Floor Insulation: Why Cold Floors Can Make Your Whole Home Feel Colder
You can have the heating turned up and still feel that something is not quite right. If the room is warm but your feet are cold, the problem could be underneath you.
The room may feel warm at head height, but your feet are cold. There may be a draught around the edges of the room, and once the heating goes off, the space seems to cool down surprisingly quickly.
The problem may be underneath you.
At RH Insulation, we work on homes throughout Dublin where the floors are one of the areas allowing heat to escape. This is particularly common in older properties with suspended timber floors.
Good floor insulation is about more than simply putting insulation underneath the floorboards. The floor needs to be looked at properly, the existing structure needs to be understood and the insulation needs to be installed carefully.
Why does a timber floor feel so cold?
Older houses were not always built with today's expectations for warmth and energy efficiency.
A suspended timber floor is normally raised above the ground with a ventilated space underneath it. This construction has important benefits, including helping to keep the timber ventilated, but it can also contribute to a cold room if the floor has little or no insulation.
Cold air can circulate underneath the floor. Small gaps between floorboards, around skirting boards or where pipes enter the room can also allow unwanted air movement.
The result can be a floor that feels noticeably colder than the rest of the room.
Insulating underneath the floorboards can help create a much better thermal barrier between the living space and the colder area below.
Stopping draughts and insulating a floor are not quite the same thing
They are related problems, but treating one small draught is different from improving the thermal performance of the whole floor.
Stopping a Draught
Stopping a visible gap in a floorboard may reduce a draught in that particular location. It does not necessarily improve the thermal performance of the complete floor.
Insulating the Floor
Floor insulation tackles the larger problem. The aim is to create a continuous layer of insulation beneath the floor while paying attention to areas where unwanted air movement could reduce its effectiveness.
What do we find under older floors?
No two properties are exactly the same. Once floorboards are lifted, we can get a much clearer picture of what is happening underneath them.
The timber structure may be in excellent condition. In other properties, there can be damaged boards, previous alterations, pipes, cables or areas that need more attention.
This is one reason experience with older buildings is important.
RH Insulation has over 20 years of experience in building upgrades, restoration and retrofit. We understand that improving an existing property is different from working on a completely new building.
The aim is not simply to get insulation underneath the floor. It is to complete the work properly while respecting the existing property.
Can original floorboards be kept?
This is an important question, particularly in older Dublin homes.
Many homeowners love their original timber floors and understandably do not want to lose them simply because they want a warmer home.
Depending on the condition and construction of the floor, it may be possible to carefully lift the existing boards, complete the insulation work underneath and then relay them.
We have completed projects where the original floorboards formed an important part of the character of the room.
That makes careful workmanship particularly important. Rather than treating the existing floor as something disposable, we can assess how it can be incorporated into the insulation work.
What happens during a floor insulation job?
The exact process depends on the house, but the first step is understanding the existing floor.
We need to know what type of floor is present and how it has been constructed.
Where access is made from above, floorboards can be carefully lifted to expose the joists and the void underneath. This allows the team to inspect the area before the insulation is installed.
Assess the Floor
We first need to understand the existing floor construction and the best way to access the area underneath.
Open the Floor
Where required, boards are carefully lifted so the joists and floor void can be inspected.
Install the Insulation
The insulation is carefully fitted so that it creates an effective thermal layer beneath the living space.
Reinstate the Floor
Once the work underneath is complete, the floor can be carefully reinstated.
Attention to detail matters. Poorly fitted insulation with large gaps around it will not perform in the same way as a carefully installed system.
Ventilation still matters
Insulating a suspended timber floor does not mean simply blocking everything underneath it. The void beneath a traditional suspended timber floor normally needs ventilation.
That ventilation helps control moisture and protect the timber structure.
A good insulation installation therefore needs to improve the thermal performance of the floor without unnecessarily interfering with the way the original structure is designed to work.
This is another reason why we recommend having the floor assessed rather than assuming that every house needs exactly the same solution.
Will floor insulation make the floor warm?
It is useful to make an important distinction here. Floor insulation does not actively generate heat.
Instead, insulation helps reduce heat transfer through the floor. That can help the room retain more of the heat already being produced by your heating system.
The difference homeowners notice may therefore be less about having a physically "hot" floor and more about the room feeling more comfortable and less affected by the cold area underneath it.
You may also notice that the temperature feels more consistent throughout the room.
Which rooms can benefit most?
Living rooms, dining rooms and ground-floor bedrooms can all be good candidates, particularly where there is a suspended timber floor.
However, we would not recommend deciding purely on the name of the room. The construction of the floor is what matters.
Two houses on the same street can have different floors because of extensions, previous renovations or alterations carried out over many years.
Even different parts of the same property can be constructed differently. That is why an assessment is useful before deciding on the work required.
Floor insulation as part of a bigger home upgrade
Sometimes the floor is the obvious problem. In other homes, it is only one part of it.
Heat can be lost through different parts of a property, including the attic, walls, windows and floors.
For example, insulating a cold ground floor may make a significant improvement, but an attic with poor insulation could still be allowing heat to escape elsewhere.
We therefore prefer to think about how the house performs as a whole.
It does not mean that every area needs to be upgraded at the same time. It simply means understanding where improvements are likely to be most useful before deciding where to spend your money.
Is your floor worth insulating?
There are several signs that make a floor worth investigating.
None of these automatically proves that floor insulation is the answer. They are good reasons to investigate what is happening.
A proper look at the floor construction gives us much more useful information than simply guessing based on how cold a room feels.
What about floor insulation in Dublin homes?
Dublin has a huge variety of housing.
We work with properties from different periods, and that means there is no single floor insulation method that should automatically be applied to every house.
Older houses can require particularly careful consideration because retaining original materials may be important to the homeowner.
Access can also differ considerably between properties.
Our approach is to look at what is already there first and then decide how the insulation work should be carried out.
Start by understanding where the heat is going
If your ground floor constantly feels cold, turning the thermostat higher may not address the underlying problem.
The first question should be: why does the room feel cold?
If heat is being lost through an uninsulated suspended floor, improving that part of the building could form an important part of making the room more comfortable and energy efficient.
At RH Insulation, we can assess your existing floor, explain what we find and discuss the options available.
If you are considering floor insulation in Dublin, get in touch with RH Insulation to find out what may be suitable for your home.
Are cold floors making your home uncomfortable?
Talk to the RH Insulation team about your property and find out whether floor insulation could help make your home warmer and more energy efficient.
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