What is floor insulation?
Insulating a floor means adding an insulating material beneath the floorboards, thereby reducing heat escaping through the floor into the ground. Approximately 15% of heat is lost from a house via this route. Insulation also acts to prevent draughts coming up through the floorboards. In addition the household should also consider insulating the gaps between the skirting boards and the floor, which also helps in reducing draughts.
Floor insulation is most commonly done when putting a new floor in place, but most floors can be retrofitted with insulating material, and this will make a large saving to your overall heating bill. Depending on how confident you are with DIY, it is possible to install floor insulation yourself.
Benefits
- Filling the gap between the skirting boards and the floor can save about £25, recouped within the year (assuming a £20 material cost).
- Since the insulation will slow the movement of heat through the floor, the home will feel more comfortable and warmer in the winter, but cooler in the summer months.
- You can reduce your carbon footprint by about 240kg per year by installing floor insulation and almost 100kg if you fill the gaps between the floor and skirting boards.
- According to the Energy Saving Trust, installing floor insulation underneath a wood surface saves about £60 per year, which would mean a payback of 2 years based on recouping the material costs (approximately £100).
Limitations of floor insulation
- If you are wishing to installing the floor insulation as a DIY project, you will need to move furnishings and potentially remove carpets and floorboards.
- Additional costs may add up, if once you remove the floorboards, you discover that some are rotten, therefore the overall insulation costs may be higher than previously predicted.
Cost of floor insulation
- Professional installation costs start at £770, dependant on the size of the floor space installation.
- DIY Cost for wooden floor insulation cost approximately £100 and it will cost about £20 to buy the materials to fill the gaps between the floor and the skirting boards.
Installing floor insulation
Interested in having floor insulation installed? The Green Homes Grant is a Government run scheme lasting until March 2022. The scheme offers grants up to £10,000, under-floor insulation is a primary measure that can be installed utilizing the scheme.
If you are interested in the Green Homes Grant, we advise looking in to this on the Government website.
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We are looking for help with insulating our rooms most of which have wooden floorboards. Can you both advise us and do the work?
Thanks.
Bracha
Hi Bracha,
We can absolutely help with this – where abouts are you based? I have attached a link that describes the process though if you fancy trying to take this on yourself!
http://www.thegreenage.co.uk/tech/floor-insulation/
Regarding solid floors; not mentioned here is that many older houses can have very poor concrete floors (thin, cracked, damp) & usually no Damp Proof Membrane. With these the floor can be broken up & removed allowing you to dig down & lay a better grade concrete floor slab with a dpm either below or above the slab. Then insulation & flooring on top to match the floor level in other rooms. The benefit is potentially better insulation, no loss of room height & no level changes between rooms.You need to calculate the amount of insulation needed first to get the depth of digging needed to lay a decent thickness slab. (Usually at least 100mm) Obviously you should not dig below your foundations/footings which can be just bricks on side in victorian era properties. You can do a small trial dig to check this. Most of the above work is simple, hard labour!
Older properties should not have a DPM they need breathable insulation and lime adding a DPM will cause damp issues as will replacing the floor with concrete. Traditional lime flooring or limecrete should be used and any modern concrete should be removed from floors and walls.
I need to get my suspended floor in my kitchen insulated are you able to hElp me with this?
Interesting read, thank you.
Can I ask, what should I expect the insulation to be in a 1996 new build bungalow with a concrete floor. Or could someone point me to the Reg’s active at that time. Thanks
We have a concrete floor outbuilding that was historically a stable…it has been used by our time as a room for an above ground swimming pool etc and has been a finished room however as we have come to remove the pool and turn it into a self contained area we need to insulate the floor and probably redo the walls… what layers should we expect to create for a floor to be appropriate as a living space
Can I use ply wood sheets on top of my floorboars to stop the cold air from the void?
Tks!
Hi Green Team, Could you please recomed some companies around Bristol area for floor insulation -solid floor.
Thanks a lot!
We would like to investigate insulation under our wooden floor boards. Can you suggest a company who could help us in eh SE7 sea in London?
Thank you
Am based in North West London – do you have any installers that could come and give me a quote for floor insulation
I am looking to get solid floor insulation for my home. Is that possible?
I need suspended floor insulation fitted in Watford WD24 area for a one bed (2rooms) flat . can you send me tel nos of the parties . thankss