You might not have realised that your floors even needed to be insulated; not everyone does! But that doesn’t change the fact that floor insulation is an integral part of your home’s thermal performance.
1. You’re Getting Cold Feet
It might strike you as obvious right now, but you’d be surprised how easy it is to ignore how cold your floors can get.
The issue is, it isn’t always easy to tell when your floors being cold is a sign of a problem and when they’re just cold. After all, your floor is pretty much always going to be one of the coldest parts of your home; since heat has a tendency to travel upwards over time.
So, how can you tell when your cold floors are a sign that something is amiss? Here are a few signs to look out for…
- Cold Patches: If you notice that certain patches of your floor are colder than the areas surrounding them, that can be a problem. Whether it’s cold bridging through your insulation or a sign that your insulation isn’t properly distributed, those cold patches are definitely a warning sign.
- Indoor Dew: When there’s a significant temperature difference on both sides of a surface, it’s the perfect situation to create condensation. So, if you ever notice a light coating of “dew” on your floor, then that is a big indication that something could be amiss with your floor’s insulation.
- The Unrelenting Chill: Lastly, if you notice that your floors seem to stay cold no matter what, then that might also be a sign that treachery’s afoot. After all, if the rest of the room is nice and warm all day but your floor stays cold, then that might be a sign that the insulation beneath your floor isn’t doing its job.
2. Your Energy Bill Keeps Climbing
If your energy bills are constantly on the rise, despite your best efforts to keep them down, then you could be having issues with your insulation. And if you aren’t sure what your insulation issues are, then there’s a decent chance that they might be caused by poor floor insulation.
Most people don’t realise that their floors actually account for around 15% of the total energy loss in their homes. That’s a huge amount of heat that could be moving through your floors, which is why the quality of your floor insulation is so important to keeping your energy bills down.
After all, even if every other part of your home was well-insulated, you’d still be losing close to a sixth of every pound you spend heating your home through your floors if you don’t insulate them properly.
So, if you can’t seem to figure out how you are still spending quite so much energy on heating your home up (or keeping it cool); then you might want to take a second look at your floors. It could be that they need some new insulation.
3. You’re Having Condensation Issues
Condensation can be a huge problem in houses with improper insulation, and the issues that it can cause aren’t always apparent.
For example, you wouldn’t think that a little water on the inside of your windows could be caused by a problem that is quite literally destroying the foundations of your home. But that is a genuine risk if your floors aren’t properly protected from moisture penetration.
If you have suspended floors in your home, for example, then moisture passing through your insulation to reach the timbers holding your floor aloft could cause huge problems. The moisture could rot the timbers and cause your floor to sag, warp, or even collapse entirely; in short, the kind of structural damage that nightmares are made from.
It’s important to note that this damage is far from likely, even if you do have issues with your floor insulation. However, the risk of it happening is very much real and even if that kind of structural damage is unlikely, it just isn’t worth the risk!
As frightening as structural damage can be, let’s not forget that there are other risks condensation can bring to your home too. Long-term condensation issues and dampness could cause mould to grow, not just where you can see it, but out of sight too!
The last thing you want is mould growing out of sight inside your floors and walls…
4. You Keep Sneezing
It might seem strange to suggest that you might be sneezing because of issues with your insulation, but the fact is that the two actually may be connected.
You probably already know that sneezing is usually a response to contaminants making their way into your nose; more often than not, through the air. The vast majority of the time, the things causing you to sneeze aren’t particularly sinister: pollen, perfume, and even dust could be the culprit. However, that’s exactly why sneezing too often could actually be a sign of an issue with the insulation in your home.
Why? Because something is making you sneeze!
An issue with your insulation could very well be allowing contaminants into your home, such as pollen, leading to you having seemingly unexplained sneezing fits. Plus, if you’ve got issues with moisture seeping into your insulation, then unseen mould could be a far more sinister cause of those unexpected sneezes.
So, while it definitely isn’t conclusive on its own, don’t be so quick to dismiss your sneezes as signs of trouble with your insulation; especially if you’ve noticed some of the other signs in this list.
5. You’ve Got Pest Problems
Finally, if you’ve been having issues with critters and pests – from mice to slugs – then that might actually be a sign of an issue with your insulation too. In particular, a noticeable increase in the number of pests like these that are getting into your home could be a sign that your floor insulation isn’t up to snuff.
After all, openings in your floor insulation could be providing these creatures with a secret route into your home; and, in the worst case, some of them might even be making their homes within your insulation! That isn’t a particularly common issue, of course, but it is a risk with certain kinds of floor insulation solutions.
The point to remember, however, is that this isn’t an issue you should be having if your insulation is up to scratch; which means making sure your home is properly insulated is a good step to take when dealing with your pest problems.
How to Get the Best Out of Your Floor Insulation…
So let’s say – hypothetically – that you’ve realised that you’ve definitely got issues with the insulation in your floor. Now that you know, what are you going to do about it?
Realistically, you’re going to want to get some professional advice to figure out what your options are and how they compare to one another. Fortunately, SuperFOIL’s expert technical team are exactly the kinds of professionals that you’ll want on your side.
Our tech team are consummate professionals and always available to help you through situations like this; so if you want to get in touch with questions about your floor insulation, then you can do that by emailing [email protected] or calling us at 01636 639900.
But, what if you decide you don’t want to go with SuperFOIL after talking to the team? No worries; the advice and support our technical team supplies are completely free of obligations. But don’t be surprised if you end up agreeing that SuperFOIL is the best solution for you anyway!
Want to Do Your Own Research?
While our tech team would be more than capable of helping you figure out which floor insulation options would suit you best, we also completely endorse the instinct to look into the topic yourself! Learning more about essential elements of life, like insulation, is the best way to make sure you never get caught off-guard by them when they go wrong.
So, if you wanted a good place to start learning more about insulation, and some of the most widely available solutions available, then we’d encourage you to take a look at our insulation guide. It’s a great place to start learning about insulation, why it’s important, what it does, and what your options are.
Plus, it should serve as a brilliant diving off point for you to start thinking about more specific questions you might want answered.
