The discomfort of standing on a cold vinyl, tile or wood floor can be talken away with wearing slippers but that doen’t take away the fact that you are losing heat. To get the floor warm you have to turn up the heat and/or put rugs down.
The first project you should undertake is to take off the baseboards and caulk around bottoms of the walls. This will stop any drafts. Next put preformed insulation pads behind all outlet covers and child-proff plugs in the outlet plugs. This will also stop drafts. Doors are the next item to check. Make sure the weather stripping is tight.
Cold floors mean that there is not enough insulation under the floor to keep the cold from getting into the flooring. Ther are many ways to fix this but few of them are cheap, especially if the space is difficult for working.
Floor insulation fights the three main heat loss vehicles: convection, radiation and conduction. Therefore a warm floor reduces the temperature fluctuations that fuels convection. It impedes conduction by adding a thermal break and radiation to the cold beneath the floor.
1. Basement: If the floor is over a basement then the floor isn’t the problem, the basement is cold. If the basement is not meant to be heated then the subflooring can be insulated with fiberglass batts, rigid foam or foam spray insulation. Batts are the easiest. They can lie on top of 1″ X 3″ strapping attached to the bottom of the joists. However this will not work well if the basement is drafty. Rigid foam cut to fit inbetween the joists are better but a closed cell spray foam insulation will seal everything.
2. Garage Apartment: Like a basment a garage can be very cold and drafty. First, fix the drafts. If the ceiling is finished then you can blow in cellulose insulation between the joists. If the ceiling is exposed then fiberglass batts will work but fix the drafts first.
3. Subfloor Removal: Sometimes the floor is framed over a pad but left uninsulated. If you are replaceing the floor anyway the subfloor can be taken up and rigid foam insulation put in. Also, fiberglass battts can be suspended in chicken wire webs strung between the open joists.
4. Floor Insulation: If you are going to change your flooring to tile or hardwood insulation membranes can be added on top of the existing floor. These are a foam product in thicknesses of 1/8″, 3/16″ and 1/4″. The sound dampening qualities are great and they provide a thermal break from the cold which, along with a plastic vapor seal, will keep out drafts and not let cold penetrate.
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