cold floors - How to test for floor insulation

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sidzer

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Hi folks..

I bought a house just over a year ago... a 1900 sqft bunglow.. In general I would say that the finishes are mid to high end.. The house is 6 yrs old and I bought it off the guy who built it. It isn't my ideal house but the setting is very nice and I got some land in the deal.

It's not a cold house per se but I think that the floors are a bit too cold during the winter months. Kitchen / bathrooms and hall is tiled. I notice it most in the kitchen especially around the sink area... In the last few days I have had to put shoes on as the cold was penetrating through the socks...

I had a surveyor check out the house before I bought and after just about a leisurely hr he came back with a report which was mostly cut and paste standard for .€400 apparently a deal he told me..

My biggest fear is that there is no insulation in the floor - Some clown or the guy I bought the house off decided not to bother putting it in to save money as it won't be seen..

Has anyone heard of such an scenario? Everything else in the house seems to be well finished so that's what is throwing me off the above.. I have since asked the seller and he says that there is floor insulation but I doubt he would tell me if there wasn't.. It was a self build and some family members were involved..

Any suggestions....
 
from our own bungalow self build, Id imagine if you back track the steps in building by lifting a piece of carpet and scrap down in the floor you'll eventually find the insulation, only problem would be if you damaged a pipe so wouldn't drill etc, take your time etc.

tiles are cold anyway, put a mat at the kitchen sink area would help you, could be it just your floor absorbing your feet heat and you feel it more when standing for long periods of time.....
 
sidzer said:
Hi folks..

I bought a house just over a year ago... a 1900 sqft bunglow.. In general I would say that the finishes are mid to high end.. The house is 6 yrs old and I bought it off the guy who built it. It isn't my ideal house but the setting is very nice and I got some land in the deal.

It's not a cold house per se but I think that the floors are a bit too cold during the winter months. Kitchen / bathrooms and hall is tiled. I notice it most in the kitchen especially around the sink area... In the last few days I have had to put shoes on as the cold was penetrating through the socks...

I had a surveyor check out the house before I bought and after just about a leisurely hr he came back with a report which was mostly cut and paste standard for .€400 apparently a deal he told me..

My biggest fear is that there is no insulation in the floor - Some clown or the guy I bought the house off decided not to bother putting it in to save money as it won't be seen..

Has anyone heard of such an scenario? Everything else in the house seems to be well finished so that's what is throwing me off the above.. I have since asked the seller and he says that there is floor insulation but I doubt he would tell me if there wasn't.. It was a self build and some family members were involved..

Any suggestions....
Click to expand...
difficultto ascertain with out inspection like the above post suggests. I would hazard a guess that the installed insulation for that time will be about 60mm EPS maybe PIR (no Building control and regardless little attention was paid to heat loss, as it was not the main stream agenda at the time)

by modern standards people are putting in a min 110 PIR (http://www.environ.ie/en/Legislation/DevelopmentandHousing/BuildingStandards/FileDownLoad,23658,en.pdf (P37 of the part L analysis)) - the passive house standards are more like 200mm which is IMO what should be installed, as the floor is the easiest/cheapest place to reduce heat loss.

other than dig out a little of the floor (carefully as you don't want to tare the Radon barrier) you could get a thermal imaging assessment done, the success of this depends on the surveyor - personally I would suggest you look for an arch with BER experience

Imo you will find that is not only the floor that is the problem - it will be the perimeter cold bridge around the floor, a general lack of wall insulation (by modern standards), same goes for the windows, and maybe roof insulation, along with associated thermal bridges and off course your windows, the poor air-tightness generally associated with bungalows and their exposed surface area ratios.

at least you haven't installed UFH like many during the boom that are now not only feeling the cold but spending a fortune to heat their homes as well.
 
Thanks for the repsonses...

very little seems to have evolved for most builders in the last 20 or 30 years..

Friends of mine build a passive house and it's not rocket science but is one cosy nest...

I tested a neighbours floor and it is similar to mine... I think the tiles are the key reason for the cold...

I will probably live here for a few years but hope to build in the future..

Ta
 
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