Suspended timber floor: insulate from above or below?
6 years ago
Featured Answer
Sort by:Oldest
Comments (6)
- 6 years ago
Related Discussions
Refurb of 1930's house - insulation problem
Comments (8)Hi Paula, Our house was built in the late 20's so we had a similar issue. We replaced all the crittall windows with double glazing and took up all the floorboards, laid insulation between the joists and laid tongue and groove chipboard sheets as a new subfloor. We also fitted thermal insulation foil inside the roof joists. You need to make sure you have good ventilation throughout the house as by doing this you change the airflow and the dynamics of the property and it could lead to damp (It's been 5 years and we've not had a problem). For the walls of your property you can install insulated plasterboard but that may cause knock on issues with replacing skirting boards and architraves but it depends on what stage you're at with any build works. We didn't feel we needed to do this on the walls and it has been fine. The house is the warmest it's ever been and we reduced our fuel bills :) All the best Jason...See MoreInsulation for the ground floor question
Comments (4)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....See MoreHelp, how do I make our kitchen look less dull? Pic below.
Comments (35)If this is a short term fix, I'd try to find a fabric to tie in those terracotta ties with the off white paint you're using elsewhere and just put a simple roman blind (it doesn't need to work) at the window. Something like this will tie in and has the grey of the floor. We moved last year and I'm sorting out building work - in the meantime I've added nice curtains and blinds and it's meant I don't mind living with it. And I think the open shelves alongside the window will make an enormous difference in taking the eye away from the tiles....See MoreDamp issues from outside wall and yellow insulation in cavity?
Comments (12)Hi we are in Swansea South Wales? I haven’t had chance to ask as this is only a recent thing we’ve noticed. It only seem to be on this side of the house at the moment where the rain has been hitting this side of the house? We left it for a few weeks to be honest because we didn’t move in for a while but has been gone for over a year now? The rain has been bad though. The builder pulled some out for another section of the wall where we had the same issue, he said the rock wool was soaking wet. Yes we always get drainage issues around the gate and front and side of the house. There is hole in the mortar I’ve tried to patch most of them up but there’s quite a few I need to fill. That wall where the damp is has been filled so there aren’t many left that side? Hi jonathan, it’s a brick house, I the water is from where the rain has been hitting great side of the house, soaking through and into the mode section cavity where the insulation is and soaking through to the internal wall? There no other sources of water only on the floor where the drainage isn’t the best?...See More
6 years ago
6 years ago- 6 years ago
- 6 years ago
Jonathan