Hello everyone, recently moved into a new house, for me anyway, and have discovered that in the gap between the downstairs ceiling and the upstairs floor there is nothing, no insulation nothing. Just the plasterboard ceiling and chipboard flooring.
Should there not be insulation between the ceiling and the floor?
At least that explains why the bedroom floor feels warmer than the downstairs floor when I wander about in my bare feet.
Thanks for any help Tracy
No, it is not normal, nor required to insulate the gap between the ground and first floor. Any heat lost by the ground floor simply ends up in the first floor rooms.
Indeed.
Downstairs will be solid concrete, and may not have much insulation under it at all.
I depends.
The only time when it's actually useful is for sound insulation, or when you want to keep the upstairs cold, and heat the bottom floor. If you're heating both floors, then it's not losing you any heat at all.
There is a requirement for sound insulation between floors of new domestic builds:
Tracey Dont worry about it. And most thermal insulants are not good sound insulants either so there is much wasted money being spent by people on insulation between floors (unless done properly at quite high expense). Your downstairs could be concrete or wood, but will probably not have any insulation below it, all new builds have a thick insulation below this floor, but again, unless your renewing a carpet/covering dont worry too much about this. If it is a problem then a fairly cheap solution is to get a carpet fitter in to put down a good thick underlay, which although not perfect will help. The only other alternative is to lift all the downstairs floorboards (assuming its wooden floors) and place insulation between rafters. My advice.... put your feet up and enjoy your new home. Calum Sabey (Newark Traditional Kitchens 01556 690544)
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