With days getting colder, we all would like to be able to keep the heating bills as low as possible. On the other hand, having wooden flooring gives you the great opportunity to insulate it and keep your feet toasty hot in winter, while the heating bills are reduced. Even with the sub-zero temperatures outside, you can enjoy a warm and cosy home with wood floor insulation, so here is how to achieve a warm home, keep reading!
Wood flooring gets not that stable with time and gaps are appearing due to the movement of the wooden boards. Because of these gaps, older wooden floors turn out to be a major source of energy loss, because the heat and warmth are running out of the room and allowing draughts of cold air to enter the room. In this situation, wood floor insulation is a great solution. Even filling the gaps would make a significant difference, so make sure to hire a gap-filling service whenever you notice larger gaps. There are various ways to do that. You can, for example, tap the boards together to reduce the excess gaps. You can also fill smaller gaps with a mixture of resin and wood dust. Simply make sure to use the same colour sawdust as the colour of the flooring. These tasks are also pretty easy on an everyday basis.
If you are planning a bigger wood floor renovation project, this is a good time to consider also installation of insulation. The most popular insulation method is installing an underlay underneath the wooden boards. If the boards are laid on beams, then you can lift the old floor and place the chipboard together with a suitable underlay membrane that will also reduce the impact of moisture on the wooden boards. Or you can place mineral wool insulating material between the beams. If you have access to the beams from underneath, this will make your job significantly easier, because you won’t have to lift the boards. These options will help you reduce heat loss and also prevent the annoying noise that appears with time.
On the other hand if your floor is laid over concrete, you have two options – you can either retain the old concrete or replace it. If you chose to retain the concrete, then you can lay a rigid form of insulation on top, but this will consume some space and affect on the door opening, stairs, etc. In this case, you can choose the thinnest insulation underlay available to reduce the effect of consuming the space. If you plan to replace the concrete entirely, then you have the opportunity to insulate both above and below the new concrete layer. This form of insulation is considered to be highly effective because it enables the concrete to absorb heat.
If you are thinking of ways to make your home warmer and cosier, underfloor heating is a great solution. It is needless to say that when lifting the wood boards, this is a great time for considering installing a heating system to keep your feet toasty hot.
