Building Regs and floor insulation

[Andrew Mawson]

I am planning the re-flooring of a barn that eventually will be converted to habitable space, but in the shorter term will be used as a workshop.

Existing very uneven concrete needs completely taking up, and new laying, obviously with a damp proof membrane. To insulate for it's future use I'm contemplating laying it on a layer of expanded polystyrene, and maybe putting in underfloor heating. Anyone got any pointers or maybe already done this? I'm concerned regarding the squashability of the polystyrene.

AWEM

[The Natural Philosopher]

Don't be

Flooring grade stiff is highly strong.

And if concerned, do as I did and use rebar in the floor above. Comes in handy for tying the UFH pipes onto.

In general what you want to do is

1/. structural concrete layer over crushed hardcore. About 3-6" ..

2/. Poly and DPM. Never sure which way round that should go, but sometime easier to put down styrene first. Use at least 50mm if you can.

3/. Lay rebar and tie together,

4/. Lay UFH pipes, clip to rebar and pressurize before screeding.

5/. screed away .

6/. PVA and level if screed is crap :-)

[Bypass]

For some technical details, take a look at Jablite. There are others around.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Andrew Mawson writes

I am also doing this.

I decided that insulation and floor screed should be left until the habitable space conversion arises. Heavy machinery, holding bolts, dropping items likely to damage the screed etc.

Building regs. may change before you are ready. Just remember to leave enough height below the ceiling joists for your future floor:-)

regards

[Andrew Mawson]

Tim,

The idea is to get the conversion partly underway so that the planning permission doesn't expire !

AWEM