Hello!

I have an unfinished and unheated room in the basement that is roughly 12 x 15 - it has solid concrete walls, but the old tie rods from the original pouring are still visible and sticking out a couple of inches. The upstairs floor above this portion of the basement is cold, so I've decided to try insulating the basement room walls with 2" xps board, hoping it will help with floor comfort and heating efficiency in general. But I have questions!

Do the tie rods all need to be broken off before I can put up the insulation? If so, how do I do this? And if not, do I just push the foam boards in so the tie rod perforates the board?

Also, based on googling basic info, it seems just insulating the walls (and not the basement ceiling) is best - do you agree? My original plan was to insulate the ceiling since the cold floor upstairs is the problem...but that's not what I'm seeing in some online articles.

Thanks!