Solid floor replacement

[adamjseed]

Hi all,

After some advise about what to do with the flooring in my house. It's a 200 year old farm house which has had a solid concrete floor laid in the last 15 years ( before I bought it). It's basically cold and I doubt there is any insulation beneath it. That coupled with an extension reducing the amount of walls for rafiator has left me thinking about underfloor heating.

Putting aside the huge amount of effort to dig out the current floor I have a few questions:

1 what's the debt I need to dig down to?
2 what is the general makeup of a modern solid floor including thicknesses?
3 as I am still going to live in the house while i do the floor in sections I am planning on doing the underfloor heating pipes in one go. Is the insulation stage before pipes walkable on?

Any other advise welcome

Thanks.

 

[Adam182]

Hi Adam,

1, Entirely depends on what is there already. Let's say you took it back to bare earth.

I would go for 150mm hardcore compressed with a Wacker plate, followed by 25mm sand again compressed with a Wacker plate.

Now lay a 1200gauge Damp Proof Membrane lapped up the sides to finish above the finished floor height.

Then 100mm concrete mix levelled off.

Follow this with a 50 - 75mm PIR insulation board layer.

Now fit your UFH with clips into the insulation board and top off with a 50 - 75mm screed layer.

Depending on the final finish for the floor (tiles/wood etc) there may be an optimal thickness for the screed.

2, See 1

3, Yes it's perfectly fine to walk on the PIR insulation board but obviously the sooner the better to get the final screed layer down.

Hope this helps.

 

[^woody^]

And a building control application

 

[adamjseed]

@Adam182 thanks.