Timber Suspended Floors
 
Timber suspended floors do not conduct heat as efficiently as screeded floors.
 

One way of addressing the heat output of timber suspended floors is to use aluminium plates - at a room temperature of 20 degrees C, these will produce a heat output of 70 watts per square metre. Unplated, and without insulation, the heat output from timber suspended floors is about 40 watts per square metre. This is why it is important to use insulation.

 

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With the improvements in insulation that both common sense and Part L of the Building Regulations require, the improved insulation has helped compensate for the less efficient conductivity of timber suspended floors.
 
An alternative to aluminium plates is to use insulated board. Between the joists, a 50mm polyurethane insulation board is cut for a tight fit. It is advisable to use scrap battens from the building site to support the insulation from below.
 
 
Clipped with special pipe clips The pipe is then clipped on the insulation with our special pipe clips. Then the floor boards are laid on top of the joists. Be careful not to leave too much air space between the insulation boards and floor boards (25mm is recommended). The joists need to be notched where needed for pipe runs.
 
To get the timber suspended floor to act as a screeded floor and to give out more heat, the air gap between the insulation and the floor boards should be filled with a lightweight screed mix.
 
The mix consists of a 10:1 sand/cement or 8:1 'Lytag' lightweight aggregate/cement mix on top of the insulation, with enough water to hold the mix together. The additional load imposed on the floor by the mix is approximately 18kg/m2 for sand/cement mix. Note that the mix is not intended as load bearing, merely as a heat conductor. The thickness of the mix should be 25mm with the pipe included in it.