Insulation of existing concrete floor

elderlemon

Got a ~1860's house (2 story over basement) and are looking at some renovation. One job we want to do is take up all the tiles on the ground floor (basement level), insulate and retile. The existing floor is concrete, no idea what thinkness but it was done in the last 15 years.

Any suggestions on what I can do to insulate this any better. I've seen some tile insulation mats in the UK but have doubts about how good they really are.

thanks.

ircoha

elderlemon wrote:

Got a ~1860's house (2 story over basement) and are looking at some renovation. One job we want to do is take up all the tiles on the ground floor (basement level), insulate and retile. The existing floor is concrete, no idea what thinkness but it was done in the last 15 years.

Any suggestions on what I can do to insulate this any better. I've seen some tile insulation mats in the UK but have doubts about how good they really are.

thanks.

What kind of headroom do you have in the basement area that you are considering insulating and retiling?

Have you considered incorporating UFH in the solution?

Depending on how much headroom you have the suggested solutions will vary.

Have you any plans to insulated the walls while you are at it?

elderlemon

Current headroom is about 8 feet. I will get an extra 3" or 70mm back when I take down the panelled ceiling and get back to the original one.

UFH - have thought about it and have spoken to a lot of my friends who have it or had it and am in two minds. Feedback is not as good as I thought it would have been.

Most of the outside walls (Which are about 2.5 foot thick are already dry lined with polystyrine insulation. I will look at this again when we take everything out.

thanks

ircoha wrote:

What kind of headroom do you have in the basement area that you are considering insulating and retiling?

Have you considered incorporating UFH in the solution?

Depending on how much headroom you have the suggested solutions will vary.

Have you any plans to insulated the walls while you are at it?

ircoha

elderlemon wrote:

Current headroom is about 8 feet. I will get an extra 3" or 70mm back when I take down the panelled ceiling and get back to the original one.

UFH - have thought about it and have spoken to a lot of my friends who have it or had it and am in two minds. Feedback is not as good as I thought it would have been.

Most of the outside walls (Which are about 2.5 foot thick are already dry lined with polystyrine insulation. I will look at this again when we take everything out.

thanks

Thanks for reply: There are minimum head room requirements for habitable accomodation which you will need to adhere to.

I have gone blank on them just now so see http://www.environ.ie/en/DevelopmentandHousing/BuildingStandards/

[ Hopefully someone else reading this might give u the answer]

For some ideas on what you might do see

http://henco-ireland.com/Floor_Sections_Diagram.727.0.html

and double click on the images to open up a pdf page.

The reason I asked re the walls is that I am concerned about rising damp.

As you want to maximise the insulation, perhaps a timber joisted floor with the multilayered foil type insulation draped over the joists would work: for example YBS superquilt http://www.ybsinsulation.com/
However ventilation needs to be addressed.
HTH

elderlemon

Putting in a joisted floor would mean taking out the existing concrete floor and going down - this is a listed building so putting the new floor on top of the exisiting would mean raising door levels and other changes which would not be allowed.

Has anyone looked at something like Fastwam tile insulation?

Mellor

ircoha wrote:

Thanks for reply: There are minimum head room requirements for habitable accomodation which you will need to adhere to.

I have gone blank on them just now so see http://www.environ.ie/en/DevelopmentandHousing/BuildingStandards/

[ Hopefully someone else reading this might give u the answer]

2400mm, allowable reduction to 2100mm under beams and areas such as bay windows

ircoha

elderlemon wrote:

Putting in a joisted floor would mean taking out the existing concrete floor and going down - this is a listed building so putting the new floor on top of the exisiting would mean raising door levels and other changes which would not be allowed.

QUOTE]

Was not aware of this constraint from original post:( . Slan agus beannacht

Mellor thanks for dig out on heights:cool:

Viking House

Why not Kango out the floor, put down 300mm of EPS Polysterene and pour a new 100mm floor with or without UF heating. Any refurbishments like floors and roofs should be done to Passive standards if possible. This would save you having to revisit this area when energy prices increase.

Pataman

Just a small point about minimum ceiling heights in habitable rooms, if the basement doesnt have 10% windows, then its not habitable space, so you can have whatever height you want. Obviously a low ceiling gives a more claustraphobic feeling.

Mellor

Pataman wrote:

Just a small point about minimum ceiling heights in habitable rooms, if the basement doesnt have 10% windows, then its not habitable space, so you can have whatever height you want. Obviously a low ceiling gives a more claustraphobic feeling.

not true, the ceiling height applies to all rooms not just habitable rooms.

and even so, a room isn't defined as habitable because it has 10% window area.
A habitable room is habitable room regardless, its best practice to have windows here but its isn't a requirement and without windows a room may still be habitable.