Competently organized floor insulation in an apartment on the first floor of a city house allows you to maintain a comfortable temperature in your home and guarantees a minimum of heat loss. It is allowed to insulate the floor bases both at the stage of building a building and during its operation. The correct choice of heat-insulating material will help to save energy spent on heating the home and reduce heat losses by at least 20 percent.
Floor insulation methods
On the ground floors of apartment buildings, floor insulation is necessary to protect against cold air and humid fumes from the basement. Particular attention is paid to this problem in old residential buildings, in which the finishing coating during construction is laid directly on reinforced concrete floors.
Thermal insulation is required when homeowners intend to install underfloor heating to keep warm air within the living space. There are several known methods of floor insulation in an apartment on the 1st floor, which are widely used in its renovation.
- Arrangement of the screed over the previously laid heat insulator.
- The so-called "lag insulation".
- Closing with heat-insulating material, fixed from the outside (from the basement side, for example).
Regardless of the method chosen and the type of material used, before insulating the floors in an apartment on the 1st floor with your own hands, you will need to thoroughly prepare. First, you need to inspect the rough base and, if necessary, repair the cracks on it, and then remove the remaining clots of solution.
Concrete screed over heat insulator
Special attention is paid to the choice of insulation for a concrete coating, since the success of the entire range of work carried out depends on its quality. The following materials are traditionally chosen as a heat-insulating base for a screed:
- Loose substances like expanded clay.
- Rolled floor coverings.
- Heat insulators produced in the form of plates.
The first of these options belongs to the traditional approaches, since expanded clay was created in order to serve as a base under the screed. The granules are simply scattered over the rough base with a layer of 20 centimeters thick, and then poured with liquid concrete. However, this material is more suitable for private houses, as well as mansard and attic structures. In urban apartments, preference is given to roll-type heat insulators, laid on a well-leveled base and fixed to it with a special adhesive.
When using materials with a self-adhesive base, you need to remove the protective layer and lay the roll on the insulated base. In the upper part of the coating, the joints are glued with a special tape, and in the case of using a substrate with a reflector, an aluminum tape is selected for this purpose.
Usually, polyethylene foam serves as a substrate for the laminate, the final floor covering is already laid directly on it.
Thermal insulation of the floor by these methods requires the choice of material with the maximum density and with a minimum indicator of hygroscopicity. For these purposes, various brands of "Penoplex" are suitable.Due to their light weight, insulation boards do not exert a critical load on the base.
Warming on lags
This method is most often resorted to when insulation is performed by the method of "dry" sheet screed (under linoleum, for example). Its advantages include the absence of raw components, which require additional time to dry. At the same time, the load on the insulation is significantly reduced due to the use of self-supporting sheet materials (chipboard, OSB, plywood or gypsum fiber board). Optimal from the point of view of costs is considered to be the choice of inexpensive and affordable mineral wool as a heater, which has sufficient density for this installation method. In this situation, it is also allowed to use polystyrene foam plates, but only if there is a margin in height.
When it is required to artificially raise the floor level on the first floor, they often resort to backfilling with expanded clay. When using mineral wool, the thickness of the insulation layer depends on the type of building (private house, summer cottage or city apartment).
Outdoor way
The so-called "bottom" insulation is not used very often. At the same time, situations are not uncommon when this approach is the only possible one. It is used in the following non-standard cases:
- the dwelling has an uninsulated basement space or a similar room;
- the house is being built on screw piles raised high above the surface of shaky soil;
- The level of soil freezing recorded by geological prospecting in this region is not very deep.
In a private house, the external method of insulation is widely used in the garage attached to it. The advantages include maintaining the height of the room due to the removal of the insulation layer outside and reducing the likelihood of moisture getting on the elements of wooden structures.
Types of materials used
Much less often for the stated purposes, liquid sprayed coatings are used, prepared on the basis of polyurethane foam and penoizol.
The most unreliable from the point of view of thermal protection is conventional polystyrene foam (foam), which also has the lowest density index. This explains the fact that for thermal insulation on concrete, preference is most often given to extruded PPS.
When choosing a floor insulation on the ground floor, a number of factors are usually taken into account. If it is planned to equip a cement screed over the heat insulator, high-density protective materials that can withstand significant mechanical loads will be required for work. An exception to this rule is the case when plywood or other sheet materials are used as a substrate for the screed - in this situation, insulation with a lower density is acceptable. With a close location of damp soil, moisture resistant materials are selected: EPS or mineral wool.
In a private house, especially if there are rodents in the basement, preference is given to foam or expanded clay. The latter option is permissible only on condition of high ceilings.
Possible mistakes when insulating floors
The main mistakes most often made by amateurs when insulating floors:
- Failure to comply with the gaps between the plates, taking into account the possibility of their compression.
- Incorrect assessment of the condition of the floors and an error in choosing the thickness of the heat insulator.
- Lack of waterproofing and protective treatment of wooden floor elements.
- The use of impermeable membranes to protect against moisture (they do not allow the floor to "breathe").
- Violation of the composition and sequence of the arrangement of layers of insulation materials.
One wrong step can wipe out any previous efforts to insulate floors. Therefore, it is so important to take into account the opinions of experts and try to avoid these shortcomings.
Various options for floor insulation on the first floor with your own hands
When insulating floors in basement floors of buildings, it is important to learn to distinguish and take into account the following options:
- work is carried out in a typical panel house;
- the first floor of an apartment building is subject to insulation;
- the thermal insulation coating is installed in a brick house;
- the floors are insulated in a classic wooden building.
In the first case, especially in end or corner apartments, preference is given to the method of insulation along the logs. Mineral wool mats with a thickness of 50 mm are usually used as thermal insulation. In this case, it is imperative to use vapor barrier protection - ordinary polyethylene film.
A fine floor covering is laid on top of such a cake. On the basement floors of apartment buildings, it is allowed to use the same method; in brick or frame wooden buildings, a slightly different approach will be required.
First floor in a brick building
The traditional approach to carrying out insulation work in brick houses is the use of expanded clay backfill on the base of the soil or on the surface of the floor slab. A concrete screed is made on top of the bulk insulation. This method is optimal for large buildings.
For insulation according to the second option, you will need to arrange a special frame, into which the PPP plates are then laid. The advantage of this approach is the minimum labor costs. The contractor will only need to knead the screed, pour it over the pre-filled or laid insulation and align it beautifully.
Wooden building
Insulation of the floor in a wooden house is also based on the use of a frame, the function of which in this case is performed by a crate made of wood. Its parameters are selected in such a way that the insulation structure can be made two-layer.
In order to better protect the floor from cold air currents from the golbets or basement, the heat insulator is mounted from the outside.
The effectiveness of thermal protection depends on the correct choice of the method of floor insulation on the 1st floor, provided that well-known technologies are observed.
