Insulation for concrete. features of wall and floor

Concrete belongs to materials with very high strength, but its insulating properties are not very high, so the surfaces need additional insulation to reduce heat loss and make the building more comfortable. There are a lot of various options on the market, and choosing one or another type of products depends on the specific features of a certain basis. Consider the most popular and common options.

Features of insulation of various surfaces

To understand the issue more thoroughly, we will look at how to warm with one's hands certain structures with minimal time and cost. You should not choose too outlandish options, their cost is quite high, and the work is done only by experts.

Floor

Consider how to choose a heater for the concrete floor.

The choice of one or another option depends on the characteristics of the use and nature of the work:

• If you want a heater under the linoleum on a concrete floor, then there are several basic alternatives. The easiest option - the use of insulated linoleum, in this case, no additional materials are required. But if you need additional insulation, then you can use a rigid substrate for laminate or environmentally friendly and durable cork substrate - it has excellent properties, but its price is much higher.

• If you need a heater under the concrete screed, then one of the most popular options is foam. This inexpensive material has excellent properties, and it can be used to significantly improve the thermal insulation properties of a structure. The work is carried out quite simply: the surface is leveled, sheets of foam are laid on it, then it is poured with a concrete screed, after drying your floor is ready for further work.
• Sometimes it is required to ensure high performance with a small thickness of the insulating layer. In such cases, the ideal solution is extruded polystyrene foam, the properties of this material is one and a half times higher than that of the foam, while its hardness and resistance to deformations are several times higher. The only drawback of this option is the relatively high price of the material.

• In cases when it is required to warm the concrete base, on which the wooden floor will be laid, the best way is to use mineral wool. Its thickness should be equal to the thickness of the lags, while their size should be selected in accordance with the height of the doorways, otherwise you will have to make grooves in the floor, and cutting reinforced concrete with diamond circles is not an easy task. No instruction is required: the mineral wool just fits snugly between the lags.

Remember! When working with mineral wool, you should use protective equipment, otherwise your hands will itch for a few days.

Walls

This type of surface also requires a special approach, so it is important to carry out the work correctly. It is not always necessary to use insulation, if you are building a storage room, then the most reasonable solution is to use wall three-layer reinforced concrete panels with an effective insulation.

This type of product has its own characteristics:

• The plate itself is a product in which there is an effective insulation between two layers of concrete, most often it is high-density polystyrene foam.
• The use of such options allows you to build warehouse premises, production modules and various agricultural facilities without additional costs..

For other structures, the following will do:

• A very common option is foam or a more reliable and durable type of extruded polystyrene foam. With the help of this group of materials, the overwhelming majority of private sector houses are being insulated. The works are quite simple: it is necessary to prepare the base, fix foam sheets on it with glue and special dowels, after which the surface is reinforced with a special mesh and finished with a mortar.

• More robust and durable option - mineral wool. It is distinguished by environmental friendliness, high performance and resistance to mold and damage by rodents. Work with this option is no different from the technology of fixing foam with the only difference that the material is heavier, so the fastener must be strong, the mineral wool is an excellent insulation for aerated concrete, with its help the heat loss is significantly reduced.
• Often the question arises, how to glue foil insulation to concrete? In fact, this material can be fixed with the help of compositions like Acrol, Neoprene and their analogues. A very important factor for achieving the best effect is the need for a gap between the material and a wall ranging in size from 2 to 10 millimeters, this affects the heat-reflecting properties, therefore the glue is applied with dots and the insulation is not pressed against the wall.

Tip! It is possible to glue the foiled materials with the help of construction foam or special glue in the same container as the foam. The process is simple: the composition is applied with dots in 20-30 cm on the wall, after which the insulation is carefully glued with the necessary clearance.

Other insulation options

It is possible to warm concrete bases in other ways, and one of them is the application of polyurethane foam on the surface.

This type of work appeared relatively recently and has already gained great popularity due to a number of positive properties:

• After processing, a monolithic layer without seams and gaps is obtained, the surface does not allow heat to pass through at any site.
• The effectiveness of this type of composition is several times higher than that of traditional materials..
• The service life of the layer is several decades, subject to the absence of exposure to ultraviolet radiation..

But this option has some drawbacks, and the main ones are the very high cost and the inability to work independently, because you need special equipment, which is economically inexpedient to acquire for the sake of one object.

You can use the homemade option. Opilkobeton as a heater is used quite rarely, and yet it is the cheapest option.

It is done as follows:

• The main components are sand, cement and sawdust. The solution properties also depend on the ratio of components: the more sawdust, the better the insulating properties and the lower the strength, as well as vice versa.
• There are no exact proportions for cooking, everything is selected empirically: the composition must be sufficiently plastic so that it can be applied to the external walls. Also, this option due to its low weight and incombustibility is often used for insulation of attics. (See also the article Finishing the facade of the house of aerated concrete: features.)

It should be noted that all necessary work with the base should be done in advance, for example, diamond drilling of holes in concrete is easier to carry out before insulation than after it. (See also the article Plastering walls of aerated concrete: how to do.)

Conclusion

Remember that the choice of high-quality insulation depends on maintaining an optimal indoor climate and the cost of heating in the winter, it is important to approach this issue responsibly. The video in this article describes in more detail the properties of some of the materials reviewed.