Thick Black plastic on basement ceiling

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Dcomer

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Hi, I searched through google and this site and many others for several hours and couldn't find any answers. My question is this. I bought my house 6 years ago and down in the unfinished basement there is very thick black plastic installed on the ceilings. There is no insulation above the plastic. What is it's purpose and if I wanted to finish the ceilings would I just put drywall right over the top of it?

Thank you,

Dcomer
 
I saw that once on a farmhouse. The basement was damp, and I think the owner was trying to block the moisture from entering the house. It didn't work - the black plastic was covered with nasty mold and the new owner had to rip it all out and fix the moisture problem in the basement.
 
Evan with a damp or cold basement, this is not the place for a vapour bearer. I can't see it will do any good.
 
Still havent gotten around to taking pictures. The basement is dry and the only thing I could think was that it was to block cold air. The basement isn't any colder than any other normal basement. Speaking of, there is a register down there and I have kept it closed. Is there any good reason I should open it? I will post pictures I swear, just been working all day and what have you.
 
Having trouble getting my phone to upload the pictures, new phone. Anyway I removed a section of it and it looks like when they rewired the house a year or two before I bought the house they ran the wires over the floor joist and then covered them with this plastic. So no one see's any benefit to it, should I just take it down?
 
If you ever had water trapped between the foor and the poly, it would just sit there and cause troble.
 
If the electric wiring is attached to the bottom of the joists rather than threaded through holes in the joists and kept above the plane of the bottom of the joists it does not meet code. (at least in this jurisdiction)
That leads me to beleive the plastic was put up to hide the faulty wiring job.
 
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