Insulating A Floor Built On Piers

Rooms built over garages on older homes in cold climates are notorious for air leakage and cold floors.

Insulating a floor built on piers.

Filling the spaces between the floor joists under the cottage with insulation batts is the simplest and most cost effective method. All use dimensional lumber for floor trusses probably 2x10 s. Do it yourself video on how to insulate the exposed floor over an unheated area using roxul comfortbatt r28 canada or r30 usa and roxul comfortboard is i. By martin holladay issue 226 there are good reasons why we put more of our air sealing and insulating time and money into attics and walls than we do floors.

I know another neighbor did an add on and they made her insulate the floor on the new part. The floor joists are 12 inches and the distance from the bottom of the floor joists to the ground varies from 2 feet to 7 feet. They didnt have a walkout so my grandpa built the stairs and a structure above it to walk down into their house. For better energy performance homes built on piers rooms above garages and cantilevered bays need properly air sealed and insulated floors.

A pier and beam foundation elevates the home above the ground creating a crawlspace that is typically around 18 inches in height. Insulating floors on pier and beam homes. What s an effective economical method for insulating the floor of a cottage on piers. I recently built a lake cabin that sits on a post and pier foundation.

We have no plans to skirt the foundation s perimeter so the crawlspace will stay wide open to mother nature. Adding insulation mitigates the problem but there are some considerations to keep in mind. It was built on concrete piers but the building shifted over the years and the floor was not level. By musicman july 25 2007 in houston construction.

A pier and beam home built on top of sturdy supports typically has an open crawl space between the floor of the house and the earth. To get the highest r value completely fill the cavities between the joists. My grandmas house was built the same way back in the 50 s. With this structure wood posts or concrete piers are placed deep into the ground to hold the weight of the home.

I have solid concrete wall in front but the rest is piers only so this approach wouldn t work for me. The floor truss design also plays a role in making floors over unheated spaces comfortable. Cold floors are a result of air leakage thermal bridging and too little insulation. The previous cabin on the property was built in 1954 and i converted it to year round use similar insulation levels as the new cabin in 1982.

My dad did what i m describing in the late seventies and after he built the upper floor was left with an awesome bar area in the family room where the kitchen was. There are no drafts in the building.