UKC

I'm planning a kitchen refurb on our new house. While the units are out and the old tile floor is up I thought it might be useful to insulate the floor (we are ASHP heating). I don't want underfloor heating and the flooring will be a vinyl roll. What are the options for insulating. The extreme is take up screed and concrete, lay DPM and recast the floor with insulation under it.

I'm only looking for a small improvement, so the vinyl feels warmer. I wondered about DPM on the screed, then the kind of insulation that goes under laminate flooring followed by either a thin screed of self levelling compound or 6mm ply. That won't add much height to the floor and won't add much delay between stripping out and new kitchen, but is it worth it.

In reply to Philip:
More simply, buy some Celt slippers. Thick soles and lambs wool lining. Does the job for us

In reply to Skol:



More seriously, when I got my thermal modelling results back for the heat pump I was surprised how much heat loss is through the floor.

In reply to Philip:

Thermarests/karrimats, or, more seriously lay sheeps wool underneath

I was getting nowhere googling insulation for vinyl, but looking for heated floor I've found what seems a cheap and effective solution. Depron foam, 6 mm, glued to existing screed - I think a DPM might not be needed. Then 3 mm ply glued to this and then vinyl on top.

That's basically electric underfloor minus the heating part.

In reply to Philip:
Good idea, but the vinyl will still get cold if the house is?
I laminated my last house and it was murder in the winter unless you had slippers / socks on.

In reply to Philip:

Do you understand what purpose a dpm has?

I'd consider changing from vinyl sheet to cork tiles. Bit retro but definitely warmer.

In reply to Fraser:

Yes. The reason it isn't needed is the floor construction will already have one, so the only risk was condensation between a wood layer and a concrete layer, but with the setup i described that doesn't occur.

In reply to Fraser:

Part of my mistake was probably explaining that I wanted to make it warmer. I don't. I want to make it less lossy. The CH is designed to warm the current setup. I just wanted to make it more insulated without wasting money or time.

In reply to Philip: just use super posh vinyl it thicker than nomal

In reply to Philip: 8mm cork tiles, three coats of PU varnish. You can lay vinyl on it if you don't like the colour.