the studs and spray on a thermal coating that would allow the drywall to be installed after the COO is issued. The GC should pay the difference in cost.

I'm sorry for your experience.

I'm a big fan of foam insulation--rigid or spray foam depending on the application. For basements, your plan to install rigid foam between the concrete or block and the framing is the best approach. Seams should be sealed to prevent any air infiltration that could cause moisture to condense on the concrete/block. Fiberglass batts are air permeable and should not be used because they could allow moisture in the air to condense on the colder concrete/block surface.

I don't think it's a big deal to ask your builder to move the wall so the rigid foam can be properly installed. Depending on the specific type of rigid foam you install, you may need a thermal and/or ignition barrier to protect the foam. Check with your local code officials with any questions.

Best wishes.

I don't think the brush marks come out...

Jn3344 - I sincerely hope they do.. They showed us previous homes they did and none of them had slab work that looked like that.. Maybe they put some type of coating on top but the way it looks now it looks horrible..

Looks like trowel marks on the garage floor to me and not brush marks.

Summer - I apologize.. That is what I meant.. When they poured the slab at 8:30am they were working it in.. By 11:30 they were still kneeling around on wood cutouts and using a trowel on the slab.. They were still troweling till about 1pm I believe (will have to check video footage again for times).. I saw that they were wetting the top layer and really had to work the concrete to get it to the point in the photo.. My thing is that in every video I have watched I see a large "skeeter" that goes over everything to make a smooth finish.. Maybe in expecting more then I should but I think it looks horrible.. And again, the houses I visited that they did had nothing like this.. They looked very smooth, almost like they were a finished floor.. I am starting to feel like they didn't even work on the houses they showed me as nothing is coming out anywhere near the finishing of those houses.. Even the block walls on the inside have extra concrete stuck to them.. I think they seriously dropped the ball on this whole project.. That are they are simply con artists..

I don't think you want the concrete to look like that. If they finished it by hand, I (not an expert) would have expected them to use a large magnesium push float, not a hand float. Even better would have been a power trowel. Here's part of my basement slab that was poured this week and the power trowel they used. There's water on the surface from some rain, but no trowel marks anywhere.

No such machine was used... They poured the entire garage at once which lasted from 8:15am-8:45am.. From that point until 1pm they were working the concrete by hand.. This is a quick shot of what they were doing:

I just really can't believe that this company would allow this.. They are a higher end company and they do most of their work in high end neighborhoods.. I am actually getting a little concerned that its not even.. I went over while at work to take a quick pic but got their late and it was already dark.. I left the headlights of my car on and took a pic.. I can't tell if its the lighting combined with the trowel marks, but it almost looks like ripples.. This is what it looks like:

At this point I don't know what to even do.. I feel like every time they get to the next stage I have to question what my options are because it wasn't done right.. I know I am not building a mansion or some multi million dollar home, but I just feel like I probably could have done a better job myself and I have absolutely no experience.. I know it's easy to second guess people, but I feel like this is not an acceptable finish.. I talked with a few people and they said there is no real way to "repair" this.. They would have to hammer it all out and pour again.. I had contemplated doing an epoxy finish but I don't even know if that would solve this.. Im sure it would help the finish look, but if this floor is in fact not level I am not sure an epoxy coating will level it out.. I am nervous to even go down to the basement.. I only saw a small portion from the upper level (no stairs installed yet) and everything was covered.. I can only assume the basement slab looks the same..

You have had a lot of problems, and while some were really bad, others only seemed bad. The concrete floor is one of those that I think only seems bad. Just have them polish it. It is an easy and cheap fix.

I can tell you from years of experience at finishing concrete that looking at freshly finished concrete under headlights will usually exaggerate any imperfections BUT I blew up the the last photo of the worker steel troweling the concrete and the concrete he is troweling looks pretty rough like it hasn't been mag or bull floated. I am guessing that it was pretty hot when this was poured and the concrete might have "got away from them" (got hard faster than they could finish it) and the finishers didn't have a power trowel on site.

If the finishers had to use very much water at all on the concrete to get the final finish then the surface concrete could lose a considerable amount of its PSI strength and flake off in the future. Once your concrete cures a couple of days and turns the lighter color it should be easier to determine any issues much easier.

Summer - I am guessing it got away from them for a while.. Again, I watched the video and they continuously are spraying water while trying to work the concrete.. Then as he was troweling you could see what look like "crumbling" of the top layer of concrete.. Below is a picture of what I am talking about.. There are like shavings of concrete that he had to wipe away.. I can't wait to get over there in a few to see how it dried.. There were already air pockets bubbles that I saw and when I looked online it looks as though it was called pitting. But again, my biggest issue is going to be if the floor is not level.. We planned on doing an epoxy coating after settling in so that would probably cover most of the flaking that you say may happen.. But then again, why should I have a finished product that I have to worry about flaking.. It hsould have been done right..

So did you have them dismantle the framing yet? I was just wondering because our contractor did the same thing - put the framing up even though we wanted to put the rigid foam board first. Now we have to remove it...

Yes.. They took down the framing on exterior walls.. As it turns out the permits that they originally submitted for did not include any kind of perimeter wall framing in basement.. Apparently you can only "get away" with doing partition walls without having a permit to finish basement.. So all exterior portions were taken down.. They are submitting a new permit and once approved will redo those sections of framing and include the foam board directly against the wall.. The only issue that we are going to run into is they are refusing to redo the plumbing.. So the solution is to run the rigid foam board up to those pipes, cut, then continue.. They will then spray foam the gaps.. Not sure this is the ideal way to go but it is the only way to go without having to incur costs on my end to have them redo the plumbing..

njbuilding143,

What kind of cameras do you used there?

Thanks