We are presently having our new house build and I noticed that under the insulation on the foundation in the basement there is only the bottom half of the pink insulation sheet that has what I called a moisture barrier (black tar sheet - in french we call that papier goudron - that I think usually is used on roof) I'm not sure of it's exact name in english. Can you tell me if it's normal that there is only the bottom half, behind the inslutation, that is layed with this paper or is there a constructin law that said that it should be installed all over on the foundation to prevent moisture to get to the insulation sheet. If you have any articals for us to read about this moisture barrier it would also be greatly appreciated.
Answer:
In fact the papier goudron was a necessity in years past but nobody was able to explain why. There are still people who use it but because nobody can give a good explanation of why, not everybody does. I certainly would not - I can put that money into something I need. As far as it being part of a building code, I do not know because codes are very minimum standards so I don't pay a whole lot of attention to them. Moisture barrier, for example, will only be a moisture barrier if it is on the outside of the wall and being on the inside it does nothing whatsoever.
