Better insulation for cold floor

[Mozy123]

Hi Everyone!

I am spending my first winter in my current flat, and finding out that it is not up to the job of keeping me warm

With the heating on full blast in every room, the place never got up to a reasonable room temperature during the cold spell we recently had, so I'm looking at the options to remedy this (probably for next year).

The flat has (I think anyway) a concrete floor, under which is nice cold fresh air - I'm above a row of parking bays for the block (built in the mid 1970's by the way).

There's laminate throughout the living room, hall and kitchen (very cold to stand on), and carpet in the 2 bedrooms (both of which never got warm enough either). The previous owners look to have put the current layer of laminate directly on top of the original parque.

I suppose what I want to know a bit more about is what route I should take to get the place better insulated and warm:

- I don't know what insulation there is under the floor, but what difference would it make if I put down high quality stuff and new laminate (which I want to do anyway)?

- Is it likely that the radiators are just too old and not up to the job of heating the rooms? They look original, are all a good size and get hot, so I thought most of the heat was just leaking away.

- I'm looking at perhaps putting in under floor heating, would this be enough to heat the whole room (and get rid of the radiators), or would it be easier to just upgrade the radiators?!

Not sure the best thing to do here, any information would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!

 

[crazydaze]

How efficient are the windows and doors?

There will be benefits to ensuring underlays under the carpets and laminate have high tog ratings, but what quality are the windows?

Our flat has benefitted massively from new double glazing this winter compared to last winter with old & tired & draughty double glazing.

As for underlays, I would recommend a felt underlay like Axminster Axfelt65 under the carpets and something like timbermateXL under the laminate areas, these have very good thermal retention and would be a good barrier over the concrete floors.

Electric underfloor heating will be expensive to run and limits the depth of insulation you can put between itself and the floorcovering (you need plenty of scope for the heat to get through the floorcovering so thick underlays, deep carpets and thick wood/laminate layers are a no no.)

 

[Mozy123]

Forgot that bit of important info .. the flat is fully double glazed, I think it was put in about 3 years ago.

There's trickle vents on them, but even with them closed, it made no difference!

I wonder what the place was like pre double glazing

Also, there is a condensing boiler to power the radiators - any idea how hard it would be to put in wet underfloor heating? (although sounds like it might not be ideal ..)