Because cold air tends to sink, even warm homes tend to have cold floors. Moreover, there is free space under the floor in which street air circulates and enters the house through cracks. To solve this problem, insulation of the floor in a wooden house is required. There are two options: installing a heated floor (water, electric, etc.) or using insulation. The second method is cheaper and technically simpler.
How to do it?
Most often the procedure is as follows:
- Remove the flooring and subfloor.
- Wooden logs are treated with antiseptics and damaged ones are replaced.
- Lay waterproofing. If it is a film, then it is a continuous carpet, with an overlap at the joints of adjacent strips (the joints are sealed with tape). If roofing felt – in large pieces with overlap on the logs.
Insulation is placed on top of the insulation.
Another waterproofing layer is laid on top (or not laid, depending on the insulation) and covered with subfloor boards.
Advice: some craftsmen, in order not to disassemble the floor, suggest insulating from below (from the basement). In this case, the sheet material is attached to the basement ceiling between the beams of the installed frame (again for waterproofing). With this option, the flow of cold air from the basement is blocked.
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Used insulation materials
In general, all materials are divided into sheet, bulk and sprayed. Leafy ones include:
- polystyrene foam (expanded polystyrene);
- penoplex (a modified type of polystyrene foam, extruded polystyrene foam);
- sheet polyurethane foam;
- mineral wool (basalt, fiberglass);
- penofol.
Material for insulating the floor of a wooden house
All these materials are quite cheap and easy to process, but they have their own characteristics:
- Insulation with polystyrene foam and mineral wool must be carried out with the mandatory use of waterproofing, because materials are hygroscopic. The exception is penoplex, but waterproofing is also necessary here.
- Penoplex insulation has its drawback: the coating does not “breathe”.
- Insulation with expanded polystyrene foam worsens fire performance. All varieties are flammable. Even modifications impregnated with fire retardant do not become non-flammable at all, although their fire resistance is higher. From a fire safety point of view, mineral wool is preferable.
- Foam plastics are susceptible to biological damage: mice gnaw them, insects build nests in the pores. In this regard, mineral wool and polyurethane foam are better.
A good material is penofol. Double layer film. One layer is foamed polyethylene foam, the second is metal foil. The foil layer looks up and reflects infrared rays back into the room, thereby enhancing the properties of the insulation. The material does not require waterproofing on top (foil performs this function). It is thin and can be glued directly to the subfloor. The higher cost is compensated by lower labor costs and the efficiency of the material itself.
- Bulk materials:
- expanded clay (granulated clay);
- sawdust;
- ecowool (recycled fluff pulp).
Expanded clay insulation has been used for a long time. The process is simple: the material is poured between the joists for waterproofing, and a subfloor is laid on top. You need to leave a small space between the expanded clay layer and the floor. The material has almost all the advantages: non-flammability, resistance to chemical and biological damage, low price. There is one minus, but a serious one: high hygroscopicity.
Sawdust in its pure form should not be used, because it’s a fire hazard. Sawdust tends to rot and is attacked by fungus, rodents, and woodworms. Although from the point of view of thermal insulation, the efficiency of sawdust is almost the highest. The material is used in clay, lime, and cement mortars. In this case, the disadvantages are partially compensated, but the advantages remain the same.
Ecowool has all the advantages of natural materials, but almost no disadvantages: low flammability, high resistance to biological damage. The main disadvantage of insulation is that when used dry there is a lot of dust.
Sprayed materials: polyurethane foam, ecowool (liquid application). The convenience of the method is that the coating is completely sealed: the sprayed material penetrates into all cracks and problem areas. The layer is usually small.
Waterproofing for polyurethane foam is not required. Its disadvantages: the coating is airtight; higher (compared to other insulation) price. The advantage is the speed of application, but when dismantling the subfloor (polyurethane foam is not applied on top of the floor), it still won’t work quickly.
When building a house from timber or a log house, you should think in advance about how the floor will be insulated, in what way and with what materials, in order to avoid inconvenience and unexpected costs.
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