Ground floor insulation

Ground floors are considered ‘difficult’ or ‘unworthy’ of upgrading.

Floors often get overlooked when it comes to retrofit. This is partly because of a general perception that if heat goes up, then there’s less need to consider the floor, partly because it is often difficult (or impossible) to access the space beneath, and partly because of the level of disruption if you factor in the moving of all bathroom furniture and kitchen units and, in some cases, the need to decant occupants.

Big potential energy savings

However, the potential for saving energy and improving comfort by insulating ground floors is much greater than most people appreciate. In many homes across Scotland, there is little more than timber boarding and a carpet between your warm living spaces and the cold winter air beyond. Unless your single-glazed windows are extremely draughty, the floor is almost certainly the ‘weakest link’ in the thermal envelope of your building.

Draughts

Another important factor is draughts. Suspended timber floors are normally relatively ‘leaky’ elements in a building (hence the popularity of wall-to-wall carpets in the UK), providing the source of much of the cold air flowing into the building. Making floors airtight, even if you don’t add insulation, will significantly reduce heat loss. This is less the case with solid floors, although the wall connections are also a source of air leakage.

Wellbeing

Another reason floors are more important than people imagine is because that’s what our feet touch. Certain parts of the human body are more sensitive to heat gain and loss, and cold feet affect our discomfort disproportionately, so making your floor warm will bring more benefit to the occupants of the building that is described simply by energy efficiency.

Like loft insulation, there needn’t be too much cost involved in making a significant difference to thermal performance and also little risk to the building fabric or (usually) to conservation significance.