Cold kitchen floor - options

[ntl142]

My kitchen floor is freezing cold. It's a suspended wooden floor, consisting of OSB or something similar with thin ceramic (may be plastic) jointed tiles on top. I've added 170mm underfloor insulation and draughtproofed everything bar the extractor fan, and it's made little difference, even though we now keep the room warmer with the radiators. Basically whatever the tile material is, it sucks heat out of your feet very rapidly. The dining room next door is the same floor construction but with engineered oak instead of the plastic/ceramic tiles, and this is lovely to walk on (even without underfloor insulation).

I want to add another layer of something on top of the tiled kitchen floor to make it a more comfortable surface to stand on in cold weather. I've considered cork but don't really like the look of it. What other options are available? I don't want to lift the units to do it, and ideally would just butt the new flooring up against the kickboards. I've seen rubber tiles and insulated laminate tiles mentioned, and natural strand woven bamboo (current favourite) but I'm interested in first hand experience from anyone else that has been down this route before.

 

[HERTS P&D]

Slippers? I know it's a new idea, It might just catch on.

Andy

 

[ntl142]

Thanks.

 

[dazlight]

You could down Jumpax then LVT onto or vinyl.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

The problem is that tile, stone and concrete are all cold floors in the UK. I don't think it matters how much insulation you stick beneath the floor - the tile will still require a lot of heat to be put into it in order to be warm (although once warm I believe it will often stay that way with only moderate energy input - at least that's how underfloor heating with tiles above seems to work). I have a stone flag floor in my kitchen, so I know what the problem is...

I want to add another layer of something on top of the tiled kitchen floor to make it a more comfortable surface to stand on in cold weather. I've considered cork but don't really like the look of it. What other options are available?

Very few. I've tried vinyl flooring and even vinyl over insulated underlay. They don't work. Similarly a neighbour has laminate over insulated board over flags and that is little better. The only thing I've come across which work is cork, which is now what I have. Unless, of course, you go the other route and rip out the tiles before laying something more suitable

 

[foxhole]

Vinyl cushion flooring .

 

[ntl142]

Thanks. Cushioned vinyl was top of my list - interesting to hear opposite views from two people. JobAndKnock, can you tell me why it didn't work? Natural strand woven bamboo boards gets a lot of good review for this purpose, but a bit out of my budget at the moment unfortunately.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

....can you tell me why it didn't work?

Possibly because of the mass of the stone flags? The ones in our kitchen are about 8ft x 3ft x 3-1/2in thick and when they get cold, they really get cold and stay that way. The vinyl I tried (Nairn Cushionflor) didn't seem to have enough insulation in it on the cold mornings to prevent me getting chilled feet - not as bad as walking on bare flag stones, however. A near neighbour has put in 4mm cork over a levelling compound (flags can be all over the shop in terms of flatness) then covered that with vinyl and his floor is actually not bad in winter

 

[ntl142]

Many thanks. I've got significantly less mass than that, and it's insulated from below so heat loss through the floor should be minimal. I think it is just conductivity from foot to ceramic that is so fast in my case. Hopefully the insulated vinyl will be ok. Cheers.