lagging pipes below first floor floorboards?

[Mcfly1]

hi guys as title says is it necessary to insulate pipes below floorboards and joists on the ground floor of a building, i havnt personally seen any that have frozen down there, even last winter..

cheers

 

[muggles]

Ground floor or first floor? You mention both, one in the title the other in your question. Generally I'd say yes under a suspended ground floor and no under a first floor

 

[Mcfly1]

yeah it was ground floor, agreed think i should lag for best

 

[expertgasman]

yeah it was ground floor, agreed think i should lag for best

They should be lagged simply due to heat loss, regadless of freezing considerations.

 

[bobgroups123]

If i have some C.H. pipes under floorboards already lagged with what looks like hessian wool lagging - while i have the floorboards up should i replace this with any other lagging to give better insulation? Thanks, Bob

 

[Armo74]

Proper pipe lagging would probably be better less conductive so should give you better insulation and less heat loss but up to you really on how bigger job it is and if it is for your own piece of mind. If it is on the ground floor and a space that is not heated they should be lagged anyway.

 

[ALEC1]

Now a days you lag pipes to keep the heat where you want it not, to stop it freezing..

Gas going up in mind will focus a few minds though!

 

[dhutch]

And, without wishing the gatecrash the thread, what would you use to lag said pipes/

Aluminium Faced Rockwool/Glass Pipe Insulation?
Black Nitrile/Neoprene rubber foam 'Armaflex' Type?
Or the grey polyethylene foam 'Climaflex' Type?

Ordered in order of cost, afaik.


Daniel

 

[Phill Peck]

You have kinda answered it yourself.

They go up/down in cost roughly in accordance with quality/thermal value

Generally climax lex is most commonly used

The aluminium stuff is mainly used on big budget commercial jobs.
You won't see it much in domestic

 

[diyAlex]

We have a suspended wooden floor and the cavity underneath has air circulating due to air bricks. So when I put new central heating pipes down there I lagged them all with the grey climaxflex stuff (the 1m long sleeves you get from toolstation as 3-packs).

When I tested this by touch, the outside of the lagging was no noticable warmth whilst the pipe was too hot to grasp. So it was keeping the heat in or near the pipe.

I did this because I did not want to loose heat under the floor - I just want it in my rads, and what the rads don't use I want to give back to the boiler.

 

[dhutch]

You have kinda answered it yourself.

They go up/down in cost roughly in accordance with quality/thermal value

Generally climax lex is most commonly used

Fair enough.

Obviously anything is better than nothing and the advantage drops off from there, and your comments tie with what ive seen, but I just wondered what was going into new builds these days.

Daniel