How to insulate a wooden floor?
Good afternoon. I live in a comfortable brick house. The floor is wooden, but lately it has become cold, especially at the exterior walls. I want to lay a laminate and insulate near the walls. I think to open the wooden floor at a distance of a meter from the walls and insulate something. And then completely lay the chipboard and laminate. What insulation is better to lay then?
Love
Expert Answer
Good afternoon, love.
In your case, we recommend using extruded polystyrene foam with a thickness of 30 mm and a density of 50 units. This material has excellent thermal insulation properties and sufficient rigidity. So, a 60-mm polystyrene foam slab is able to replace a meter-long brick wall or 23 cm of wood fencing. In addition, this material is completely unaffected by fungi and bacteria - it does not rot and does not mold.
After removing part of the wooden floor along the perimeter of the building, the base of the floor at a distance of 1 meter from the walls is lifted using concrete or a cement-sand screed. After the solution has set, the surface is covered with plates of extruded polystyrene foam, attaching them to the base with glue or with plastic dowels. As for the finishing floor, we recommend that you do not use chipboard, but thick plywood or, even better, OSB. These materials are less likely to deform and are less susceptible to moisture - unlike wood chipboards, when wet, they will be able to take their original form.
