For any household, thermal insulation is of paramount importance, because it is the best way to ensure comfortable living conditions and reduce heating costs.
To keep the heat in the house, first of all, it is necessary to perform thermal insulation of the floor. To cope with this task is quite realistic and on your own.
The floor in a wooden house should be insulated according to the principle - one room per day, provided that it is not necessary to replace the logs that perform the supporting function. For implementation, you will need materials with thermal insulation properties, basic building skills and, of course, the desire to rid your home of drafts.
The choice of insulation material
For thermal insulation of floors, various types of insulating materials are used, and their choice depends on the specific situation and on the tasks assigned to the heat insulator. It is desirable to carry out work on floor insulation even at the construction stage.
Important! To achieve maximum insulation allows the location of insulation materials between the bars of the draft layer.So, what materials can be used for insulation? Let's get acquainted with the list of the most popular heaters:
- expanded clay;
- mineral wool;
- Styrofoam;
- ecowool.
In order to insulate floors in a wooden house, penofol, slag and sawdust are also used.
Thermal insulation with expanded clay
Expanded clay is a granular material in the composition of which clay is present. Expanded clay granules differ in fractions. The material is poured between wooden blocks, trying to achieve maximum density.
Plywood is used as a finish.
Slag and sawdust are also used to insulate the floor in a wooden structure. These natural materials allow you to achieve good insulation at low cost.
Mineral wool
Mineral wool is a material with which it is convenient to work. Among the advantages of this material - safety, almost complete absence of shrinkage and affordable price.
But mineral wool also has disadvantages, over time this material becomes caked and has to be changed. In addition, it has such a property as hygroscopicity which leads to fungus. This disadvantage can be leveled with the help of film waterproofing.
To insulate floors in a wooden house, mineral wool with a thickness of 15 cm or more is used. Mats consisting of cotton wool are placed between the bars of the rough layer, leaving no gaps. The top edge of the mat should line up with the top surface of the bars.
Next step - waterproofing membrane installation, which overlaps and is fixed with staples.
Styrofoam slabs
As a heat-insulating material for the floor in a wooden household, they are excellent foam boards with optimum rigidity.
For insulation, 10 cm plates are used: they are placed between the lags, leaving no gaps. Foam sheets outperform mineral wool in terms of strength. This material does not sag over time.
Styrofoam serves as an excellent support for topcoats such as plywood.
Important! Among other advantages of this material is resistance to moisture, only the upper part of the material becomes wet, which does not impair its properties. Foam boards are not afraid of mold.But, like any material, polystyrene also has disadvantages, these include:
- the release of toxic substances when heated (this material is not suitable for a sauna);
- susceptibility to fire.
The process of floor insulation with foam plastic consists of several steps. The material is cut into sheets and placed between wooden bars. The main thing is that there are no gaps left through which heat escapes.
Final step - installation of the outer cover.
Ecowool
Thermal insulation of the floor in a wooden structure with ecowool requires the use of special equipment. Ecowool is a bulk material based on cellulose impregnated with antiseptics and flame retardants.
Ecowool is blown into the underground with a compressor, due to which the voids are filled evenly.You can also insulate the floors with ecowool with your own hands, only it will take more time than with equipment.
Ecowool contains adhesive components that provide it stiffness and resistance to shrinkage.
A worthy alternative to cellulose is polyurethane-based foam.
Heated floors as the main component of comfort
Well-insulated floors contribute to the creation of an optimal temperature in the rooms, dampness and piercing drafts disappear from the premises, and the efficiency of heating devices increases.
In addition to creating a cozy atmosphere in the house, floors with insulation directly affect health - residents do not suffer from drafts, and, therefore, catch cold less often.
If the house has cold walls, it is not so scary, because there is no constant contact with them, as with the floor.
The initial step in the insulation of any living space is the thermal insulation of the floor: remember that the cold spreads from below.
No wonder there is a saying that says to keep your feet warm: it applies not only to shoes, but also to floors.
Important! Start insulating your home from the floor and only after that proceed to the thermal insulation of the walls. To create a warm environment, you need a protective foundation, the basis, in the role of which the floors act.In households built of wood, this task is greatly facilitated, since private houses have a standard layout. In such buildings, there are necessarily rough floors. It is only necessary to dismantle the outer covering so that the subfloor is in the access zone.
A few years ago, during the years of Soviet rule, the task of insulating floors in a wooden household had a simple solution. Sand was poured onto the rough boardwalk (expanded clay was also used for this purpose). Then, along the protruding bars, the flooring of the upper plank layer was filled, and this completed the thermal insulation.
The layer of sand under the top coat acted as an obstacle to the escape of heat and, to a certain extent, created ventilation. Problems such as fungus and rapidly spreading mold did not form quickly in the underground cavity. But such a “thermal cushion” had a limited service life (about 10 years), and even then, provided that the climate was not humid.
Gradually, the thermal insulation properties of these materials decreased and, accordingly, their resistance to decay decreased. After 10-12 years, the boards crumbled, turning into dust. For this reason, insulation began to be carried out according to a more complex method, requiring a change in the base of the floors.
Before starting work on dismantling the old floor before warming it from below, watch the video below to avoid mistakes when arranging the floors:
Training
Before proceeding directly to the insulation installation, preparatory work should be performed. Remove all pieces of furniture from the room and tell the household about what you are going to do. The floors serve as transitions from one room of the house to another, but this is somehow forgotten.
Attention! Having got used to the fact that the floors are reliable, you can be injured about the openings that will inevitably appear in the process of repair work.
To disassemble the top plank cover, use a pry bar, and a nail puller will do. Fold the boards carefully and assess the condition of the underground.
Remove hardened sand residues. Broom the old sand into the garbage bags and free the room.
Perform a partial replacement of draft boards.
Important! Check the strength of the bars that perform the supporting function, on which the rough coating is located. The reliability of the entire structure of the updated floor depends on the strength of the bars.The floor in the house needs not only to be insulated, but also take care of its reliability. Carpentry skills are required to make the floor secure.
It should be taken into account that over a long period of operation, wooden bars could exhaust their resource, and they will need to be replaced. To do this, remove the black covering that is nailed to them and fold the boards separately from the finish.
If it is not necessary to install new logs, as well as to replace draft boards, skip this step, but be sure to make sure that these elements are in satisfactory condition; it will be difficult to return to the named problem later, everything needs to be done sequentially.
Step by step guide to insulation
Below we offer a step-by-step guide that allows you to insulate the floors in a private house.
We install load-bearing bars (logs)
If there is even a small defect on the bar that will be used as a base (for example, cracks, vibrations or traces of rot), do not risk it and use another one. The installation of the bearing bar is identical to the installation of floors designed between floors, but is done on the floor.
Please note that this is a very time consuming job and will take about a day.
The timber is poured with concrete mortar, so the used logs will need to be cut out of the hole formed during the installation process and the width of the opening in the concrete should be increased in order to freely install a new supporting structure.
An important point to be taken into account is the cross section of the beam must match the remaining beams. New structures are installed according to the level of their location due to the stretched fishing line.Before installation, each bearing log is treated with antiseptic agents, and the landing sites are treated with resin. The end parts of the replaced bars are attached with dry gravel in the holes provided for installation, the location is re-checked and poured with a mixture of gravel and cement.
It is important to wait until the concrete mortar hardens, and only after that continue the insulation work..
Be sure to install a fence in front of the room in which the floor is dismantled.
Installation of the draft layer
As draft boards, you need to use boards with a minimum thickness of 2 cm, the maximum possible width is 20 cm. It is unacceptable to fasten draft boards directly to the bars!
The first step is fastening with self-tapping screws of the crate to thick logs; this is a line of parallel bars with a section of 5x5 cm.
Second step - nailing rough boards.
On a note! Choose nails for fastening rough boards so that they do not “reach” the bars themselves (5-6 cm) with their ends.Features of installing a subfloor in a wooden house can be seen in the video below:
To prevent the formation of rot and to increase resistance to fire treat the crate and draft boards with antiseptic compounds and flame retardants. With the help of such processing, you will make wooden elements more reliable, extend their service life. In addition, the cost of such funds is affordable, so do not be stingy.
When installing draft boards, it is important to uniform thickness and smooth surface. Slots between the floorboards up to 1 cm are allowed - they will close during the thermal insulation process.
Waterproofing
The most important step in proper insulation is waterproofing with a film.
Only membrane waterproofing is suitable for the floor: it will allow moisture to freely go down and prevent it from penetrating up. If there is a swamp in the underground, the boards will rot very quickly.
The film insulation must be laid over the rough layer, while the sheet material is plowed 10-15 cm and glued well with large moisture-resistant adhesive tape. Installation of waterproofing can be performed simultaneously with the laying of the log, pressing the membrane with bars.
Once again, lay the lags
The finish coat should be attached to the bars, and not to the rough boards. The internal logs of the base are located at a level at a distance of 100 cm, their size must be at least 5x15 cm.
Advice. If you want to thoroughly insulate the floor, mount large bars.For rooms with massive pieces of furniture or with a heavy load on the floors (with frequent traffic, for example, in the corridor), it is worth using thicker bars - 7.5x15 cm.
A width of 15 cm determines the size of the insulating material, since it will be laid in all cavities formed during the installation process.
A small distance should be left between the wall and the second row of bars; it is filled with insulating material.
Thick logs are fastened with self-tapping screws: they must go deep into the lower bars, and for this their location is marked on the draft boards with a pencil.
Insulation and outer covering
Insulating materials are placed on the film insulation in all cavities between the lags, for example, foam plastic, mineral wool or foam plastic, which is so popular today. You can combine several heaters, for example, put mineral wool on the roll material.
Make sure that the insulation material does not stick out and fills the gaps well.
Materials with thermal insulation properties do not need additional fastening.
The final finish can be made from old floorboards (of course, if their quality is acceptable) or from new boards. Fastening is carried out using nails or self-tapping screws.
As a top coating, you can use milled boards, solid wood or create an imitation of parquet. If the budget is modest, stuff over fiberboard or lay laminate. The design will be solid, so it will be reliable, and most importantly - warm.
Step-by-step instructions for - all the secrets of choosing a heater and the subtleties of the technology of thermal insulation work are described in detail.
If heat loss is minimal
With minimal heat loss, a material called Penofol coated with foil is used to insulate old floors in a village house. In the photo below - penofol for warming a wooden floor:
The boards are laid out, and the heat-insulating material is laid with the foil up. Penofol acts as a heat reflector, reduces its loss and helps create a warm atmosphere in the room. With this material, you will be able to insulate the floor in a private house cheaply and without much effort.
If it is not possible to re-lay the old floorboards, penofol can be placed under the topcoat. The thickness of the heat-insulating material should not exceed 4 mm, otherwise the coating will spring back under load.
Having insulated the floor, you can walk on it naked and forget about colds due to drafts.
