Carpeting room above cold garage

katy123

Our room is above a garage and the floor is cold in the winter. We are looking to carpet over the existing engineered flooring with 10mm underlay and carpet to help with the cold. Just wondering if there's anything we need to be mindful of in terms of mould. Is there any special barrier we need to lay before the carpey underlay? Many thanks

Doozergirl

The carpet will help a bit, but nothing like insulation, or more insulation.   I find that rooms like this are often exposed by having more external walls than usual as well.  

Consider what you've got in terms of insulation from all angles - above, below and at the sides.  

There won't be a mould issue with laying carpet.  Sounds like you have plenty of ventilation under there!

Bendy_House

Katy, the engineered flooring will add some insulation vale, but not much. So there will undoubtedly be much better things you can put down in its place before the carpet.

Is it 'click' type - can you lift it easily? If so, take photos, lift it, and sell it on FB Marketplace

The 'actual' floor underneath - see what type it is, and whether it can be lifted to get insulation under it - I'd suggest the best thing to do. So, if you can, please do, and come back so folk can advise on best insulation method.

If you can't/really don't want to, then work out the absolute max overall thickness you can add to the top of the floor before normal carpet and underlay. Get an actual figure - say, 20mm? We can then find the best possible insulator for the available thickness.

When you expose the actual floor, if it's T&G boards, then it'll almost certainly be worth sealing between them with cheap frame sealant, paying special attention to the room perimeter under the skirting - you want to STOP draughts.

There's probably little chance of accessing the floor from the garage side, as this will/should have been designed as a fire break - not sure what that involves, but you won't want to mess with it.

Let us know actual floor type, max available thickness (can door even be trimmed/shaved a bit?!), and what you'll actually need for your underlay and carpet. It shouldn't take much to make this floor acceptable.

Robin9

Our lounge is over the garage and the 1st year cold.

We tackled from below - taking down the ceiling, lots of fibreglass and then double overlapping plasterboard to meet the fire regs

katy123

Bendy_House said:

Katy, the engineered flooring will add some insulation vale, but not much. So there will undoubtedly be much better things you can put down in its place before the carpet.

Is it 'click' type - can you lift it easily? If so, take photos, lift it, and sell it on FB Marketplace

The 'actual' floor underneath - see what type it is, and whether it can be lifted to get insulation under it - I'd suggest the best thing to do. So, if you can, please do, and come back so folk can advise on best insulation method.

If you can't/really don't want to, then work out the absolute max overall thickness you can add to the top of the floor before normal carpet and underlay. Get an actual figure - say, 20mm? We can then find the best possible insulator for the available thickness.

When you expose the actual floor, if it's T&G boards, then it'll almost certainly be worth sealing between them with cheap frame sealant, paying special attention to the room perimeter under the skirting - you want to STOP draughts.

There's probably little chance of accessing the floor from the garage side, as this will/should have been designed as a fire break - not sure what that involves, but you won't want to mess with it.

Let us know actual floor type, max available thickness (can door even be trimmed/shaved a bit?!), and what you'll actually need for your underlay and carpet. It shouldn't take much to make this floor acceptable.

thank you for all the detailed replies. With the underlay and carpet coming in at 18mm, the max additional insulation for the floor we can add is 10mm. We are not keen on exposing the floor or ceiling. There are built in wardrobes on top of the existing floorining.

greensalad

Cut around the wardrobes? You only need to get some insulation in there, so cut around and then reattach the subfloor.

FaceHead

How about insulating the floor from the garage. Ideally would take the ceiling down and put cellotex between the joists. 

How is the head height in the garage? You could add further insulation by lowering it. 

As doozer says l, you need to consider the room all round, noting that the ceiling is more important to insulate than the floor. 

Doozergirl

FaceHead said:

How about insulating the floor from the garage. Ideally would take the ceiling down and put cellotex between the joists. 

How is the head height in the garage? You could add further insulation by lowering it. 

As doozer says l, you need to consider the room all round, noting that the ceiling is more important to insulate than the floor. 

Hold up.  In a normal house the floor isn't that important, but when you're suspended over a near-open space with a serious amount of draught, it can be freezing. Even an uninsulated suspended floor on the ground floor often has earth surrounding the house keeping it temperate down there.  

I renovated a coach house in a listed building that had nothing and I swear it was the coldest property I have ever worked on.  I felt for the person who had lived there before.   It was unbearable.  

No one wants to take a ceiling down but I'd argue that people can't afford not to insulate properly anymore.  The difference would be dramatic.  

FreeBear

Doozergirl said: No one wants to take a ceiling down but I'd argue that people can't afford not to insulate properly anymore.  The difference would be dramatic.  

And if you are going to the effort and expense of taking ceilings down, you may as well insulate as best you can in the available space. The price difference between (for arguments sake) 150mm of glassfibre and 200mm is minimal. If you need to keep costs down, then do as much of the work yourself as possible.