Recently, the construction and warming of the bathhouse on its own site has again become relevant. Whereas earlier, widespread and cheap (sometimes free) moss, linen and felt were used to preserve heat, today these synthetic materials are replacing these materials: polystyrene foam, aluminum foil, mineral wool and others. The main requirements for materials are a high degree of vapor and heat insulation, chemical and physical stability, and durability.
Insulation of the bath is necessary for its full use. Without thermal insulation, it warms up for a long time and quickly cools down, and it takes a lot of energy to maintain the required temperature in the room. A steam room with high-quality insulation does not require excessive resources: it is heated quickly and for a long time keeps the heat at the right level.
Having started insulating the bathhouse, in no case should one ignore the issue of vapor barrier. For its installation, aluminum foil, laid on top of foam or mineral wool, is suitable. It insulates the room very slightly, but helps to keep for a long time intact the materials that make up the structure. To kill two birds with one stone, you can use the insulation material ISOVER Sauna with a thickness of 50 mm, which not only protects the timber from moisture, but also halves heat loss.
What to insulate?
Bath insulation is a complex process. To determine where to put maximum effort, you need to understand what is the most powerful heat conductor. On the one hand, the heat rises to the ceiling, so it is necessary to make it impermeable, and on the other hand, a lot depends on the materials of which the structure is made. Even walls made of timber of exactly the same thickness can vary greatly in the degree of heat loss, if one is external and the second adjacent to the dressing room. Due to the fact that the temperature difference is greater between the steam room and the street, it is the outer wall that will be the “weak link” that needs to be strengthened.
Work stages
Warming of the walls of the bath takes place in several stages: first, lay the crate on which the heat-insulating material is mounted. If this is a foil layer, then all joints between the layers are carefully glued with aluminum tape. Further reinforcing bars 20-25 mm thick, providing an air gap between the insulation and interior decoration. The last step is the installation of lining or panels.
Work on the ceiling is similar, and the floor has its own characteristics. First of all, it is important that the cold does not make its way through the cracks in the foundation, so there should not be any holes in it. Any inert heat insulator can be placed under the floor sheathing.
One of the most dangerous areas in terms of heat loss are windows. Usually, there are not many of them in the bathhouse, but it is better to use plastic hemetic double-glazed windows instead of ordinary frames.
How to insulate a bathhouse according to all the rules
- Set the place to be insulated first.
- Select the appropriate material. Ruberoid, roofing and glassine for our purposes are not suitable: when heated, they emit harmful substances and emit an unpleasant odor. It is rational to use polystyrene, glass wool, expanded polystyrene, URSA mats, jute with the addition of flax fiber, red building moss or penotherm. The coefficient of thermal conductivity of a particular material is usually indicated on its label. Accordingly, the lower it is, the smaller the layer will be required to achieve the desired result.
- Leave an air gap before the finish.
Adhering to this algorithm, go through all the weak points, and then you can proudly brag about the heat that reigns in your steam room.