Insulation for the ground floor question

6 years ago

Hi there,

We have just bought a rural 3 bedroom detached bungalow, in need of modernisation.... estate agent speak for, you cant move in.

We have recruited a planning and building consultant as we have plans for the layout and loft conversion.

However, my question is about the floor. We have a suspended uninsulated floor in the property, mainly floorboards (its 1960's) unsure of the void below, but its over 1ft. Obviously we need to insulate this as its bloody freezing, but also we would like under floor heating at least in the kitchen/dining/family room and probably also the hallway. So what is the best way, then what is the most cost effective way to make this happen. Interested to hear whether we celotex/concrete fill.

As a side note, we need a new heating system and a partial rewire anyway. Also we are off gas, so we have Oil or Propane to consider as Renewable heat will cost too much initially, which is a huge shame as we have 2 acres of land to play with.

Thanks for reading,

Julie

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Comments (4)

PRO
i-architect
6 years ago
Hi Julie. I'd suggest that if your planning and building consultant are unable to answer this question then they may not be the right consultants to deliver your project adequately for you. Ask the consultants you have employed already to start with and if they don't know and
can't get someone else who is more specialised involved, then you might
be better off seeking an alternative building consultant. You could
take a look at the Green Register for their list of eco-refurbishers,
who will be more able to help you.

You can go with a retrofit suspended timber ground floor insulation and underfloor heating system for what you have described. It's a bit fiddly but doable. There are several retrofit product versions on the market. It depends on how responsive you want the heating to work as to which system you go with. This is likely to be determined by how much time you spend at home. If you want to heat the house up quickly in the morning before you go to work and then quickly in the evening for a few hours once you return home from work then you may prefer a more responsive system than if you work from home, or spend more time at home, perhaps with young children, etc.

You could replace the whole ground floor with a ground bearing slab of concrete over insulation with wet system underfloor heating, or you can use a limecrete with foamed glass - look at Ty-Mawr for this, these options will give you a higher thermal mass. This type of underfloor heating works most efficiently if kept on most of the time with a relatively low temperature. The thermal mass of the concrete/limecrete gives a time lag for heating and cooling.

There are many ways to insulate suspended timber ground floors, depending on many variables. There are also many different insulation types. There is a move away from the petrochemical based insulations like celotex for people like myself who recognise that a "breathable" build-up with vapour permeable properties gives a healthier indoor environment and protects the building fabric more. So although celotex type insulations have relatively high thermal efficiency with a relatively low thickness of material, its impermeability can create other problems if used in the some situations.

Retrofit insulation with underfloor wet-system heating to suspended timber floors is generally more responsive but not quite as efficient, as there is no thermal mass, so it acts like a large radiator. You can use a "pipe in pug" system to suspended timber floors, which gives some thermal mass and can be a reasonable compromise option. However, the "pug", which is a dry sand and cement mix that slowly hardens over time with atmospheric water, will add weight to the timbers so you are best to get the strength checked by a structural engineer to make sure they can take the extra weight.

Its a slightly complicated technical problem and to give you the solution that works best in your case then you would need to have someone take a look at it who can assess both your building and how you want the heating to work. Hope this helps.
Julie Norris thanked i-architect
Julie Norris
Original Author
6 years ago
Hi,

The planning and building consultant is doing his survey today, we have only met him for an initial meeting thus far. We did also meet an architect, but we have to be pragmatic with our approach, and we just want a lovely good flowing home, we don't want anything dramatic or luxurious. Neither can we afford it. We only have £100k to do works, so we need to be realistic.

I'm hoping that the consultant can tell us what we need to know from his survey, I was just looking for some advice. Having only ever lived in new builds (5 in 10 years) this is all very new to us.

Thanks for your advice :)

Julie
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PRO
i-architect
6 years ago
Hope it went well with your building consultant when he came to survey. £100k is a decent sum and you can achieve a lot with that. The key is to prioritise and do things in the right order.

Do the things that are most important to you and that won't have a knock on effect on something that you'd like to change further down the line, when you might have some more money saved up or be able to renegotiate an increased mortgage. Things like underfloor heating to the ground floor won't be affected by a loft conversion, but you might not want to install a really expensive, perfect kitchen, now if later down the line you'd like to install underfloor heating and to do that would need to rip it all out! A good way to minimise having to redo things when working with existing buildings is to start at the top of the house and work down, unless the upper floors are great and its only the ground floor that needs work.

I'm sure you'll manage to get a beautiful home. Best of luck :)
Julie Norris thanked i-architect
Julie Norris
Original Author
6 years ago
We have progress, we now have the keys. Building control have been up, we have dug an inspection hole and the foundations are deep enough to take a loft conversion. We also have decided upon John Guest Speedfit Underfloor heating, as it is suitable for a suspended floor, and we have purchased a hybrid air source heat pump. Exciting times, but also scary! ceiling in the lounge is already down and the old 60's dirty kitchen is coming out today.

Insulation for the ground floor question

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