ᐅ Basement needs to be warmer – underfloor heating, insulation?
Created on: 18 Mar 2018 16:13
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drakrochma
Hello,
We have a Massa house prefab built in 1980.
On the ground floor and first floor, we replaced the windows and doors with triple-glazed units featuring 8 chambers, added around 16cm (6 inches) of insulation on the exterior, and also insulated the sloping ceilings in the living areas.
The previous owners/builders did a really poor job, sometimes installing the fiberglass insulation with gaps up to 10cm (4 inches), so it’s no surprise the heating couldn’t keep up.
With the new heating system (pellets + solar) and the measures mentioned above, the upper floors are now okay—or at least much improved. Unfortunately, the basement remains a problem.
The basement rooms have a ceiling height of only 2.10 - 2.20m (6 ft 11 in - 7 ft 3 in). The floor consists only of a concrete slab, screed, and poorly laid tiles. We had the exterior walls insulated down to about 50cm (20 inches) below ground level. Yes, that was a mistake; we should have insulated all the way down—something we’ll know for the next house [emoji4].
Our problem is that we have a fairly large party room in the basement, about 45sqm (485 sq ft), with only one radiator in the corner, and the floor is always cold. We would like to insulate and heat the floor. However, the ceiling height is already tight.
We insulated the basement ceiling (toward the living area above) with 8cm (3 inches) of mineral wool to hide the pipes (heating, water, electricity). This construction resulted in a loss of about 10cm (4 inches), leaving the room with just 2.10m (6 ft 11 in) in height.
The actual questions:
- How thick should the basement floor insulation be to keep the room efficiently warm?
- What are the disadvantages of roughly 4cm (1.5 inches) of insulation, then a hydronic (water-based) underfloor heating system, and a thin laminate floor above?
- How thick does the insulation below the underfloor heating need to be to be considered sufficient?
Would two layers of 1cm (0.4 inch) extruded polystyrene (Styrodur) plus a foil-backed insulating mat underneath be enough?
- What would be your recommendations?
Has anyone faced a similar issue and how was it solved?
Ideally, I would like to lift the house and add two rows of bricks underneath, but that doesn’t seem realistic. Therefore, I’m very interested in practical suggestions [emoji4].
Thank you in advance.
We have a Massa house prefab built in 1980.
On the ground floor and first floor, we replaced the windows and doors with triple-glazed units featuring 8 chambers, added around 16cm (6 inches) of insulation on the exterior, and also insulated the sloping ceilings in the living areas.
The previous owners/builders did a really poor job, sometimes installing the fiberglass insulation with gaps up to 10cm (4 inches), so it’s no surprise the heating couldn’t keep up.
With the new heating system (pellets + solar) and the measures mentioned above, the upper floors are now okay—or at least much improved. Unfortunately, the basement remains a problem.
The basement rooms have a ceiling height of only 2.10 - 2.20m (6 ft 11 in - 7 ft 3 in). The floor consists only of a concrete slab, screed, and poorly laid tiles. We had the exterior walls insulated down to about 50cm (20 inches) below ground level. Yes, that was a mistake; we should have insulated all the way down—something we’ll know for the next house [emoji4].
Our problem is that we have a fairly large party room in the basement, about 45sqm (485 sq ft), with only one radiator in the corner, and the floor is always cold. We would like to insulate and heat the floor. However, the ceiling height is already tight.
We insulated the basement ceiling (toward the living area above) with 8cm (3 inches) of mineral wool to hide the pipes (heating, water, electricity). This construction resulted in a loss of about 10cm (4 inches), leaving the room with just 2.10m (6 ft 11 in) in height.
The actual questions:
- How thick should the basement floor insulation be to keep the room efficiently warm?
- What are the disadvantages of roughly 4cm (1.5 inches) of insulation, then a hydronic (water-based) underfloor heating system, and a thin laminate floor above?
- How thick does the insulation below the underfloor heating need to be to be considered sufficient?
Would two layers of 1cm (0.4 inch) extruded polystyrene (Styrodur) plus a foil-backed insulating mat underneath be enough?
- What would be your recommendations?
Has anyone faced a similar issue and how was it solved?
Ideally, I would like to lift the house and add two rows of bricks underneath, but that doesn’t seem realistic. Therefore, I’m very interested in practical suggestions [emoji4].
Thank you in advance.
D
drakrochma19 Mar 2018 09:39The single radiator installed is enough to warm up the room.
We unintentionally tested this when the thermostat broke...
At that time, the room was nice and warm, but the floor still felt uncomfortably cold.
I don’t know what they did with the basement back then, but it seems to be almost completely uninsulated.
That’s why adding more radiators would only be a last resort, although probably the cheapest solution.
I still have two radiators here that we removed when renovating the bathroom.
But as I said, either I heat the room for several days before every party at maximum capacity, or we have it warm upstairs and still cold feet 🙁
We unintentionally tested this when the thermostat broke...
At that time, the room was nice and warm, but the floor still felt uncomfortably cold.
I don’t know what they did with the basement back then, but it seems to be almost completely uninsulated.
That’s why adding more radiators would only be a last resort, although probably the cheapest solution.
I still have two radiators here that we removed when renovating the bathroom.
But as I said, either I heat the room for several days before every party at maximum capacity, or we have it warm upstairs and still cold feet 🙁
I can't fully understand the problem. We have similar conditions: a basement bar (a good 32m² (344 sq ft)), one radiator, a house from the 1980s, ceiling height of 2.2m (7.2 ft). Okay, your room is bigger, but in our basement bar, even without heating, it’s currently around 14°C (57°F). With the radiator, I can heat the room up to 22°C (72°F) within one day, if desired. Our usual issue is that when 15 people are in the room, the temperature rises to about 24-25°C (75-77°F) within 1-2 hours, and those are the first to want to open the windows. No one has ever complained about cold feet since people generally wear shoes. I have never seen underfloor heating used in a basement bar, and I don’t consider it very practical because it would also take a very long time to warm up the room and would be difficult to adjust afterwards.
As for insulation, 2-3cm (1 inch) of insulation really doesn’t help much on its own. In my opinion, it won’t make a difference and is basically just thicker impact sound insulation. The simplest solution, from my point of view, would be to replace the tiles with laminate or vinyl flooring. This feels significantly warmer, and then possibly add another radiator to warm the room faster.
As for insulation, 2-3cm (1 inch) of insulation really doesn’t help much on its own. In my opinion, it won’t make a difference and is basically just thicker impact sound insulation. The simplest solution, from my point of view, would be to replace the tiles with laminate or vinyl flooring. This feels significantly warmer, and then possibly add another radiator to warm the room faster.
D
Deliverer19 Mar 2018 12:03I also believe that "shoes" would be the cheapest solution, but if the real desire is to have a warm floor, then an electric underfloor heating system is ideally suited for this case. The installation height is low, as are the warm-up time and the costs. Since the room is only used occasionally, electricity consumption plays a minor role.
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drakrochma20 Jun 2018 20:48Thanks for the suggestion.
These things sound pretty good.
However, I can hardly find any offers for them.
Do they have another name?
I also tried searching for vacuum insulation panels, etc.
These things sound pretty good.
However, I can hardly find any offers for them.
Do they have another name?
I also tried searching for vacuum insulation panels, etc.
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