Benefits of Floor Insulation
- You can save around £70 per year on your energy bills
- Reduce draughts throughout your home
- Make your home warmer in the winter months
- Reduce heat loss from escaping through the floors (which accounts for around 10-20% of all heat loss)
- It’s maintenance-free once it has been installed
- It can help improve your home’s EPC ratings and make it more energy efficient
What kind of floor do you have?
It’s important to determine what type of floor your home has before deciding on which type of products you will need, which will either be solid floor insulation or suspended floor insulation.
Installing insulation for concrete
Insulation can be laid over the existing concrete floor and is covered by a floor finish of your choice. Insulation panels and boards are great options to use when insulating floors, as they help rooms warm up quickly when the heating is switched on, and provide a great cost-effective heat-retention measure. Damp-proof membranes laid underneath the insulation are also a good option and don’t forget to leave room for expansion near the edges of all relevant rooms.
Insulation boards can also help your rooms keep cool in the summer months and stop them from overheating. More information on how to insulate a concrete floor, as well as other benefits, can be found on our blog.
Installing insulation for floor beams
If the floors in your home have wooden joists or beams, then you have a suspended timber floor. Before installing any insulation here, you’ll need to ensure that there is no damage from rot or damp and that the new insulation will not block any ventilation openings.
Insulation boards or rolls of mineral fibre can be used to fit in between the flooring joists, which helps prevent draughts and will also increase the energy efficiency of your home. It’s easier to install if you have a basement underneath, otherwise, you’ll need to raise the floorboards to make room for the underfloor insulation. If you are ready to put work into motion, you can follow our floor insulation guide for more help.
How much can you save?
Your monetary value saving will depend on whether you do the work yourself or you have a professional do it for you. Installing good quality underfloor insulation has loads of benefits such as heating up rooms quicker in winter, retaining heat, and reducing heating bills by up to £70 per year, on average. You can also reduce your home’s CO2 emissions by up to 300kg per year for a detached home, 175kg for a semi-detached home, or 120kg for a mid-terrace house.
Can you fit floor insulation yourself or should you hire a professional?
If you have decided to install insulation board for your floor, you’ll need to decide whether you can do the work yourself or if you’ll need to hire a professional.
DIY
It will be cheaper if you carry out any insulation work yourself, such as sealing any gaps between floors and skirting boards to help reduce draughts. It’s often easier to insulate a timber floor if you have a basement space underneath that you have access to. Fitting PIR insulation between the joists can be done yourself with relative ease and can save you money on the costs of hiring an expert.
Professional
Many people will either not feel confident in installing insulation themselves or the task will be too difficult, in which case hiring a professional will be the best bet. They can fit the insulation and replace any floorboards afterwards too.
How to find a professional installer
It’s important to double-check that the person you are hiring is qualified for the job in question, and the easiest way to do so is to check if they are a member of the National Insulation Association. You can also shop around for quotes, to see who can do the job for the best price.
How much a professional costs
How much the professional will charge will be dependent on the type and size of your floor, as well as how much work will be necessary. On average, insulating a timber floor professionally will cost around £500, while concrete floor insulation costs tend to start at around £1000.
Complying with building regulations
When adding extra insulation to your floors, you’ll need to ensure that the work meets the relevant building regulation standards. The professional you’ve hired will be aware of this, but it’s best to double-check that everything is in order. In England or Wales, the floor should have a U-value of 0.25W/m2K or less, which usually requires at least 70mm of foam insulation, or 150mm of mineral wool.
Do I Need to Insulate My Floor?
Insulating your floorboards can help to reduce your energy bills and ensure that your home stays warm and draught free. Most people insulate the ground floor of their property because this is where you’ll feel the cold. You can also insulate an upper floor if it isn’t above a space that has no heating such as a garage or a porch. Read on for more information about whether to insulate your floor as well as the method, costs and advantages involved.
Your floors can lose around 15% of the heat in your home and so by insulating them you can save on average around £60 a year. The work will pay for itself within two or three years depending on whether you do the job yourself or get a professional insulation company to do it for you.
How Can I Tell What Type of Floor I’ve Got?
It’s likely that if your house was built before the 1930s you will have a suspended timber floor with joists and floorboards. One way you can tell is if you have air bricks on the outside of your house. Another way is by simply lifting the carpet to see if you have floorboards.
If you have flooring which you are unable to look underneath, there is still another alternative if you have a basement. Go down into the basement and look up to see if you have wooden joists with floorboards above them. If your house was built after the 1930s then it will probably have a solid floor and you’ll be able to see this by lifting a piece of carpet in the corner of a room.
Again, if you go down to the basement, the absence of joists will indicate you have a solid floor. If the ceiling has been covered with plasterboard a small section will need to be removed to confirm whether there are joists present or not.
What Are the Different Types of Floor Insulation?
There are different types of floor insulation for solid and suspended floors. Suspended floors tend to lose more heat than solid floors. However, a solid floor does still lose heat and it can be very beneficial to insulate it.
If you don’t have a basement then you will need to lift the floorboards to lay the insulation. You can use a soft material like mineral or sheep’s wool to insulate between the joists and then add wood fibre boards to keep everything in place.
If you have a basement, the insulation can be installed between the joists and then battens can then be put underneath the joists to add more insulation. This can be kept in place with netting. It is essential to make sure that any holes that have been caused by old or existing pipework or cables are sealed to prevent draughts from getting through.
If you are insulating an existing concrete floor, then insulation can be added over the top of the floor. If the solid floor is being removed or the project is a new build then it is possible to insulate beneath the solid floor.
Don’t forget that if you apply insulation over the top of your floor, it may be necessary to adjust the doors and any floor-level electrical sockets. The best material to use for over-floor insulation is foam boards because they are easier to lay, and you don’t need a great deal of thickness to achieve the right amount of insulation. Before you place the foam boards on the floor a damp-proof membrane will need to be laid to protect the floor from moisture penetration.
Underfloor insulation should begin with a layer of sand insulation with a damp-proof membrane installed on top. After this stage is completed, insulation boards can then be laid, and the new concrete poured on top.
