Floor Insulation

BB78

I live in a ground floor maisonette with a very cold floor, I've been thinking about insulating it for awhile and have seen Homebase have their insulation BOGOF at the moment and B&Q are doing their's half price but I need advise on what type to use????

I know I've got a suspended chipboard floor so could use thermal boards or lay netting and use loft insulation rolls but I am concerned I would be doing the wrong thing as I have air bricks everywhere and also I live next to a forest and am a bit concerned something will get in and make the insulation its new home!! I've also considered using the thermal foil but this has a really low r value so don't know if it would actually make any difference??!!

Can anyone help on this; what type should I use?? Also how difficult is it to do DIY?? I live on my own & don't have anyone to help me and I'm terrified of spiders!! :eek:

latecomer

I've just done the same thing under our bedroom with loft insulation and plastic netting. Its not a pleasant job but its not difficult. I cut the netting into strips of the correct width and then stapled up one length of insulation at a time. When I do the next room I'm going to cut the netting to the length of the area I'm working and staple one side on to the beam then insert the insulation and then staple the other side. This should be a lot easier than my previous method.

I also used a respirator due to the dust. The biggest waste of time was cutting the insulation and netting to the correct size. I got the insulation from homebase BOGOF and the netting from our local garden centre (99p/m, 4m wide).

mikey72

Can you get under the floor under all the rooms, and have enough room to fasten the insulation between the joists?

BB78

mikey72 wrote: »

Can you get under the floor under all the rooms, and have enough room to fasten the insulation between the joists?

When I had my bathroom done a few months ago they had the floor up and there is quite a deep crawl space, but if it means crawling I personally can't get under the floor (knackered knee's & back!)
I've worked out its 28sqm; only got a hall, bedroom & kitchen/living room (open plan room) the only bit not accessible will be under the kitchen cabinets.
I really wanna do this while I can save so much & I don't fancy another winter with cold feet but am I going to encounter lots of eight legged freaks?? I don't mind paying someone to do the job for me but have a nightmare finding workmen! (Been trying for nearly 2 years to get a stud wall taken down & moved back 2 feet and have only managed to get 1 quote in all that time!!)

latecomer

I spend most of my time on my back or knees whiile under the floor. Ours is about 4 feet deep at front going down to about 2.5 feet at the back just to give you some idea. Unless you've got more depth than that you probably dont want to do it yourself.

I didn't come across many spiders though.

BB78

latecomer wrote: »

I spend most of my time on my back or knees whiile under the floor. Ours is about 4 feet deep at front going down to about 2.5 feet at the back just to give you some idea. Unless you've got more depth than that you probably dont want to do it yourself.

I didn't come across many spiders though.

Is that because you didn't take up all the boards?? I thought it was a case of taking everything up first??

latecomer

i didn't remove any floorboards, I did it all from underneath. Removing the floorboards would definitely make it easier to put the insulation in but getting the boards up could be a lot of work. Also you would have to be on your knees all the time while removing the boards, fastening in the netting/mesh and putting in the insulation.