Looks fine to me. I wouldn't replace them.

Normally I don’t agree with “screw the permits” but yeah as a “trade professional” who has done plenty of work in Westchester (Tarrytown, Larchmont, Irvington, elsewhere)… don’t get a permit. It’s a bigger headache by far than anywhere else I’ve ever worked.

Throw some PT 2x4 flat 16” on center in the floor, fill the space between with 1.5” thick foam insulation sheets, cover with 5 mil plastic sheeting to keep moisture down, and cover with 2 layers of subfloor, seams offset. It’s a classic garage workshop method and it’s worked well for me. I don’t deadlift in the shop, but it’s good on my knees and it doesn’t bow under my 3,000 pound table saw. It’ll handle deadlifting fine, especially if you had a horse stall mat in an area.

Put Rock wool insulation in the walls so you don’t have to worry about moisture issues, and sheetrock. Add an electric heater and some fans, you don’t need to spend on a heat pump or PTAC unit, as others have said - it’s a gym. Keep it warm enough and use fans, breeze, and the big open garage door to cool off in summer

I look forward to building a home some day with perfected water management and continuous insulation exteriorly too. Cheers

Keep the garage door. You will regret not being able to open that in your gym on nice days

there's no easy way to retrofit a vapor barrier between the top of a concrete wall and wood sills / rim joists.

i can't say how the mineral wool would perform. it would likely become a mold substrate, and whatever interior wall finish surface is covering the mineral wool, the foundation side of that would see the condensation.

i couldnt give any more useful guidance on this. as a handyman and carpenter i'm often asked to retrofit spaces. i have torn out more than 10 basement interior insulation assemblies, perhaps average age of 20-30 years old. until active ventilation products mature, or new insulation technologies are invented, there's just no way i could guarantee my work under such conditions. i only water/vaporproof and insulate from the exterior. i'm wrapping the exterior of a house and its slab in 2" of foam this week.

to be clear, mold and moisture get trapped either way -- interior air or exterior ground contact. the difference is that the exterior assembly does not foul interior air quality, and can exist for decades in a moldy wet subsurface environment and perform its job well. not so for interior assemblies.

So should I only seal the rim joists and accept it as enough to help with air leakage and call it enough? I bought the house from family and there’s never been any bulk water issues for >10 years. As far as vapor goes, is there anything I can do to allow the concrete block walls to still dry to the interior? Mineral wool bats mechanically fastened to the walls? Since air penetration through the walls is minimal.

I can’t envision any significant open air gap behind the rigid insulation allowing the insulation to be effective thermally

"HVAC A/C gas" is not, by default, natural gas, my dude.

You got me to click, so that's something I guess.

when considering these systems, there's a hierarchy of priority:

bulk water

water vapor

thermal comfort

your proposal is starting with thermal comfort and is not dealing with bulk water or vapor very well. so just know that, if it's not already clear.

rigid rotproof insulation against the interior walls can be sealed at the bottom to prevent water that condensates behind the foam from dripping out from beneath it. the foam itself is the "thermal break".

a big issue with your proposed system is that, if you seal everything at the top of a typical concrete basement wall, that will shove the moisture in the wall upwards into the wood floor framing. the moisture, which now cannot escape to the interior through the foam, has to go somewhere. and if your wooden sill isnt itself sealed (not common in older houses) it will see the moisture.

mold will grow behind the foam. and moisture will rot the sill and rim joists and first floor joist ends of the house. over time.

to repeat, there is no common known passive interior basement insulating method that does not generate mold and moisture in unwanted places.

Give it another 5 years.

Hoping there’s an adhesive I could bond the rigid insulation to the plastic panels. If it’s plywood, you make a good point. Maybe I should use 1x2 furring strips with concrete anchors, then the rigid foam, then the plywood. That would allow for secure ways to attach shelving for myself and future owners without having to go down the concrete anchor route again.

Fair enough. I just can’t afford to excavate around my entire house and do it again right. This won’t be a forever home just a “for a while home” and want to make it more thermally efficient and comfortable place. I don’t have a ton of extra head room so I was likely going to not insulate the floor. If I do end up doing it at some point, I’d make sure I’d seal the floor to wall transition. Since I’m not insulating the floor, is there benefit to placing a sill gasket or other type of thermal break below the rigid wall insulation?

If the dimple mat wouldn’t be ventilated, I’d probably just forego it then as an unnecessary cost increase

Yup, joist tape should be mandatory to use on any deck project. Especially when using Trek, TimberTech, etc, as very few will ever inspect the joists after deck installation (as the boards last forever - which is not the case for joists that might be poorly protected, or worse, sitting directly in moist soil).

Tracking. How would you keep a wall sandwich like that together? If you use something like furring strips, you'll end up drilling so many holes through the dimple mat into the wall it seems like it defeats the purpose. I did the wall more to hold my dimple mat in place AND give space for an insulation R-value cheaper than using foam.

this is exactly my thought as well

It’s also a good idea to remove any debris or dirt that’s settled in creating ground contact with your joists.

Need to improve a drying rack for clothes.

The rack I'm talking about is called, STORAGE MANIAC Sweater Drying Rack (google will show first amazon result).

I purchased this and it works as intended. However, the problem is loading clothes on the middle and lower portions of it. It isn't meant to become unstacked easily. You first start by placing the first 1/4 of a shirt on it, then you spin the whole rack 180 degrees so you can reach the shirt to pull it all the way into position. This sucks and strains your knees.

A better product would be a rack that has slots, and removeable "cassettes" that you can load a shirt on at a nice standing desk height, and then insert the cassette into the rack.

This product doesn't exist but I want to create my own. Can you please give me advice on how to make one? I do not have a ton of tools (really just have a drill and some hand tools). But I am thinking that pvc elbows, tees, and connectors are easily available at hardware stores. Is pvc pipe going to even be strong enough? The plastic tubes on this Amazon product do not flex or sag.

Edit: After I finished typing this, I look over to my right at my Ikea metal shelving rack (Google: Omar). Possibly I could craft a cassette style rack out of the 4 metal posts. But I just need them to be 27 wide and 27 deep (so no Ikea shelves are like that). But maybe they make custom parts for that style of shelf. And then do pvc and mesh net cassettes.

there is no real solution. so whatever you do, plan to possibly have it removed in 10-20 years or less. if you are in a humid/continental climate.

if you have to insulate from the inside, your idea is sensible. you can and should waterproof the concrete wall first but such interior coats of paint will usually fail over time. make sure the rigid foam and whatever you cover it with are themselves waterproof / rotproof (some foams are open cell or have absorbent paper covers). it's just not worth dealing with wood or fiberglass in these conditions.

the foam or the mat can be the vapor barrier if they are detailed/taped correctly.

to make your idea really work, the dimple mat airgap needs to be actively ventilated. i don't know of a retail product for this. it doesnt have to be constant. but periodic air changes.

you aren't going to insulate the floor?

you can help this system out by shielding the exterior of the basement wall from moisture. french drains, umbrella sheeting in the ground to send water 5-10' away from the foundation.

the right way to insulate a basement in a wet climate (really any climate) is from the outside. with closed cell foam on the exterior of the house.

https://youtu.be/kwn0Vjw_ji0

Something to consider, are you replacing the decking with the same material? If not, check the recommended spacing for the decking especially if you are going with composite/trex. Some wood decks were built with up to 24” span between joists, more commonly 16”, but some composite decking is more flexible and requires 12” spacing.

I don’t necessarily want to frame a wall in over the top. I was hoping be able to do just rigid insulation on top of a dimple mat if helpful and then an FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic) panel or something similar on top of that. Maybe plywood. It’s not ever gonna be a completely finished space. I just want it to be insulated

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You’re good. They’re just stained.

What does the finish on the outside look like? You could take the door out, trim the jamb to fit the 2x4 wall, and rehang it.

Paint it with polyurethane. They also have it in a spray can.

Most likely you didn't prep the surface we'll enough. You will need to scrape off as much as the old silicone as much as possible. New silicone will not stick to the old silicone well. You can use a utility knife or a razor blade. Acetone the area and then apply the new silicone. Don't use the shower for 24 hours.

Didn't know those existed, cool!