Blocking gaps floorboards to keep the house warmer?

Hintza

Jonesya wrote: »

Another possible option, but a lot of work, is you could lift the floorboards and insulate between the supporting timber-work then refit.

When we knocked the cottage down I intended to save the floorboards but after 30 minutes and big 2" tapered nails (similar to a horse shoe nail) I gave up.

spannerzone

my 1906 house has non tongue and groove floorboards and so for the bathroom where we wanted painted floorboards I bought a number or strip wood (about 5mmx10mmx2400mm available from B&Q etc) spent a while planing down where required and nailing / glueing into the gaps, it took ages as all the gaps were of differing widths but it managed to fill the 4-5mm gaps between each board and they won't drop out like filler might..... for any little gaps remaining I ran some caulking/wood filler along the top between the boards and it smoothed out the gap effect nicely.

It looks great and well worth the couple days spent on doing it.... not sure how it would look unpainted though as the new thin pine strips would obviously stand out compared to darker floorboard colours.

Mojisola

If you have a suspended wooden floor, then you will have airbricks which allow the air to flow around in the crawl space below the floorboards. Filling any gaps will reduce draughts but will not stop the heat being lost through the floorboards as the air flow below them will keep drawing the heat away.

If the boards aren't nailed down too well you can lift them and fit insulation between the joists. If that's not feasible and the crawl space is big enough you can get down there and shuffle round on your back, packing the insulation up against the floorboards. It's a really horrible job.

If neither are possible, you'll have much higher fuel bills this winter than if you carpeted the room.

puffin9888

5 years ago we lifted the old carpets, stripped the suspended floorboards, white-washed them, caulked between the gaps, and the varnished over the top. The next winter we really noticed the temperature drop. This year I caulked between the skirting boards and floorboards, and also repaired any gaps that had re-opened. I was surprised at how little repair work I had to do between the gaps. The caulk held better than expected, but there is a big difference in temp.
I am planning to lay cheap carpet for the winter months, and then remove and store it away in the spring. I estimate this will cost £150 and 2 days of my time. I don't fancy removing floorboards.

happy35

we have laminate flooring and I still think that is cold, we will be lifting it and going back to carpet this year as I think the differnce in temperature is very noticable

The difference with just floorboards will be even greater than the laminate

Counting_Pennies_2

Thanks all,

We will have a cellar below also, so I think exposing the wooden floor boards will be ruled out now.

How about exposed wooden floors upstairs, does that alter anything? Heat rising etc?

I was planning on exposed floorboards, painted and rugs over main part?

Mojisola

Counting_Pennies wrote: »

How about exposed wooden floors upstairs, does that alter anything? Heat rising etc?

I was planning on exposed floorboards, painted and rugs over main part?

I don't think it will make much difference to your heating bills but it will be a lot noisier. If you're downstairs, you'll be able to hear people walking about (and children sound like mini-elephants!) and doing other things! The noise from downstairs will travel up - if you have people trying to sleep while others are watching television, they may be disturbed.

loracan1

Counting_Pennies wrote: »

Thanks all,

We will have a cellar below also, so I think exposing the wooden floor boards will be ruled out now.

How about exposed wooden floors upstairs, does that alter anything? Heat rising etc?

I was planning on exposed floorboards, painted and rugs over main part?

I have exposed floorboards in my bedroom, some of the heating pipes run under it and the floor in that part is lovely and warm when I get out of bed in the morning. Never noticed any discernible lack of warmth elsewhere in the room, but the living room is directly underneath. No problems with noise either, but I can tell if someone is walking around up there. It's been like that for the last 10 years or more, still looks great and wouldn't dream of shoving a carpet over it.

DVardysShadow

Counting_Pennies wrote: »

Thanks all,

We will have a cellar below also, so I think exposing the wooden floor boards will be ruled out now.

How about exposed wooden floors upstairs, does that alter anything? Heat rising etc?

I was planning on exposed floorboards, painted and rugs over main part?

Having a cellar gives you access to the underside of the boards and you can cover with wall paper offcuts or anything if you are not precious about the cellar. Or you can just plug the draughts into the cellar.

As for upstairs, the underside of the boards is covered by the ceiling. But the void will often have holes to the wall cavity. If you don't have cavity wall insulation, then these will blow a gale for you.

mkloch

Well many people mentioned carpet, but no carpet will last as long, or look as nice as wooden floor. To solve the problem of draughty floorboards, you can use pine wedges, that you hammer in between the floorboards. I've done it a couple of times and I must say it looks pretty nice. You just need to be careful not to get the ones that are made of fresh pine, it needs to be reclaimed pine! They call it Reclaimed Pine Slivers.