Insulating concrete floor with limited height

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Gossamer

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Morning all,
I'm refurbing a ~100yr old house and currently doing the kitchen.
It sits on a ~250mm (9'') concrete slab and gets a bit nippy in there so I want to insulate it.
Problem is the height of the room is just 2.2m so height is an issue.
Any ideas how I can insulate the floor with minimal impact to the height of the room?
Cheers.
 
Dig the floor out and put some insulation in. That's the only way you'll make a difference with regards to insulating the floor.

Carpet with a thick underlay will take the chill off your feet.

Insulate the roof and walls before the floor.
 
If you can't dig out even battening 25mm with celotex between our 50mm with glass wool, then plywood floorboards would make the world of difference to your feet.
To clarify, do you mean the room gets nippy or are you specifically worried about the floor temperature?
 
Gossamer said:
Morning all,
I'm refurbing a ~100yr old house and currently doing the kitchen.
It sits on a ~250mm (9'') concrete slab and gets a bit nippy in there so I want to insulate it.
Problem is the height of the room is just 2.2m so height is an issue.
Any ideas how I can insulate the floor with minimal impact to the height of the room?
Cheers.
Click to expand...
What floor covering do you plan to have?
 
tomfe said:
Dig the floor out and put some insulation in. That's the only way you'll make a difference with regards to insulating the floor.

Carpet with a thick underlay will take the chill off your feet.

Insulate the roof and walls before the floor.
Click to expand...

Intersting you say that as I realised I can see a cross section in the fireplace I've opened.
Looks like it has been screed over the original floor. Looks like old floor coverings in the photo???
Might mean the top 50mm would chip off easily?

IMG_2564.JPG IMG_2565.JPG
 
John D v2.0 said:
If you can't dig out even battening 25mm with celotex between our 50mm with glass wool, then plywood floorboards would make the world of difference to your feet.
To clarify, do you mean the room gets nippy or are you specifically worried about the floor temperature?
Click to expand...

Cheers - So batten 25mm deep, insert 25mm celotex then board over and vinyl or tile?
 
You will actualy get little gain in insulating a kitchen. Most of the floor is covered in cupboards, and as as the proposed covering will be cold underfoot in any case you wont notice anything much - especially if tiles are used. You could select a thicker vinyl covering which will appear warmer whatever is underneath it.

As the ceiling height is already low and is the crucial factor, I'd suggest not doing anything to the floor height as it wont be worth it - you wont notice the difference in terms of heat, but you certainly will notice the difference in ceiling height.
 
5mm fibreboard (or 10mm XPS), and then 18mm engineered wood floor will feel warmer. Even cushioned vinyl will be cold, and tiles will be even worse, but as others have said, do the walls first, and check the rads sized properly.
 
^woody^ said:
You will actualy get little gain in insulating a kitchen. Most of the floor is covered in cupboards, and as as the proposed covering will be cold underfoot in any case you wont notice anything much - especially if tiles are used. You could select a thicker vinyl covering which will appear warmer whatever is underneath it.

As the ceiling height is already low and is the crucial factor, I'd suggest not doing anything to the floor height as it wont be worth it - you wont notice the difference in terms of heat, but you certainly will notice the difference in ceiling height.
Click to expand...

I had a dig about earlier and found that the floor has previously been screed with a 55mm layer. I hacked the 'new' screed away and can see it was laid straight on the old floor tiles.
This has got me thinking - I could hack it away (where kitchen cupboards won't be) and lay underfloor heating.
The 55mm thickness could in theory accommodate a ~10mm screed / floor levelling compound, ~2mm membrane, 25mm celotex insulation, then Nu-Heat underfloor heating which is apparently 18mm thick. Then tile on top of the lot.

Yes I've been online A LOT today...
 
Doggit said:
5mm fibreboard (or 10mm XPS), and then 18mm engineered wood floor will feel warmer. Even cushioned vinyl will be cold, and tiles will be even worse, but as others have said, do the walls first, and check the rads sized properly.
Click to expand...

Does hat stuff perform ok if not used in conjunction with underfloor heating?
 
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