Insulation above an unheated basement

[Syd_Rumpo]

Hi all,

My house has an unheated basement which is ‘finished’ (ie has skimmed walls and plasterboard ceilings etc) but as far as I know there is currently no insulation between the ceiling of the basement and the floor of the rooms above.
We will be fitting a new kitchen in the next few months which involves a full rip out of the existing units and flooring.
So I’m wondering if we should take the opportunity to lift the subfloor and add insulation underneath.

If anything I’d assume it’d be the rigid foam board type insulation, but I don’t know if there’s a reason no insulation was fitted in the first place.

The house was built in the late 1980’s and I thought insulation was a thing by that stage, so would I be causing more problems by adding it now?

 

[denso13]

Insulation will certainly help, it must be a cold floor.

 

[robinbanks]

and I thought insulation was a thing by that stage

It might well have been a product on the shelves, but in builders' minds? Not so much. The '80s' regulations for floor insulation were ten times more permissive of heat loss than they are today, with regulations only showing changes in the 90s