Warming of a wooden floor: the technology of thermal insulation with expanded clay base of wood

In the fight against cold, in creating comfortable living conditions, any means of reducing heat loss is actively used. Today, the preparation for winter in the house or apartment is carried out thoroughly and involves not only replacing old window frames with energy-saving plastic, wall insulation, but also implies warming the wooden floor. Especially when you consider that heat loss through leaks in the floor covering, door slit, etc. make up almost a fifth of the total expenditure of thermal energy.

The use of new composite materials allows you to create a state of comfort in the room. Especially if heat saving works are carried out in apartments on the ground floors of houses or in private construction.

Expanded clay is one of the options for a sufficiently durable, easy to install, lightweight insulation, specifically for wooden flooring.

Advantages of expanded clay as a heater

Obvious "advantages" of warming a wooden floor with expanded clay:

Resistant to temperature extremes.
The air-filled porous structure is an excellent lightweight sound absorber that almost does not create additional load on the foundation.
Easy to use during installation: in bulk or dry.
It is made of clay, being an environmentally friendly material.

Expanded clay - an environmentally friendly heater

Expanded clay is a heat-insulating material, which in its thermotechnical characteristics far surpasses even wood

Attention: due to increased hygroscopicity, expanded clay quickly absorbs moisture in its pores and almost does not give it away. Therefore, mixing it, for example, with concrete as a heater is inefficient. Such a connection causes the exact opposite effect.

What do you need to have in stock?

Increasingly, insulation of a wooden floor with expanded clay is used to expand the living space in an apartment. Expanded clay “conquers” balconies and loggias from the cold, in which you can now be even in winter. It is not difficult to create a favorable microclimate for yourself. It will take all that "nothing":

a wish;
basic building skills;
source materials;
the most common tool that every owner has: a planer, an electric drill, a shovel, a level, a hammer, a tape measure, a pencil.

Step-by-step technology

The task of warming is reduced to laying a layer of expanded clay between the "rough floor" and the floor covering from boards or parquet.

Attention! The thickness of the insulating material should be designed for the expected dynamic loads during operation, as well as the weight of the screed layer on top.

Stages of work when warming a wooden base:

Floor preparation. The reconstruction of the old wooden coating requires its complete dismantling up to the very lags - the main fixing structures. If necessary, worn boards are replaced; the base is strengthened.
Inspection of the base. Then sanding is carried out, the surface is compacted for waterproofing.
For insulation under expanded clay, you can use liquid mastic or parchment.
The floor is evenly divided into zones fenced with slats of a certain height. Expanded clay is covered with a layer of 10 cm.
Expanded clay aggregate is compacted very carefully by tamping. It is important that the fragile granules do not break. To better fill the voids, in order to avoid subsidence, it is recommended to mix different fractions of expanded clay.
Hydro-vapor barrier is laid on top of the prepared frame.
Installation of the main wooden coating completes the insulation process.

Expanded clay floor insulation - drawing of a floor cake

Expanded clay layer as part of a pie cake

By the way: beams and logs under a wooden coating act as a kind of “cold bridges”. They should not be too high (so as not to “take” heat), but not thin (so that the structure is stable). Just in this case, the rule of the “golden mean.

If it is necessary to insulate a wooden floor located directly on the ground, the technology is slightly different:

First, gravel is added. It retains cold, disperses moisture;
sand is poured on top and compacted;
expanded clay is poured onto this “double cake” and fixed with a metal mesh;
with a layer of concrete on top, all layers are bonded, a wooden coating is laid on this surface.

Warming of a wooden floor with expanded clay layer

Properly performed insulation - this should be your final result

A simple, relatively cheap and affordable way to create a comfortable stay using expanded clay for warming a wooden floor not only reduces heat loss in the house. High-quality insulation is a guarantee of a healthy lifestyle in it.

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Renat
5 years ago

Expanded clay has its advantages - non-combustible material, does not attract rodents, durable, etc. But you need to remember that it has heat-insulating properties 3-5 times worse than that of the same foam. Expanded clay thermal conductivity varies greatly from fraction to lot. Therefore, to achieve the necessary thermal insulation effect, you need to pour 20-30 cm of expanded clay.
If this is not possible, then an insufficient layer of expanded clay will lead to the fact that the floors will not be sufficiently insulated.
And it is also worth remembering that to fill such a layer of expanded clay is a rather labor-intensive process that is not comparable with the easy and quick laying of foam sheets.
Polyfoam has its disadvantages. I do not campaign for him, everyone has his own choice. You just need to adequately assess all the properties of expanded clay.
In defense of expanded clay, I can say that the main property of this insulation is its ability to store heat. This property is characterized by the coefficient of thermal conductivity. And in the article there is not a word about this characteristic of the material. And how then can the necessary thermal resistance be obtained? After all, how warm in the winter and cool in the summer will be in your home depends on this characteristic of the floor structure.
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Stepan
6 years ago

I had to think about floor insulation in a house in the village and the choice of expanded clay as a filler was probably the most successful option. Firstly, the relatively low cost of the material itself, as well as the ease and simplicity of the work allow you to do the above process on your own.
In addition, a natural wood board was used as a floor covering, which underwent a long-term storage process and dried in a natural way, as a result, the rooms became much warmer in winter and comfortable.
And yes, for me an even greater plus when using expanded clay is its environmental friendliness and naturalness.
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Igor
6 years ago

Expanded clay is good because it is very light. It is easy to deliver it to its destination and just fill them with the required area. In no case do you need to ram it. He lays well himself. If you begin to compact it, then it will begin to grind into dust. You just need to fill the prepared places with expanded clay and carefully level it with any device, even with an ordinary mop.
And yet - during the transportation of expanded clay, dust is necessarily formed, so it is advisable to get rid of it. If the volume is not large and there is time, you can sift. If there is no time - try not to collect dust on the shovel, leaving it in the waste.
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Igor
6 years ago

I was just about to warm the floors in the country. I read the article and thought I would use expanded clay. The fact that expanded clay strongly absorbs moisture, I myself knew. But why the author first emphasizes that expanded clay cannot be mixed with concrete due to increased hydroscopicity, and then, when describing the technology of warming a wooden floor located on the ground, he advises the opposite - to strengthen the layers of crushed stone, sand and expanded clay with concrete. One thing should be.
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