Floor insulation is a simple and effective way to keep your home warm and reduce your energy bills. A properly insulated ground floor could leave rooms feeling more comfortable, require less time to warm up and reduce energy consumption and bills.
How to insulate your floor?
This will depend on whether your floor is new or being refurbished, and whether it is ground bearing or suspended.
Top tips on how to insulate your existing floor
For new and existing homes with suspended timbers floors which can’t be accessed from below, you can remove the floorboards from above to install insulation, such as Kooltherm K3 Floorboard, between each floor joist.
Remember before the existing floorboards are put back, a fully sealed vapour control layer needs to be installed above the floor joists, below the floorboards making the floor vapour-tight and airtight.
Adequate and unobstructed ventilation must be maintained to the underside of the suspended timber floor joists at all times.
Top tips on how to insulate a concrete floor
For new houses which have a solid ground bearing concrete floor construction, a continuous damp-proof membrane/radon barrier beneath is required beneath the insulation or below the structural floor slab.
Make sure to take care to overlap with any damp-proof course in the external walls. Insulation can be then be placed directly onto the damp proof membrane or concrete floor slab. Insulation is then overlaid with a separation layer before the installation of the floor screed.
What else should you insulate in the home?
In order to achieve a home that needs minimal energy to operate in the simplest and most cost-effective way possible, it is important to insulate not only your floors but your walls and roof too. A well insulated 'building envelope' can future-proof your home against rising energy costs and make sure you any renewable technologies you install operate as efficiently as possible.
Learn more about wall insulation & roof insulation
