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When insulating the room you live in, don’t forget about the floor. The costs of floor insulation pay off within a year or two and savings on comfort become possible. The choice of insulation method depends on the type of floor and the room itself.

It is advisable to insulate the floors of rooms located on the ground floor. It is not necessary to do this if the room is located on the second or more floors and the room underneath is heated.

Due to uninsulated floors, rooms lose about 15% of heat. Therefore, floor insulation is a necessary measure not only from the point of view of comfort for residents, but also from the point of view of economy. Insulating floors, depending on the method you choose, will pay for itself in a maximum of two years. Heating bills will be lower.

The main characteristics that you should rely on when choosing a floor insulation method are:

• floor;
• type of flooring.

Wooden floor on joists

Floors with joists lose a lot of heat due to the void between the subfloor and the wood. This problem can be solved by filling the empty space with insulation materials.

How to make the floor warmer? Insulate it from below. This possibility is available in rooms under which there is a basement or garage. Insulation is installed under the floorboards. A construction mesh is stitched between the lags, which helps to more securely hold the material itself.

In cases where this method is not available, the insulation is installed after dismantling the parquet boards. In terms of time and material costs, this method of insulation takes longer and is more expensive. Before laying the material, you will need to completely empty the room of furniture and belongings and raise all the floorboards.

After removing the floorboards, the space between the joists is filled with insulation materials. This could be mineral wool, insulation from natural materials or synthetic. Most popular insulation materials are presented in construction stores and you can choose them by price, height, quality characteristics. Advantage should be given to materials that are well ventilated, otherwise wooden floors may rot.

To avoid this, there is no need to block air access from the walls. Leave small empty cavities in this place.

You can make the floor warmer yourself or by turning to specialists for help.

Concrete floor

Concrete floors lose slightly less heat, but they also add insulation and make them more comfortable. Various methods are used for this.

The most common is laying chipboard on a concrete screed. You can put other thermal insulation materials between the floor and concrete; they will not only make the room warmer, but the floor itself will not be as hard as when laid on concrete.

If you are going to insulate a concrete floor in a living space, be prepared that it will rise a little, depending on the material chosen. You may have to change the location of the sockets, change the height interior doors, so do it in advance.

In addition to insulation, purchase moisture-proof membranes. They are sold in rolls in hardware stores. A layer of this material will prevent damage to the insulation by providing air access.

If you have the skills, you can also do everything yourself. Otherwise, invite specialists. They will recommend best materials from those available on the construction market, they will carry out all the calculations and, if necessary, change the location of the sockets.

Thermal insulation of baseboards

There are often cases when some of the heat leaves the room through the cracks between the baseboard and the floor and the baseboard and the wall. This is possible when the floors and walls are uneven and were not leveled during the finishing of the room.

The way out of this situation is a tube of sealant. They need to fill the gaps between the baseboard, floor and wall.

Tiled floor

Tiled floors are always cold because they conduct heat very well. In addition, according to technology, it is laid on a concrete screed. You can insulate a tiled floor using a heated floor system or simply by checking the quality of the putty on all joints and seams.

Carpet covering

Carpets themselves are good thermal insulators, especially if they are made from natural materials. Carpets are most often laid on wooden floors.

If you want to improve your thermal insulation qualities carpeting, put another layer of heat under it insulating material.

How to make the floor in a bathhouse warm without rotting. How to make the floors in the bathhouse warm

How to make a warm floor in a bathhouse 🚩 Waterproofing the floor in a bathhouse 🚩 Repairing a cottage

Since ancient times, people have gone to the bathhouse for health and the pleasures that come from cleansing the body with water and hot steam. In Rus' there has always been a particularly reverent attitude towards baths. In the villages, not even the wealthiest family now has its own bathhouse. There are certain rules and secrets for building a bathhouse. A very important point is laying the floor in the bathhouse. Some people make the floor cold, but for greater comfort and heat savings it is recommended to make the floors warm, although this is a more complex and costly process.

Related articles:

You will need

• Sand, roofing felt, cement, polystyrene foam, reinforcing mesh with cells 100×100 mm, wooden plank for flooring or tiles, depending on wishes.

Instructions

When starting to install a heated floor in the steam room, you need to dig a pit about half a meter deep. Remove the earth, compact the walls and bottom of the pit, and evenly distribute a layer of sand about 5 cm on it. Place foam sheets on the sand, fitting them tightly. The thickness of the sheets must be at least 200mm. Do not throw away scraps and fragments of foam plastic; they will be useful for preparing cement pouring.

Apply a layer of cement and sand mortar on top of the foam. It is mixed in a one to one ratio. Foam chips should be added to the solution.

Now roofing material or its equivalent should be laid on top of the layer in two layers to waterproof the floor in the bathhouse. Pour another layer of cement mortar five centimeters thick on top of the roofing felt. This time add vermiculite to the solution.

Lay the reinforcing mesh and fill it with a layer of concrete mortar mixed with fine crushed stone. After this, you can lay the top layer of the floor.

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note

When laying floors, do not forget to make a slope of up to five percent towards the sewer drain so that water does not stand on the warm floor of the bathhouse.

Helpful advice

Bathhouse floors thermally insulated in this way do not need to be covered with wood, which needs to be replaced every few years. You can lay tiles and throw wooden grates on top of them.

Sources:

• heated floor in the bathhouse

Nothing compares to a sauna built with your own hands. This is not just a hygienic room where you can wash off the dirt, but a real home health resort. That is why everything in it must be built so that it corresponds to this proud name. Including the floor must be laid according to all the rules so that it does not violate the “spirit” of the bath (no cement or tile coverings in the steam room).

Instructions

When installing a floor in a bathhouse, you need to solve several issues: 1. design of the drainage system, i.e. water drainage;2. selection quality material and flooring;3. arrangement of ventilation (so that the floor is dry between bath procedures).

To solve the first question, first remove the black soil over the entire area of ​​the bathhouse. In the washing compartment, make a platform with a slope in one direction and arrange a pit - a recess. To remove water from the pit, lay a pipe and bring it out under the foundation.

As flooring material, use coniferous wood, boards with a thickness of at least 30mm. First you need to lay out the brick columns. They will be supports when laying the floor joists. To do this, make a bedding of sand on the prepared site and lay out columns of red brick and mortar at the height of laying the logs, and perform waterproofing.

Lay the wooden logs on brick posts and nail the floorboards, pre-cut to size, to them. Before laying, the boards are planed on three sides (front and sides). This is done so that, firstly, it is pleasant to walk on them with bare feet, and secondly, so that the water drains without lingering on the surface of the boards. This will prevent them from getting wet and subsequently rotting. Sew the boards with a gap of 5-7mm between them, which will also ensure rapid drainage of water under the floor into the pit. Lay and secure the plinth along the walls on the floor.

Now to the question of ventilation. From above, the floor in the bathhouse will dry out when the ventilation hole located in one of the walls is opened (its size is 15x15cm, the normal position is open, closed only when washing). From below, to ventilate the floorboards, arrange a box in the corner of the bathhouse, one end of which is lowered to the level of the bottom bed of boards, and the other end is brought to the roof of the bathhouse. The box can be wooden or made of tin. In the latter case, cover it with the same material that lined the inside of the bathhouse. Your bathhouse floor is ready!

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Sources:

• Building a bathhouse with your own hands in 2018

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air heating system + Video

How to organize a heated floor in a bathhouse? What features should you know about in advance and what should you avoid? All this is in our article!

The bathhouse will be much more comfortable if your feet do not freeze in the dressing room. Agree that this happens quite often, when the heated floor is only in the steam room, but in the dressing room the cold hits your legs. But this can be avoided.

Features of the floor arrangement in the bathhouse

A bathhouse is a very specific room, which is characterized by high humidity and temperature. In this case, water is collected or drained over the entire surface of the floor. This also adds a requirement for the materials used in finishing. Preference is given to wood, but tiles are also allowed. And what’s especially depressing is wood, which is a fairly good heat insulator.

Based on such a rigid framework, organizing a heated floor in a bathhouse is a multifaceted task, but has several implementation options.

1. Common heated floor. This is the most expensive option. To do this, lay the heat exchanger circuit with your own hands over the entire area of ​​the bathhouse (excluding the steam room), according to all the rules, i.e. with a layer of insulation. A screed is poured on top, with a slope to drain water, and ceramic tiles are laid. The advantages of this method are that there is no differentiation of premises during the construction process. Everything is done the same way. But there are quite a lot of disadvantages:

• Extremely large investment in non-residential premises;
• Wet tiled floors with a slope are more dangerous;
• Monstrous inertia of the system. Warming up such a layer of screed will take longer than heating a firebox in a bathhouse;
• There is a danger of defrosting the system in winter if it is turned on irregularly;
• The need to allocate a separate corner to accommodate the heating system and control the water heated floor.

Conclusion: such floors are good for use in a large bathhouse, if not public, then corporate. In private housing construction, for an ordinary person this option is very burdensome

1. Differentiated approach. In this case, you create two systems with your own hands that work independently: one heats the floor in the dressing room, the other in the washing compartment. This option is a priori better, because it allows you to solve problems of different levels of complexity independently. In particular, in the dressing room, infrared heated floors are quite appropriate, given that the humidity level there, although high, is an order of magnitude lower than in the washing department. In the bathhouse itself, creating a heated floor system faces a number of inconveniences, in particular:

• The thermal conductivity of wood and expanded clay is the same, i.e. these are equally good heat insulators;
• Tiled floors imply a general slope and require a fundamentally different approach when installing a sewer system in a bathhouse. Laying ceramic tiles impossible on a wooden base in rooms with high humidity and temperature. This means that it is necessary to organize a full-fledged “floor pie”, with excavation of soil to a depth of 60-70 cm.

In this article, we are trying to limit ourselves to considering personal baths. And these are used a couple of times a week. This means that the floor heating will be turned on a couple of times a week. And this is fraught with defrosting the system. In other words, a water heated floor in a personal bathhouse is very unprofitable. The same can be said about cable heating elements. In any case, they will be in the screed, which means the inertia of heating will not allow you to sincerely enjoy the delights of a heated floor.

The best solution to the problem

In a private bathhouse, it is much more pleasant to have a wooden floor under your feet. But the destructive effects of dampness are detrimental to wood. At the same time, heated floors in the bathhouse simply attract with their comfort. But there is a way out that allows the integration of one type of equipment to immediately obtain maximum benefit, in particular:

• Warm floor;
• Dry underground space;
• Drainage through leaking floors;
• Minimum capital investment.

All this is possible when organizing air floor heating. And another important advantage is the ability to organize uniform heating of the entire floor covering.

First you will need to organize the correct collection of water in the underground space. Therefore, the whole process will consist of the following steps:

1. Organization of reinforced screed with a slope;
2. Laying lags;
3. Installation of heating system elements;
4. Installation of flooring.

An important principle in creating a screed is its waterproofness and slope. Ensuring a uniform slope exactly at the level of the screed will make it possible to install floors without a slope, in which water will flow between the boards. Such floors are safer.

Screed organization

The screed will be organized immediately under the entire bathhouse. The slope that must be maintained for natural water collection is 30‰. That is, 3 cm per linear meter. It is recommended to drain in the center of the building. With this approach, it will be possible to avoid too large differences between opposite walls. For example, in a 4x5 m bathhouse, the height difference can be either 15 and 12 cm, or 7.5 and 6 cm, depending on the location of the drain hole.

The height of the floor of the underground space is not required to be too high; the minimum clearance will be 20 cm (along the walls). The pipe outlet to the septic tank is located in the center of the building. The pipe head is brought to the expected level and plugged. Before pouring the screed, you need to pour a cushion of a layer of sand - 5 cm, and a layer of crushed stone - 10 cm. Any sand can be used, it is poured in an even layer and compacted well. But crushed stone is required with low flakiness and a fraction of 20-30 mm. The crushed stone is filled from the center to the edges. In this case, the required slope must be taken into account.

IMPORTANT: The slope must be created by properly filling with crushed stone! In order to maintain the required degree, you can mark horizontal markings on the corners of the foundation. Crushed stone is also compacted, but this should be done without fanaticism.

The screed will be organized with a spill. That is, waterproofing is not provided between the crushed stone and the screed, and part of the solution will go into the lower layers. To minimize losses, the solution is mixed thick. The thickness of the screed is at least 5 cm. To calculate the required amount of ingredients, it is assumed that 1 m2 of screed, 5 cm thick, weighs ≈ 72 kg. It will require 16 kg of cement, 48 kg of washed river sand and about 8 liters. water.

To increase waterproofing properties, for every 10 liters. add 1 liter of water. liquid glass!

Additionally, it is necessary to include polypropylene fiber in the solution. This component is used for dispersed reinforcement, but in addition it will give the finished surface exceptional smoothness.

After pouring the screed, you should wait 1.5-2 days and iron the surface. To do this, it is sprayed with 10% liquid glass solution, and then sprinkled with a thin layer of cement. Then, it is thoroughly rubbed into the screed using grout. This operation will qualitatively increase the strength of the entire structure.

The time for complete maturation of the screed is 4-5 weeks. During this time, it must be sprayed with water daily and protected from direct sunlight.

Laying lags

A larch beam measuring 10 by 20 cm is perfect for bath logs. Before installation, it must be covered with two layers of drying oil. The beam is laid with a narrow edge on the ledge of the foundation. It is fixed with corners. Special strength is not required, because after installing the floor covering, the entire system will be monolithic and motionless.

The laying step is calculated based on the thickness of the floorboards. For a bathhouse, the optimal choice would be a 30 mm thick board. This means that the step between the logs should be 45-50 cm.

Heating system installation

The floor heating system will consist of a heat gun and a network of air ducts fixed to the joists. At the bottom of the pipes, it is necessary to drill holes ᴓ12-15 mm, in increments of 20 cm. The pipes are fixed with mounting clamps to the bottom of the beam. Flexible air ducts must be at least 12 cm. Almost all of them are designed to work with hot air. To connect them together, appropriate fittings are used: tees, nipples, diffusers. Therefore, it is better to purchase everything at once from one manufacturer.

The heat gun is installed with your own hands in the attic, and it is also discharged there central pipe air duct. Placing the gun above the ceiling will serve as additional protection from noise. The choice of a heat gun should be determined by the presence of several operating modes and the shape of the outlet. In terms of performance, even something as simple as “Energoprom TPE-3 MKR” produces more than 40 l/s. And the air heats up to 40°C when operating in the weakest mode.

Flooring installation

Larch is ideal for the floor in the bathhouse. It will cost a little more than pine, but in terms of durability, it has no rivals. In addition, the rule should be taken into account: the wood of the joists and the flooring must be of the same species. Edged boards, 30x100 mm. The use of boards 10 cm wide is more preferable than 150 mm. They will be located more often, and there will be more gaps between them.

When laying, a gap of 5-7 mm must be maintained between each element. It will serve not only to drain water, but also to raise warm air. To maintain such a clear boundary, the easiest way is to use crosses for styling tiles.

Before laying the flooring, prepare the drain pipe. Remove the plug, treat the perimeter of the pipe with silicone sealant and place a protective grill on the head.

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How to make the floor in a bathhouse warm without rotting with your own hands

A bathhouse is a small structure whose walls are usually made of wood or brick. Most important elements baths is the floor. After all, drainage is carried out through it, so the coating in this room requires the most attention. This material contains useful information that answers the question of how to make a floor in a bathhouse with your own hands. We will look at what materials should be used to make a covering, and what is best to choose for a certain area. We will also consider the question of how to build a heated floor so that it does not rot.

Which coating is better to choose?

Today in private homes you can find two types of baths:

• brick;
• wooden.

If on your site there will be a compact log house with a steam room and a dressing room, then the right decision will make a warm wooden floor. The work to create a pre-timber foundation is cheap, and no lengthy construction is required. It has a wooden floor and its disadvantages - high humidity and temperature lead to wood rotting. Of course, such a bathhouse is only suitable for summer holidays.

The first step is to find out what it will be future construction. If you ultimately want to get a full-fledged brick bathhouse, which will include, in addition to a steam room, a relaxation room, a washing room and a dressing room, then you should choose a concrete structure. You can enjoy such a bath both in winter and summer. For a concrete base, special requirements are put forward - the presence of drainage and waterproofing.

Wooden base for a bath

So, you have decided to make a wooden heated floor. The following trees are suitable for this purpose:

• fir;
• many types of pine trees;
• larch.

The base is made of beams and boards. Thanks to the advent of special impregnations, you can make the floor in such a way that it does not rot. Typically, wood is impregnated with resin, due to which the “working life” of boards and beams is noticeably increased. Another plus is the availability healing properties from essential oils, which appear when wood is heated.

You can make a leaky or non-leaky floor with your own hands. The first option is designed in such a way that there are narrow gaps between the boards through which excess moisture is removed. To prevent the floor from rotting, the base is installed on pillars. Because wooden sauna designed for summer period, the liquid is quickly absorbed into the soil.

As for the non-leaking base, it has a slope towards the drain, along which the liquid goes into the sump. A non-leakage structure is usually built on a concrete screed. This option is more difficult to implement, and it is quite difficult to ensure that the floor does not rot.

How is the underground constructed?

If you have chosen a leaky floor, then it is worth finding out the characteristics of the soil on which the future bathhouse will stand. First of all, you need to find out what filtration properties the soil has on your site. If the structure will stand on sand, then only a layer of gravel 25 cm thick will be needed. Before entering the ground, the runoff will be filtered through gravel. Important: there should be at least 10 centimeters between the upper plane and the supporting logs.

The soil under the structure may also have minimal filtration characteristics - sandy loam, loam, and clay. In this case, you need to make sure there is a drainage pit, from where the liquid will be discharged outside the bathhouse. Craftsmen make a clay castle that slopes towards the pit. If possible, it is better to take concrete for these purposes. It is more suitable for insulating material.

Also, the floor is covered with expanded clay insulation without leakage. It is important that there is a gap of about 15 cm between the logs and the insulating layer. With this design, a pit is required, which is made in the washing compartment of the bathhouse. Its bottom and walls must be thoroughly covered with clay.

• During the installation process you will have to open the coating several times. After this, they must be treated with a special antiseptic for wood.
• Wooden floors are famous for their sound when walking. If you want to avoid this feature, it is recommended to place a sound-absorbing layer under the joists. This could be “Vibrostek-M” - gaskets with a thickness of 4 mm and dimensions of 100 × 100 mm must be cut out of it.
• The boards must be laid in such a way that liquid is removed from the floor across the boards.
• The beams must be 100% dry before they are laid into the structure. Otherwise, after drying, gaps may form - they will not only spoil appearance coatings, but will also cause inconvenience.
• The underground space must be thoroughly ventilated; for this, a gap with a thickness of about 150-180 millimeters must be made between the internal backfill and the subfloor.

Concrete floor

Have you chosen a large brick building? Then, in order for the floor to be warm at any time of the year, you need to choose a concrete base, which can be covered with tiles and added aesthetics. The first step is to take care of a layer of gravel with a thickness of 140-160 millimeters. Further work is performed as follows:

1. After the gravel, a concrete layer is laid.
2. The next step is laying a vapor barrier for future tiles.
3. Next comes insulation and waterproofing.
4. They are covered with another concrete layer.
5. The last stage in making a concrete floor is cement strainer, which serves for alignment.

What the coverage will be depends on the preferences of the owners. Warm floors made from tiles are considered the most successful, as they perfectly insulate the warm floor and look nice.

Features of concrete pavement

Floors made of concrete and tiles also have their own specific features, for example, a pit with a pipe connecting the structure to a sewer well. The concrete base made of ceramic tiles has the following features:

• It is necessary to prepare a shutter for the receiving edge of the pipe in case the wastewater is directed to the sewer or septic tank. Of course, there are many options for shutters on the market, but it’s worth paying attention to the “folk” method - a rubber ball that floats up and down.
• If the base system of concrete and tiles is designed in such a way that wastewater flows into the ground under the building, then it is necessary to equip the base with vents. Great option will asbestos pipes. Tile floor vents will eliminate unpleasant odors.

The concrete layer must be carefully insulated so that the warm tile floor does not crack in the future. For this, craftsmen take roofing felt, bitumen, and in some cases use polyethylene film.

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How to make the floor in a bathhouse warm

A cold floor in a bathhouse is not uncommon! This problem is especially unpleasant in winter - it’s cold outside, but even in the bathhouse your feet get cold. This is where the need arises to make the floor in the bathhouse warm. I had a similar problem. And having conceived major renovation, I set out to somehow solve it.

Searches on the Internet did not lead to anything; there were mainly tips to install electric floor heating in the bathhouse, which absolutely did not suit me. I had to remember the laws of physics.

I have a homemade metal stove installed in my bathhouse, which is understandable, since it heats up quickly, is relatively unpretentious and quite durable.

Of course, it also has disadvantages: there is a danger of getting burned and it cools down quickly after stopping the fire. In addition, when the fire is fired, it becomes very hot, so it’s impossible to be near it, I’ll walk away a little cooler. It heats the room mainly due to radiation, and convection is less pronounced, so the air in the room is heated unevenly.

The hottest zone is raised above the floor level by 40–50 cm, therefore the lower layer of air, directly above the floor, warms up with a great delay, which is why the floor does not heat up well.

Hence the conclusion: the heating zone must be lowered as low as possible, ideally even below the floor level, then heating above the floor and the floor itself will heat up faster and more evenly. This can be done if the stove is installed in a pit, then all the cold air will tend to the stove, and the heated air will evenly fill the room. But it is irrational to build a large pit, since in this case it becomes inconvenient to heat, light and, in general, maintain the stove. And therefore, it was decided to install the stove on a concrete base, on which wooden floor joists rested, i.e., to deepen the stove in the bathhouse only partially by 15–20 cm and build a screen around its perimeter from brick placed on a narrow edge, 1/4, and the height is equal to the stove, leaving a gap of 5–7 cm on the sides. The gap between the screen and the stove serves as a kind of channel for heated air, it ensures the emergence of a powerful convection flow of hot air.
In order for the air to be heated from the very base, openings of ¾ of a brick are left at the bottom of the brick screen, in the corners. This ensures access of cold air from the concrete base itself, that is, essentially from the underground. In the corners of the room in the floor for better air circulation, 4 holes were made with a ring crown through which air enters the subfloor and the stoves.
Now let's take a quick look at how it all works. When the oven heats up, the air in the gap between the oven and the screen begins to warm up, and very quickly. According to the laws of physics, it moves upward, and in its place comes a cooler one from under the floor. This creates intense air circulation, including the underground space. In addition to quick and uniform heating of the bathhouse (including such a task as making the floor in the bathhouse warm), such a heating device provides enhanced ventilation of the underground, which significantly extends the service life of the floor.

In addition, the brick screen plays the role of a heat accumulator, since it heats up well from the stove and gives off heat for a long time after the end of the fire. And at the same time it protects against burns, because it makes it impossible to accidentally touch the stove.

I built such a system in a bathhouse 5 years ago and am very pleased with its performance!

smogem-sami.ru

How to make the floor in a bathhouse warm

How to make the wooden floor in a bathhouse warm and the boards not rot. For a very long time this question haunted me, as did many other owners of wooden baths.

Some argued that the floors should be made as low to the ground as possible, others, on the contrary, higher. Someone advised making the floors oak or larch - they will never rot.

For inquiring minds, I’ll explain why neither one nor the other is worth doing.

A low floor will definitely rot, as there will always be dampness (and smell) underneath it. The tall one will be cold, since the space underneath will not warm up.

Oak and larch are generally not suitable for bathhouses. Oak because of its specific smell, and larch because of the structure of the wood, which, when frequently wet and dry, can form long, thin and very strong splinters.

The solution to the problem turned out to be simple, like everything ingenious, and it was not in the floors, but in the sauna stove.

It is in it that one little gadget will warm up and dry the floors, and also rid the bathhouse of dampness under the floor and, accordingly, the smell of this dampness.

The essence of the issue is that a hood is being made from the underground. Not natural circulation through the plinth windows, but rather a powerful exhaust hood, also natural, by the way.

I won’t “pull the cat by the tail”; such an exhaust hood is created by an additional blower device in the oven, which is located below the floor level and is equipped with a damper damper.

Actually, I still don’t understand why a damper is needed on an additional blower. It never closed for me, it only created a threat to my legs, so I removed it completely, but I will show you the way I saw such a stove in the first place.

Well, if the stove is direct-fired, then it definitely doesn’t need a damper.

The additional ash in this furnace does not deserve its name, since in fact it is the main one, since a conventional ash with this design only serves to clean the grate and remove ash.

And it comes from under the floor good hood. Warm air from the bathhouse room, which with a conventional stove cannot be driven down to the floor, forcibly penetrates into the underground and heats and dries the floor boards.

After all the pleasures of the bath, the hood prevents moisture from lingering in the underground for a long time, as a result of which the floor boards last much longer.

In the iron sauna stove The exhaust power can be significantly increased if, as an additional blower, a pipe d 100-120 is brought under the floor and passed through the firebox into the main chimney.

The pipe will heat up in the firebox and pull from the underground no worse than a vacuum cleaner.

I wish you a light steam.

Section Construction >>>Subsection Bathhouse>>>

secretmastera.ru

How to make a warm floor in a bathhouse, insulating a bathhouse floor with your own hands, video

Everyone who decides to acquire such a structure dreams of having a heated floor in a bathhouse. Such a bathhouse creates additional comfort and coziness for the visitor. Not everyone wants to stand barefoot on a particularly cold surface in autumn and winter. In addition, this can lead to colds, especially in children.

If the bathhouse has cold floors, this will create additional waste of energy to warm it up. To prevent this from happening, before insulating the floor in the bathhouse, it is advisable to carefully consider all options at the design stage.

How to insulate the floor of a wooden bathhouse

If you are planning a wooden bathhouse, then you can insulate its floors in a simple and unpretentious way. This option will probably be the cheapest and it is called insulating the floor in a bathhouse using joists.

For convenience, the foundation of the bathhouse can be placed on a columnar foundation. This will create an additional ventilation zone for the flooring (underground), which will significantly increase the service life wooden bath.

Throughout the entire area that the room will occupy, pillars with a height of 0.4 to 0.5 m are installed on a pre-leveled surface. They are made of brick or cinder block. First, make a hole under the post measuring 0.5 x 0.5 x 0.5 m and fill it with 100 mm of crushed stone. The crushed stone is carefully compacted.

The interval between the columns is 1.5 - 2.5 mm; they will take the entire load at the intersection of the load-bearing beams. Wooden beams are laid on the posts and a 40 x 40 mm beam is placed between them along the lower edge. The subfloor boards will rest on it.

Important to remember! Load-bearing beams (joists) and subfloor boards must be treated with antiseptic and water-repellent compounds. For this you can use PINOTEKS and drying oil.

The subfloor boards are laid between the beams and secured with nails or self-tapping screws, two on each side. The insulation will be placed in the trough thus obtained. The floor, which will be located in the washing room, must have a slope of 5 to 10 degrees. This is necessary for withdrawal Wastewater V cesspool or sewer.

Before laying the insulation, be sure to lay a layer of vapor barrier. This can be 0.2 mm thick polyethylene film, glassine or roofing felt. Modern material"Hydrobarrier" is ideal for these purposes. It represents a polyethylene film reinforced with nylon thread.

The material is spread on the floor between the joists and secured with a stapler or small nails. Now you can lay the insulation.

What are the types of thermal insulation materials?

To insulate the floor of a bathhouse, you can use the following heat insulators:

•  Mineral or basalt wool
•  Foam plastic with a thickness of 50 mm or more
•  Expanded clay granules

All these materials have low thermal conductivity due to the fact that they retain a large number of air. However, expanded clay is much heavier than the first two thermal insulators.

It is important to know! The above materials retain their qualities as long as they remain dry.

Thermal insulation is laid between the beams and covered with a layer waterproofing film. It can also be polyethylene or Hydrobarrier film. Fasten it carefully to the beams with a stapler.

A finishing flooring is made from the floorboard on top. They are tightly fitted to each other to minimize moisture seepage onto the waterproofing layer. The boards are not laid flush against the walls. It is necessary to leave a gap of 10-15 mm, which will allow the space under the finished floor to be ventilated and will not allow the boards to deform during swelling and linear expansion.

The gap is hidden with a wooden plinth, which is attached to the walls with nails. To prevent snow from getting into the underground space and cold winds from blowing in, it is sheathed with boards around the perimeter. The boards are pre-impregnated with antifungal compounds and painted on top. The heated floor for the wooden bathhouse is ready.

How to insulate a stone floor

If the bathhouse is brick, then the foundation must be serious. As a rule, the floor in such buildings is made of concrete and covered with tiles. Concrete itself is a cold material and does not have sufficient heat-insulating properties.

To make the floor of a stone bath warm, forced heating systems are used. It is worth noting that this causes additional energy costs. However, the comfort you will receive will justify the cost.

A warm floor for a bath can use various heating principles:

•  Use of resistive cable
•  Use of water heated floor
•  Film infrared floors

All of them are laid on a concrete or sand-cement screed prepared with slopes and sewage drains. The resistive cable, as well as the water-heated floor tubes, are laid out in a certain order like a snake. The infrared floor is so thin that its strips are rolled out onto the screed, connected, and you can safely lay glue and tiles on them.

The warm water floor system has a thermostat that regulates the flow through servo valves. warm water into the contours of the floor. The temperature of the resistive, heated floor is regulated by an electric thermostat.

Typically, in a bathhouse, the regulators are located in a convenient place for access in the dressing room. By the time visitors undress, the floor will already have time to warm up. After checking the functionality of the heating systems, they are covered with a layer of screed. When the screed has set after 21 days, a finishing coat of tiles is placed on it.

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How to make a heated floor in a bathhouse with your own hands

When discussing how to insulate a bathhouse so that it is truly hot and retains heat for a long time, sometimes we do not immediately come to the decision that for this it is necessary to install a heated floor in the bathhouse using thermal insulation materials. Sometimes this is enough to heat the room. In addition to comfort, heated floors help the bathhouse floor dry faster, which prevents the appearance of fungus.

Ultimately, human health depends on the temperature of the floor in the bathhouse: warming up on a shelf in a steam room at a temperature of 80-100 on a cold floor is a rather serious test for the human body due to stress from a sharp temperature difference. You should install a heated floor in the bath not only in the steam room, but also in the washing room and in the relaxation room.

The floors in the bathhouse are made of wood and concrete. General principles floor insulation in both cases is the same, but there are some differences.

Wooden floor insulation

Let's look at how to insulate a wooden bathhouse floor. If the bathhouse already has a wooden floor, but it is cold, then creating a new warm floor in the bathhouse should be done by dismantling the old wooden flooring.

Skull blocks are nailed to the lower parts of the beams, which will then open, onto which the vapor barrier material is laid. Vapor barrier is necessary to ensure sufficient humidity in the steam room to minimize steam loss.

As such, you can use glassine, roofing felt or sheet foam. Next, a subfloor is laid over the vapor barrier and its entire area between the beams is covered with thermal insulation material, on top of which a layer of waterproofing is laid. It is needed to protect against moisture. To guarantee it, it is laid with an overlap. The whole process ends with laying the finished floor.

It is most rational to lay the floor from softwood lumber, which has a number of advantages:

• the resin contained in the wood will significantly increase the service life of the floor;
• when the floor is wet there is no slipping;
• the smell of pine needles is beneficial to health.

The floor in the bathhouse is always in special conditions, which dictate the need for a scrupulous selection of materials suitable for its insulation. For a bathhouse where the humidity is very high, only materials with a closed cellular structure can be used as thermal insulation. Such thermal insulation materials include extruded polystyrene foam or simply polystyrene foam. This is a modern non-toxic material. It is environmentally friendly and not susceptible to microorganisms. Due to its structure, the foam does not get wet, therefore it retains its low thermal conductivity for an almost unlimited time.

It is recommended to lay foam boards on a well-leveled surface. Due to their light weight, they do not create additional load on the foundation. As a rule, the thickness of the foam is made no more than 25 cm - this is enough to ensure that heat loss in the bath is minimal.

Installation of a heated floor in a concrete bath

Install a heated floor in a bathhouse with concrete floors follows in this sequence:

• The foundation of the bathhouse is covered with a concrete floor slab. A waterproofing building material is laid on top of it - preferably euroroofing felt. This is a new generation material, very durable, quite easy to install;
• then they put a layer of insulation - expanded polystyrene has proven itself, however, the use of small fraction expanded clay is allowed;
• then the insulation is covered with reinforcing mesh and filled with cement-sand screed. The screed is leveled and ceramic tiles are glued onto it.

Insulation of the floor in the rest room

The floor in this room is never wet. Therefore, here it is quite acceptable to do this: lay mineral wool insulation between two glassine plates and cover the subfloor with this “sandwich”, and lay the finishing floor on top.

Warm heated floors

Nowadays there is enough in the consumer market big choice modern heated floors. They can be water heated or electrically heated: cable, film, rod. You can create a warm floor in a bath using electric and infrared heated floors. They are safe to use. They provide good room heating and are quite economical. In addition, it has a known healing effect infrared radiation on the body - so such floors will help you quickly restore your well-being and improve your mood. This type of underfloor heating is produced in the form of thermal film and mats made from heating rods.

A core floor consists of flexible rods that are laid directly into a floor screed of any thickness, even into the adhesive layer of ceramic tiles. This floor can be installed under different types coverings, including those for standard tiles.

If the bathhouse has wooden floors, it is better to use infrared thermal film. It is successfully capable of heating not only the floor in the steam compartment, but also the shelves and the rest room. The function of the heating element is performed by a special film material.

You can install an infrared floor at any time. To do this, just lift the top floor covering and lay thermal film under it. It is usually produced in the form of a roll, which can be rolled out to easily and conveniently be cut to the desired size.

Another modern way make a warm floor in a bathhouse - installing a “warm floor” system. The system is equipped with special electrical cables that heat up when current passes through them. Despite the fact that everything is connected with the use of electricity, the system is safe.

When installing the system, all stages of constructing the floor itself are carried out: it is leveled, covered with a sand cushion 150 mm thick, filled with concrete (layer up to 60 mm) and after reinforcing the frame and re-filling it, a heated floor system is installed. Using this technology you can make a water heated floor in a bathhouse.

It should be noted that it is not recommended to install a heated floor system yourself. It is better to contact specialists so that there are no problems with the operation of the system in the future.

Insulation of floors is important, since the microclimate of the room as a whole depends on their temperature. The cost of floor insulation pays off in one to two years, and significant savings on heating are felt already in the first heating season. In this article we will look at methods of floor insulation depending on its type and purpose of the room.

It is worth noting that floors should only be insulated on the first floor. On the second and subsequent floors, it is advisable to insulate the floor only if there is an unheated room underneath it. Let's consider insulation various types floor coverings.

Wooden floors on joists

Floors on joists lose a significant amount of heat due to the voids between the subfloor and the finished floor. Therefore, to insulate it, you need to fill the empty space with heat-insulating material. This could be mineral wool or fiberglass. When choosing a material, it is worth remembering that wooden floors must be ventilated to avoid rotting. To do this, leave a very small gap near the walls.

To install thermal insulation, it is necessary to empty the room of all furniture and dismantle the finished floor ( parquet board, lining, parquet). Next, you need to treat the subfloor with an antiseptic compound, if this has not been done previously, and you can lay the material.

If the finished floor is laid on joists and there is a basement, then you need to tighten the basement ceiling with construction mesh. Heat-insulating material should be placed in the space between the mesh and the floor.

As a less expensive and more simple way To insulate wooden floors, you can also consider laying carpet or carpet, which will not only be warm, but also pleasant to the touch.

How to make a concrete floor warmer

The most common method of insulating a concrete floor is laying chipboard on a concrete screed. If soft thermal insulation material (for example, mineral wool), then the floors will be even warmer and softer.

It should be remembered that with such insulation of the floor, its level will rise somewhat, which may affect the location of door thresholds and sockets, so their adjustment must be provided for in advance.

To prevent the insulation from being exposed to moisture, it is necessary to cover it with a moisture-proof membrane. This membrane will protect the insulation from getting wet and at the same time provide ventilation to the floors.

Tiled floor

The tiled floor is always cold because it has a high thermal conductivity coefficient and is laid on a concrete screed. Such a floor can only be insulated by installing a water-based heated floor system or by laying carpet on top of the tiles.

Heat loss through the baseboard

Very often, due to uneven walls or floors, heat leaves the room through the gaps between the baseboard and the wall and the baseboard and the floor. IN in this case very simple and effective method will fill all the cracks with regular sealant.

Warm floors are no longer a new thing. This technology is used for heating floors in apartments, private houses, offices and various other premises. Their operating principle is simple - they heat the base under your feet, as well as the air in the room, which allows you to warm up any room quite well. They are usually installed in addition to the main heating system. Installing them is not as complicated as it seems, but it is quite a troublesome task. How to make a heated floor correctly? This process will largely depend on what type of system has been chosen for installation.

Now there are three main types of heated floors, which differ in the type of coolant, and also have different technology of arrangement. However, in general they have one main advantage in common - a heating element is installed directly into the floor pie, due to which it is heated. At the same time, the air masses in the room also warm up, but near the floor the air will be warmer, while above this limit, at the level of a person’s head, the air remains slightly cool, which allows you to create an optimal microclimate in the room.

On a note! In certain cases, underfloor heating can completely replace a central heating system. But this is not always possible, and you still shouldn’t give up on basic radiators.

Water based heating

In this case, the coolant is ordinary heated water, which flows inside pipes laid according to a certain pattern and filled with concrete screed. The service life of such a system is approximately 20 years. A fairly reliable and safe option, but it is used either in private homes or in new buildings where it is possible to connect such a floor. In old multi-storey buildings without permission management company It will not be possible to connect a water floor, since installation will involve connecting it to a central heating system that is not designed for additional loads - it can become very cold in other apartments.

The disadvantages of this design may be the likelihood of leaks and the risk of flooding of rooms located below, as well as the tendency of some types of pipeline to corrosion. Installation, of course, is labor-intensive, but this is one of the most economical flooring options. This type of heating can be installed under any finishing coating. However, if you want to use the capabilities of water heated floors as efficiently as possible, study the features different coatings. Find perfect option will help .

Heating with cable

Such floors can be installed in absolutely any room - be it in old or new apartments, houses, offices, etc. This option has become a real salvation for those who, for some reason, cannot install a water-heated floor. The system is quite simple to install and consists of a specially laid electrical cable located inside the screed. It converts electricity into heat.

Can be used for heating self-regulating and resistive cables. In the latter case, a two-core one is usually used (single-core ones often become sources of radiation harmful to the body, which is why they are not preferred to be used). Self-regulating wires do not have the disadvantages that resistive wires have. Typically, cable flooring is used if the finishing coating is made of tiles or linoleum.

IR floor

This is perhaps the most popular floor heating system, as it does not require pouring a new screed, is easy to install, but is not inferior in quality to other heating options. It is represented by thin mats with carbon strips connected to each other by wires. Such floors heat up quickly, but also cool down quickly (sometimes this function is needed), are very thin, allow you to quickly adjust the heating temperature, are economical in terms of energy consumption, are easy to repair and are completely safe for humans. This system also works thanks to electricity. There is a drawback - a little static and because of this - the attraction of dust to the base. Read more about infrared heated floors depending on the finish coating in separate articles on the portal: under laminate, and under tiles.

Table. Comparison of characteristics of different systems.

Characteristic	Water floor	Electric floor
Availability of EMR	No	Possibly depending on cable type
Possibility of arrangement in apartment buildings	Only in new buildings with a separate connection	Yes
Quickly manage settings	No	Yes
Dependence on heating season	Yes - in apartments and no - in private houses	No
Installation time	Long due to the need to fill the screed	Short
Possibility of laying any finishing coating	Yes	Certain types of coverings cannot be laid over an electric floor
Easy to repair	Complex repair	In the case of IR floors - quick repair

If you have not yet decided on the type of heated floor, read. There we examined in detail the advantages and disadvantages different materials and compiled a list of recommendations.

Making a warm water floor with your own hands

Let's take a closer look at the work process when installing water floor heating. It includes a number of stages - preparation of the rough base, installation of the system itself, as well as pouring the screed and laying the finishing coating. In this case it will be considered a budget option creating a heating system.

Warm floors are a serious cost item during renovation, so it is important to accurately calculate how much and what materials will be needed. To ease your labor costs, we have prepared a guide that tells you how to calculate a heated floor - water or electric. Online calculators included. And in the article “” you will find full list everything you might need during installation.

Preparing the base

Let's look at how to make a subfloor for installing a water system based on expanded clay.

Step 1. First of all, the old wooden floor is completely dismantled. Boards and joists are removed. Remnants of bricks and oversized construction debris may be left on the foundation.

Step 2. A laser level is used to determine the height of the final floor. The main reference point for the required level is the front door. The marking should be 1.5-2 cm below the threshold.

Step 3. Markings are applied to the walls. The first mark marks the boundary of the screed with the installed heating pipes (the thickness of the screed should not be less than 6 cm thick). The second indicates the thickness of the expanded clay insulation (in this case, the thickness of this layer will be 10 cm).

Step 4. Along the laser level line, marks are applied to the walls along the entire perimeter according to the level of the finished floor.

Step 5. Markings of two other levels are applied to the walls - expanded clay bedding and screed. The reference point in this case is the finished floor mark.

Step 6. The rough concrete floor is covered with sand, which is evenly distributed over it. You can focus on the lower mark.

Step 8

Step 9 Holes in the walls left from the logs are sealed with pieces of brick and cement mortar.

Step 10 Waterproofing is laid on a layer of sand. In this case, it is a thick polyethylene film that is factory-installed on the walls. For convenience, the film is fixed with tape.

Step 11 The installation of beacons begins. For this purpose, high-density foam block cubes are used, on which metal beacons will then be installed. The cubes are placed on polyethylene at a distance of about 1 m from each other. The height of one cube is 9 cm.

Step 12 Metal beacon profiles 1 cm high are installed on the cubes.

Step 13 A cube must be installed at the joints of the beacons. For proper docking, the beacons are trimmed. When docked correctly, the beacons overlap each other in the direction of the future movement of the rule.

Step 14 Beacons are set according to level. Landmark - a line on the wall indicating the height of the screed. To level them, you can use plywood pads.

Step 15 When the beacons are level, they are fixed to the cubes using self-tapping screws.

Step 16 The subfloor should have a slight slope (the difference is up to 5 mm for each meter of base length). If necessary, the cubes can be pressed into the sand to achieve the desired result. The operation is carried out along the entire length of the beacons.

Step 17 Additional cubes are installed between the main cubes.

Step 18 Expanded clay is mixed with a small amount of cement mixture. This will result in a stronger floor. A bucket of sand, 2 kg of cement and about 3 liters of water are used for a bag of expanded clay.

Step 19 The prepared expanded clay is laid out on the base and leveled. Backfilling is done starting from the far corner of the room. There should be about 1.5 cm of free space left to the top level of the beacons.

Step 20. The expanded clay layer is covered with cement mortar. The solution is leveled with a trowel over the entire surface.

Step 21 The screed is aligned using the beacon rule. Ideal evenness may not be achieved. To make it easy to remove the beacons from the screed, their surface is not covered.

Step 22 After two days, when the screed has dried, the beacons are removed. To do this, the screws securing them are unscrewed. Wooden linings are removed along with the beacons.

Step 23 After this, the resulting cracks are cleared of debris and sealed with cement mortar.

Laying the pipe system and connecting

After preparation, the installation of the heating system itself begins.

Step 1. In this case, the existing heating system will be retained based on a gas boiler. The battery is powered by a supply circuit located on the second floor. The water leaving the radiator is directed to the return circuit, which is located in the basement. The warm floor will be connected to the second output of the battery and to the return circuit. Taps will be installed to turn off the radiator and heated floor. A circulation pump will be installed at the entrance to the return circuit.

Step 2. The radiator is equipped with the necessary fittings. These are connectors and pipes. Plumbing flax and sealant are used to seal the connection.

Step 3. This is what the finished battery outputs will look like. One of them will be used to connect the heated floor.

Step 4. Before further installation of pipes, a damper tape is glued around the perimeter of the room (we have already discussed its choice). She sticks to the walls using glue.

Step 5. Multifoil, a special insulation material, is placed on the rough screed. Individual strips of material are fixed to each other using tape.

Step 6. A reinforcing mesh with 10x10 cm cells is placed on top of the foil. Individual pieces are overlapped by 1-2 cells. The mesh is connected to each other using wire.

Step 7 The pipe leading to the return line is installed and connected.

Step 8 A water floor pipe with a cross-section of 20 mm is mounted to the other exit from the battery. You can put a piece of protective corrugation on the initial section of the pipe.

Step 9 The pipe is laid on the floor and fixed to the reinforcing mesh using plastic clamps. When laying, it is important to ensure that there are no kinks in the pipe. To form the elbows, you can use a hairdryer to heat the pipe. The distance in the circuit between adjacent pipes should be about 20 cm in this case.

Step 10 The heated floor pipe is laid in a snake pattern.

Step 11 The ends of the return pipe and the heated floor are directed into metal pipes leading to the basement. Voids can be sealed with foam.

Step 12 Sections of the metal mesh that rise above the floor level are fixed to the base of the floor using dowels and metal plates.

Step 13 Further work will be carried out in the basement. A circulation pump is being installed. It connects to the return pipe. Two taps are also installed in the system. One of them will block natural circulation. The lower valve completely closes the entrance to the return pipe.

Step 14 The control unit is assembled and all pipes are connected. In natural circulation mode, water flows through the heated floor pipe into the return line with both taps open. If you turn off the top tap, water from the heated floor will move through an additional pipe towards the pump - this is a mode for quickly warming up the floor. If the bottom tap is closed when the pump is turned off, the heated floor will be completely turned off.

Pipes connected

Filling the screed

The final stage of installing a water floor is pouring the screed and laying the floor covering.

Step 1. To make the screed even, metal beacons are installed. They are located on pieces of concrete.

Step 2. Pieces of concrete are fixed to the base using cement mortar.

Step 3. The beacons are fixed to the concrete using self-tapping screws in pre-made holes. All of them must be strictly level.

Advice! It is better to start installing the first beacons from the side of the door. This will allow you to more correctly select their height relative to the doorway.

Step 4. Getting ready concrete mortar according to exact proportions.

Step 5. The concrete is evenly distributed over the prepared floor.

Important! At the time of laying the screed, the floor pipes must be filled with water.

Step 6. The concrete solution is leveled along the beacons using a rule.

Step 7 The screed is dried for 28 days. The floor is covered with a finishing coating.

Video - Installation of a water floor

Video - Installation of infrared floor heating

The complexity and entire process of making a heated floor will depend on which heating option is chosen. A water floor is perhaps the most best option for arranging base heating in a private house or new building. For those who don’t want to bother with screeds, we can recommend using infrared floors.

In a home's heat exchange system, floors are one of the places where heat is lost most. This is especially true for concrete floors, which, despite all their excellent performance qualities, have one serious drawback - concrete is a very cold material. And for comfortable living in a house with concrete floors, high-quality, multi-layer thermal insulation is required. Insulation of a concrete floor in a house, especially if it is the floor of the first floor, is a strict necessity, but performing all the work is not particularly difficult. The main thing is compliance with insulation technology and the availability of skills in handling the tool.

Insulation for concrete floors

Reliable and high-quality thermal insulation of a concrete floor directly depends on the thermal insulation materials used, which differ in performance characteristics, as well as location and operating conditions. Choosing the right material should be the first thing you do when looking for an answer to the question of how to properly insulate a concrete floor.

When choosing thermal insulation, you need to pay attention to the following characteristics:

• density is responsible for the total weight of the material. The lower this indicator, the more porous the material and the more more heat he can hold it indoors;
• strength material, can be both in bending and compression. To insulate a concrete floor, materials with a high strength index will be required due to large loads on the floor surface;
• coefficient of thermal conductivity shows the ability of a material to transmit heat through itself. The lower this indicator, the better;
• moisture resistance the material must be very high, otherwise the material located between the concrete screed and the soil will quickly lose its properties;
• moisture permeability, unlike moisture resistance, should be minimal. Otherwise, the material will quickly gain excess moisture and lose its thermal insulation qualities;
• durability. With this indicator, everything is simple: the higher it is, the better;
• environmental friendliness. This characteristic will be useful to those who strive to build an environmentally friendly house using natural materials.

The following materials are often used to insulate a concrete floor:

• mineral and basalt wool. These thermal insulation materials enjoy constant popularity. They have low thermal conductivity and density (although there are slab positions with high density), as well as excellent sound insulation. Unfortunately, cotton wool is not environmentally friendly, absorbs moisture well, and does not tolerate a humid environment. The use of cotton wool as insulation for a concrete floor is justified only when the raised floor is insulated;
• Styrofoam. The second name is expanded polystyrene. Today, insulating concrete floors with polystyrene foam is common practice. This material has excellent thermal conductivity, moisture resistance and moisture permeability. It has the following disadvantages: it is not environmentally friendly and quite fragile;
• extruded polystyrene foam. This material is a derivative of conventional foam and has a number of significant differences. Firstly, extruded polystyrene foam is much stronger. Secondly, the durability of EPS is greater than that of conventional foam. Thirdly, thermal conductivity, water absorption and water resistance are an order of magnitude higher in XPS.

• polyurethane foam. This material has excellent thermal conductivity and is resistant to moisture and temperature changes. Perfectly tolerates mechanical loads without loss of thermal insulation properties, durable. The only drawback is that it is not environmentally friendly;

• expanded clay This material is often used as a substitute for crushed stone in concrete and for insulating the latter. Thermal insulation properties expanded clay can reduce the thermal conductivity of concrete several times. Despite the low thermal conductivity coefficient and environmental friendliness, expanded clay has a number of significant shortcomings. Firstly, the total weight of the expanded clay insulating layer is quite large. Secondly, expanded clay perfectly absorbs and retains moisture;
• foam glass. As a heat insulator, foam glass has a number of undeniable advantages. These include low thermal conductivity and specific gravity, the ability not to absorb moisture, environmental friendliness of the material, immunity to moisture, and very high durability. The only serious drawback is the certain fragility of the material, which does not withstand mechanical loads well;
• cork. Absolutely natural insulation with excellent thermal insulation characteristics. The only thing that should be noted is that cork is best used for insulating raised floors and as a thermal insulation layer under the finishing floor covering;
• perlite This thermal insulation material is similar in the way it is used with expanded clay. The difference lies in the characteristics of perlite, which are an order of magnitude better than those of expanded clay.

The table below shows the main characteristics of thermal insulation materials that you will have to focus on when choosing them. Of particular note is the thermal conductivity of different types of concrete with different fillers. This little secret will help answer the question of what is the best way to insulate a concrete floor.

Table 1.

Features of concrete floor insulation

Before you begin directly to insulate a concrete floor, you need to understand the insulation technology, as well as choose the most suitable insulation option from the existing ones.

The technology for insulating a concrete floor consists of creating multi-layer thermal insulation and consists of several stages of work. The first stage of concrete floor insulation is performed before pouring the rough screed. The second stage of insulation occurs during creation and pouring concrete mixture. At the third stage, insulation of the concrete floor is performed during the creation of the floor covering. It should immediately be noted that it is best to insulate a concrete floor when creating it from scratch. This is the only way to ensure a high-quality level of insulation.

There are only a few ways to insulate a concrete floor. Each of them is performed at its own time as the floor is created. Each of these methods is discussed in more detail below.

• Laying insulation under a concrete screed. Such insulation is performed during the creation of a concrete floor from scratch. Therefore, if you want to insulate the floor in an already built house, you will first have to completely destroy the old concrete screed to the base. With this method of insulation, materials with high strength, resistance to mechanical loads, moisture-resistant and durable are used.
• Today it is especially popular "warm floor" system, which allows you to create active heating of the concrete floor over its entire area. Such a system is placed on top of a layer of insulation and filled with concrete screed. Warm floors can be water or electric. In any case, heating the floor using such a system will require the use of a third-party energy source. Concrete heated water floors or electric heated floors are more related to the active heating system. But in general, they are perfect for insulation.
• Another option for insulating a concrete field is adding such fillers to the mixture, like expanded clay or perlite instead of the usual crushed stone. Thanks to your thermal insulation characteristics These materials make it possible to reduce the thermal conductivity of concrete several times. Concrete with expanded clay or perlite can be used both to create a base on the ground and for screed.
• One of the common options for insulating concrete floors on upper floors is creation of a “raised floor”. This method of insulation involves the arrangement wooden logs and filling the space between them with insulation. This approach is useful in that it reduces the overall load on the foundation of the house, and is useful for those who do not want to bother with pouring a concrete screed.

• You can also insulate a finished concrete floor using a floor covering. To do this it is enough to use insulated flooring materials . For example, warm linoleum or carpet. In addition, when creating a finishing floor covering, you can lay a layer of cork, foamed polyethylene or other thin-layer insulation underneath it.

All of the above insulation methods, depending on the situation, can be used both in combination and separately. For example, if it is impossible to install insulation under the screed, you can limit yourself to using expanded clay and creating a multi-layer finishing coating. Or, when creating a “warm floor” system, do not install a multi-layer warm finishing coating.

How to insulate a concrete floor

There is nothing complicated about how to make a warm concrete floor. The first thing you have to do is perform a series preparatory work. And depending on whether the floor insulation will be on the ground or on the interfloor ceiling, choose insulation methods and materials.

As previously noted, there are several ways to insulate a concrete floor over the ground. Below we will look in more detail at the two most commonly used ones. This is the creation of multi-layer thermal insulation and a “warm floor” system.

Insulation of a concrete floor - multi-layer cake

Regardless of the insulation method, you must first do the following:

• If you have to repair and insulate a concrete floor in an already built house, you will have to remove the old screed to the base. Re-make the bedding from the sand-gravel mixture, and then compact it thoroughly;
• a layer of “skinny” concrete is poured on top of the resulting cushion, which serves as the basis for waterproofing and insulation;
• After the concrete base hardens and gains strength, we lay a layer of waterproofing on top. At the same time, we strive to make it as reliable as possible. Errors or shortcomings at this stage can lead to the penetration of moisture into the insulation, which will reduce its performance characteristics, and over time the moisture will reach the finishing screed. As a result, high humidity indoors and constantly cold floors. To prevent this from happening, we overlap the waterproofing and seal the joints with tape;
• Now that the waterproofing is ready, we lay a layer of thermal insulation. For these purposes, you can use polystyrene foam, extruded polystyrene foam, foam glass, and polyurethane foam. Materials in the form of mats or slabs are laid on an adhesive composition. We place the materials themselves staggered, thereby reducing the likelihood of cold bridges appearing and increasing the strength of the thermal insulation layer. We lay a damper tape along the perimeter of the heat-insulating layer between the wall and the edge of the material;

Important! A layer of thermal insulation made of polyurethane foam can be constructed from slabs, or by spraying. In the second case, you will get a seamless coating. One more important point It is optional to install vapor and waterproofing when using polyurethane foam.

• Having arranged the main layer of thermal insulation, we lay another layer of waterproofing on top of it, after which we install the reinforcing mesh and fill in the rough concrete screed. At this stage, you can also further insulate the concrete floor. To do this, we use expanded clay or perlite as a concrete filler instead of crushed stone.

Important! Due to specific performance characteristics Expanded clay and perlite are best used in a semi-dry mortar screed. Another feature is the use of filler of different fractions, which will ensure more dense filling of the screed and its strength.

• After allowing the screed to dry completely and gain strength, you can begin arranging the final floor covering. At this stage you can also insulate the concrete floor. For this purpose, a special insulating substrate and floor materials with good thermal conductivity are used. You can use cork or polyethylene foam as a backing. It is worth noting that for a certain type of flooring it is necessary to use a different type of underlay. So, foamed polyethylene is not suitable for linoleum; instead, you need to use cork. Therefore, before laying the insulating underlay, you need to make sure that it is compatible with the floor covering.

Installation of a "warm floor" system

To make a concrete floor on the ground really warm, so much so that it will be pleasant to walk on it barefoot, you will have to install a water or electric heated floor system. It should be noted that a concrete water heated floor is somewhat more difficult to install, since in addition to water pipes placed under the screed, you will have to install equipment for heating and forced circulation, which will affect the volume and complexity of the work.

Such a system is laid directly on the thermal insulation layer. But there is one important feature- the thermal insulation material must have a foil coating to reflect most of the heat into the room. Of course, you can use any suitable thermal insulation material, but be sure to lay a reflective foil barrier on top of it.

After laying and checking the functionality of the system, we lay the reinforcing mesh and pour the concrete screed. To install a warm floor system, the concrete solution can be made without crushed stone or expanded clay.

Insulation of a concrete floor in a house with several floors is carried out using one of the methods described above, as well as by creating a false floor. Such a floor can be quite easily installed in any room on the upper floors.

Important! It should be noted that if the ground floor can still be deepened relatively painlessly in order to maintain the height of the room, then when insulating the upper floors it is necessary to very carefully monitor the thickness of the floor with insulation.

Insulate concrete floor Using a raised floor you can do the following:

• clean the surface of the ceiling from dirt and, if necessary, level it;
• using wooden beam 50x100 mm, we install logs throughout the entire area of ​​the room. The step between the lags is 50 - 60 cm;
• Lay a layer of waterproofing on top. Let the edges overlap and seal with tape;
• We put insulation inside. This can be cotton wool, polystyrene foam, EPS, expanded clay, perlite or other insulation;
• We lay moisture-resistant plywood or chipboards on top of the logs, after which we can install the finishing floor covering.

Important! A raised floor can significantly reduce the height of a room. Therefore, before insulating a concrete floor using a raised floor, you need to make sure that this method of insulation is appropriate.

When insulating concrete floors, the main thing is to choose the right method and materials to use for the work. And following the technology will allow you to create truly reliable insulation that prevents heat loss. It should also be remembered that insulation of concrete floors is just part of the overall thermal insulation of the house. Of course, quite a lot of heat is lost through the floors, but by insulating only them, you may not get the desired effect. That is why it is so important to insulate the entire house as a whole.