How to insulate the floor on the loggia with your own hands (video)

The loggia is a place that can easily be converted into an additional room. It will perfectly fit a cozy study or conservatory. In order to turn this area into residential, it is necessary to carry out work on its insulation. Considering the fact that about a quarter of heat loss falls on the floor, you need to correctly approach the issue of how to insulate the floor on the loggia.

Preparing the floor for insulation

An insulated loggia requires preparatory work, which is a very important stage. High-quality surface preparation will help to extend the life of the coating, as well as reduce the complexity of the work. You can prepare the floor for insulation in several stages:

1. If there is tile or other flooring, it must be dismantled. It is important to remove glue or other binding agent without residue. At this stage, the use of a hammer drill is not ruled out. But care should be taken during operation so as not to damage the ceiling.
2. In the next step, the base is cleaned of dust and debris.
3. Existing irregularities are covered with a cement mixture. You can fill the base with a cement screed.
4. The next step is waterproofing. By means of mounting foam or sealant on a bitumen basis, places of possible access of air and moisture to the loggia are eliminated. Particular attention is paid to the corners. Then you need to apply a layer of coating waterproofing on the surface, lay the roofing material or a dense film.

Important! It is extremely desirable to start work on warming the loggia after it has been glazed.

Options for floor insulation on the loggia

The insulated floor on the loggia allows you to maximize the use of additional space. After the preparatory work, the question certainly arises: what is the best insulation of the floor on the loggia, which base is more suitable for a laminate, which is a tile or parquet. As an answer, you can choose one of the following options:

• The use of polystyrene or foam.
• Mineral wool insulation.
• Expanded clay insulation.

Each owner can choose their own version of insulation, depending on the working conditions.

The use of polystyrene or foam

Both materials are representative of expanded polystyrene. But penoplex has a denser structure, therefore it is characterized by high rigidity and hardness. Their external differences are shown in the following photo.

Warming the floor on the loggia with polystyrene foam is possible in two ways.

Adhesion to prepared base

This option is used for insulation under the screed.

• Plates of polystyrene foam or polystyrene are glued joint to joint with glue for tiles or special glue composition for foam, which is uniformly applied to the surface of the plates using gear putty knife.
• The glued material is left to dry for two days.
• Then the foam joints are filled with foam joint with the walls.
• The finished base can be poured with a cement-sand screed. In the future, such floors are used as the basis for laminate, linoleum or tile.

Laying insulation on logs

As a log, you can use bars with a cross section of 50 × 50 or 50 × 70 mm, carefully treated with an antiseptic solution from decay.

• The laying of the beams is carried out in accordance with the width of the insulation plate.
• A gap must be left along the walls, as the tree is able to change its shape under the influence of temperature and humidity changes.
• The insulation can be glued to the mounting foam. The resulting gaps and joints are filled with foam.

Instead of a waterproof film, you can use penofol with a foil layer, which will make thermal insulation even more effective.

• Boards or sheet material - plywood or OSB - are laid on the logs, which will become the basis for the laminate or linoleum.

More information about floor heating foam can be seen in the video.

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Insulation of the floor on the loggia with mineral wool

Mineral wool is the most popular and inexpensive insulation, most often used to maintain heat in the room.

Mineral wool in the form of mats with a size of 1220 × 610 mm and a thickness of 50 to 100 mm (shown in the photo) is more convenient to use. It does not burn and perfectly holds air between the fibers. This allows the material to retain heat. A step-by-step guide will help you achieve a quality result.

• The level of the future sex is being marked. It is important that the finished floor does not exceed the floor level of rooms adjacent to the loggia. For marking use a water or laser level.
• Then lay a layer of waterproofing. The most commonly used roofing material for this. Waterproofing sheets should be laid with an overlap of 10-15 cm, the lining on the walls should not be less than 5 cm.
• Over ruberoid install lags or wooden frame. It is recommended to use only dry pine material. Bars are fixed to the base with self-tapping screws. During the installation of the frame, it is necessary to maintain a distance of at least 5 cm from the wall to the bars so that the bars are not saturated with moisture. A wet frame can be deformed, which over time will lead to damage to the finish on the loggia.
• After completing the installation of the frame, you can begin laying mineral wool. Insulation mats are laid in the intervals of the crate, making sure that the material fits snugly on the bars. If you cannot avoid the formation of gaps, then you can use mounting foam. It glues insulation with the frame, while maintaining the thermal insulation properties of the coating.
• Laying moisture-proof plywood is the final stage. This material will serve as a rough floor for any finishing coating, including a laminate.

Expanded clay insulation

You can also insulate the floor on the loggia with your own hands using expanded clay. The popularity of this material is explained by its low cost and its absolute environmental friendliness. To insulate the floor in this way, it is necessary to form a crate of bars, which must first be dried and treated with an antiseptic.

• Before laying the lathing, the surface is covered with roofing material or plastic film for waterproofing.
• It is necessary to fill in expanded clay so that it does not protrude above the uneven bars.
• A vapor barrier layer is necessarily made on top of the insulation, then a rough coating is laid. As such, plywood or an OSB board can be used, which will serve as an excellent base for laminate or tile.

In the photo you can see what the floor looks like on the loggia, insulated with expanded clay.

A detailed guide to floor insulation on the expanded clay loggia can be seen in the video.

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"Warm floor" on the loggia

To heat the insulated loggia, the "warm floor».

• Before laying the system, the concrete floor is leveled with a cement screed and the foundation is prepared according to the previously described scheme in compliance with all stages.
• A heat insulator with a foil coating is laid, which will prevent heat loss through the base.
• After that, a heating electric cable is laid on a metal mounting tape. How the stacked system looks, you can see in the photo.

• A temperature regulator is installed, a cable and a temperature sensor are connected.
• Screed is poured, the thickness of which must be at least 4 cm, on which, after drying, the finish coating is laid.

Before choosing the type of underfloor heating, find out the maximum allowable load on the base plate of the balcony or loggia. If it is likely that it will not withstand the load, it is better to choose an infrared film floor for which there is no need for screed: it is laid directly under the finish coating.

So that the balcony or loggia can be used as additional space and to please the owners, you need to know how to properly insulate the floor on the loggia, what materials to use for thermal insulation of this premises.