It is well known that the floor is the coldest part in most homes. This is especially pronounced in the case of rural wooden cottages. This state of affairs is connected both with flaws in construction and with fundamental physical laws, according to which, cold air is expected to descend into the lower parts of the premises.
And therefore, the task of extreme importance is the warming of the wooden floor in a wooden house. Do not rely on the snug fit of the floorboards to each other: over time, they inevitably dry up, which instantly leads to the appearance of drafts.
This event is carried out according to a very affordable and simple technology, which every person who has at least once in his life dealt with a hammer will be able to master. In the article we will talk not only about how to perform the insulation of a wooden floor in a wooden house, but also about the materials that should be used for this.
About work technology
Before proceeding with the solution of the existing problem, it is necessary to determine several parameters at once: the temperature and humidity inside the room, the load experienced by the floors, and also indicate the height to which it is possible to raise the floor covering (due to the insulation layer). After you have decided on all this, choosing a specific insulation for the floor will be many times easier.
First of all, you should familiarize yourself with the required sequence of work with the correct flooring. Unfortunately, this technology is being violated by builders everywhere, resulting in numerous troubles.
Approximate work sequence
- First, the lag is laid.
- Small wooden boards or ordinary boards are attached to them. This coating will play an auxiliary, supporting role, since it is on it that a layer of insulation material will be laid.
- After that, the heater fills all the gaps between the lags themselves. Please note that the installation should be carried out as tightly as possible, and all the gaps should be filled with mounting foam.
- Having finished with the previous stage, begin to lay vapor barrier material. It is attached to the lags, and all available cracks and punctures are carefully sealed with a special adhesive tape.
- At the final stage, they put the final coating and carry out all the necessary measures for its final finishing.
The thickness of the insulating layer in many respects depends both on the climatic zone and on the individual preferences of the owners of the house. And now we will write all the stages in a more detailed form.
Lag insulation
This method is ubiquitous and is used most often. Such insulation of a wooden floor in a wooden house is not only maximally simplified, but also allows you to get an excellent result. Especially this method is relevant in cases where the flooring is in close proximity to the ground (for example, on the basement floors).
The technology itself is quite simple, which we already reported at the very beginning of the article. You have to deal with the installation of lags, which have a T-shaped notch, through which they are rigidly attached to the log house. The step between them should be at least 0.6-1 meters. After that, you need to fix the shields (or boards). They can be either simply stuffed or mounted on cranial bars.
Then we begin to carefully lay the insulation on the flooring. Oddly enough, many builders either forget about the next step, or prefer not to remember at all. We immediately warn you that it is completely unacceptable to perform warming of a wooden floor in a wooden house without vapor barrier!
About vapor barrier
However, this stage is really necessary only if certain categories of insulation material are used. So, it is impossible to do without vapor barrier when laying mineral wool, ecowool. Its sheets are stacked on top of each other with an overlap of 100-150 mm, the edges should go into the wall at least 100 mm. If the budget is limited, then as a vapor barrier it is quite acceptable to use a regular, dense plastic film. She in the proper assortment is sold in any gardening store.
The method described by us is good both in the case of the first and ground floors, and when warming the second floor and the attic. Between the floor and the ceiling there will still be a space with ceilings that perfectly fulfill the role of a lag. Of course, in this case, laying of soundproofing material is also desirable, in the role of which ordinary construction foam can quite play.
On the first floors, you should not forget about the method when the logs are laid on special brick columns. This method is good in that the floor is much more durable and warm.
The main advantages of the method
The main advantage of thermal insulation of a wooden floor on logs is the simplicity of work, which almost anyone can cope with. And while the effectiveness of this method is at its best. Also, with this option, the insulation does not experience mechanical stress, so you can use any heat-insulating material.
Choose a heater
When warming a wooden floor with their own hands, people very often face the problem of choosing the best insulation material for their purposes. The most commonly used materials are:
- Banal mineral wool (basalt, glass).
- Ecowool.
- Polyurethane foam insulation.
- Polystyrene granules.
- Penofol.
- Isolon, which is extremely popular in recent years due to its low cost and excellent thermal insulation properties.
You can also use wood sawdust and expanded clay. The latter can often be seen near construction sites, when entire mountains of this material lie in the open. This is a gross violation of technology, as the material quickly absorbs water. If you conduct insulation of a wooden floor from below using expanded clay, then you will inevitably encounter huge mold colonies and eternal dampness on the ground floor (in particular). And now we will talk about the most effective and widespread types of insulation.
Expanded clay
We already mentioned him in passing. How is warming a wooden floor with expanded clay? Extremely simple! First of all, it is necessary to lay a vapor barrier material on the rough coating, and the seams should be glued as carefully as possible using construction tape.
After that, carefully dried, clean expanded clay is laid. The thickness of its layer should be at least 20-30 cm. In the northern latitudes (where warming the wooden floor of a private house is vital), this material can be poured with a layer up to one meter thick.
From above, all this is once again covered with a vapor barrier material. After that, you can start laying the floorboards and installing the final flooring.
Penofol
This material has recently appeared on the construction market. This is a multilayer insulation, a feature of which is a reflective layer of a thin layer of aluminum foil. As the basis, foamed polystyrene is most often used, which has excellent heat-insulating characteristics, so that warming wooden floors with penofol is very beneficial from an economic point of view due to a sharp reduction in heating costs.
Since this material can withstand heavy loads, it is most often laid directly on the subfloor, and a fine floor covering (the same laminate or linoleum) is laid on top. In addition, it can be used instead of vapor barrier in combination with other types of heaters, which we have already mentioned in the framework of this article. If you plan to lay it directly on the subfloor, we strongly recommend purchasing penofol with a double-sided foil coating, as it has maximum heat reflectivity.
How to fix penofol to the floor?
It is attached to the surface with nails or with the help of a construction stapler. There are self-adhesive varieties that are much more convenient during installation. The same foil is attached to one side of such a material, and on the other side is a layer of glue. So that the roll of such penofol does not stick together, its adhesive layer is covered with a film, which is easily removed before starting work. Such a heater can be fixed on almost any surface without using any tools.
The material is simply laid on the surface of the subfloor. Unlike all previous materials, butt laying is allowed. Gaps should be carefully glued with construction tape. Another advantage of using this insulation is the absence of the need to buy a vapor barrier, since the foil copes with this role perfectly.
Styrofoam (Styrofoam)
In modern construction, this material, which has been known for a long time, is used more and more every year. Why is insulation of a wooden floor so polystyrene foam so popular? It almost does not conduct heat, has the highest degree of heat reflection, practically does not burn. On the foam, colonies of mold and fungus do not develop, it does not rot. Once you spend money on this material, you can forget about the cold flooring for a long time.
How is foam floor insulation insulated? Everything is very simple. Insulation sheets are simply laid between the lags. Of course, they should be laid strictly on the vapor barrier layer. If we are talking about the insulation of a floor that you do not want to disassemble, you should buy a heater with a minimum thickness, and then simply stick it to the surface using any suitable composition. The advantage of this solution is that the foam provides excellent surface alignment at minimal cost.
Penoplex
And how is warming a wooden floor with foam? To begin with, this material is the actual analogue of foam. It differs in a finer and more homogeneous structure, greater fracture strength. It can also be placed between lags, but it is better to use the method recommended by the manufacturers.
In this case, the installation is done on the rough floor, and the foam plate is placed on it in a checkerboard pattern. This ensures perfect thermal insulation. They attach it to glue, gaps between the tiles are sealed with construction tape.