Mid Floor Insulation

oxygen_old

Hi. Whats the effectiveness of mid floor insulation. I’m getting my house rewired, and was thinking of taking the plastering down from the ground floor ceiling and throwing up some insulation. Is it worth taking down all the palster for? Im getting a plasterer in anyways, as half the house needs to be replastered, so adding the sitting room and dinning room (and small hall) to replaster would only be a couple of hundred cost.

Also, I would like to get ground floor insulation, but I have really old floorboards, and want to keep them in reasonable condition (id not start ripping them up). Anyone know a way around this? Anybody ever refloor with reclaimed oak?

Thanks in advance

RKQ

oxygen wrote: »

Hi. Whats the effectiveness of mid floor insulation. I’m getting my house rewired, and was thinking of taking the plastering down from the ground floor ceiling and throwing up some insulation. Is it worth taking down all the palster for? Im getting a plasterer in anyways, as half the house needs to be replastered, so adding the sitting room and dinning room (and small hall) to replaster would only be a couple of hundred cost.

Budget is always a deciding factor. As this is the DIY forum, I assume you will insulate the ceiling yourself? If so it may be possible to remove part of slabs, in a brick pattern, so that fibre glass rolls can be installed between joists. The precut rolls wrapped in plastic & foil would be ideal for fishing thru gaps.

This insulation will help zone heating to some extent but will also greatly improve sound proofing. This is worth while over a sitting and dining room.

The removed parts of plaster slab can be replaced, use slab screws. For slightly more money you could doubleslab the ceilings - again improving sound insulation. (slabs & screws are cheap)

Sorry, can't really advise on unsulating existing timber ground floor.

oxygen_old

Thanks for the reply RKQ. Based on your advice, I might just actually rip down the plaster and insulate and double slab. I would be fairly concerned about sound insulation. Thinking of installing a home theater down stairs. Replacing slab in brick formation would be nearly as expensive as replacing the whole ceiling. Its the labour thats the expensive part, not really the plaster board.

RKQ

Fair enough labour is expensive but I'd assumed you were doing it yourself.

Fix the new slabs in a brick patern and step the second slab over the joints of the first. Check out slab manufacturers web sites for details.

Worth considering a resilent strip between the joists and the slabs for even better sound proofing - ideal for home cinema. Strips limit vibration noise. See manufacturers details.

Good idea to position all speaker cables in walls / ceiling as required, prior to plastering.:)

oxygen_old

Nah, I have a plasterer uncle who will be doing it for me. Full whack I suppose. Yea, cabling was another thing I had in mind for taking the plastering down. Running power, 5.1, HDMI etc trough the roof.

Thanks for the tip about the resilent strip, that stuff looks fairly cool. Defo would be handy for me.

RKQ

Glad to help... now you can "pump up the volume"