First post, please be gentle.
We live in a c1900 victorian terrace. The cellar entrance has at some point in the past been closed, and currently I know of no way to access the cellar. The cellar causes an awful amount of upwards draught into the living room, in the winter this makes it like an ice house downstairs, even though the living space is currently carpeted - this is only likely to get worse, please read on..
The objective is to remove the carpet and have bare floorboards, with the necessary sanding/waxing etc. The problems are:
- Can we insulate the floor from below? If so, what are the 'gotchas' to this, I've heard some people mention air flow and dampness (even rot!). I'm sure I've seen this on TV before where they put in the usual loft-style insulation then stapled some sort of breathable (foil I think) membrane below from joist to joist to keep it in place.
- If the insulation is possible, what is the best way of gaining access to the cellar. It has been said that we should pull up floorboards from an unused (covered) area of the room in order to get down there. I'm a little reserved about this because I know boards never go back down the same.. but equally I can't really see an alternative. From what I can tell the original entrance is now a brick (or concrete) floor.
- If the insulation is not possible what are the alternatives? I've read about filling gaps with sawdust and the like, but there seems to be no 'definitive' answer here - opinions ranging from "doing this will destroy your floor" to "it looks lovely". It seems to be quite a minefield. How can we insulate and still have the bare floorboards but without accessing the cellar ("having the cake and eating it" I suppose you might say!). I'm concerned just filling the gaps will not be 'good enough' in terms of keeping the cold out (and concerned about comments of air flor and rot, see above).
Any help, experiences, etc. that can be offered would be *hugely* appreciated. I have been reading extensively on this subject, including these forums, but either the information doesn't quite match my situation or there's so many conflicting opinions it really doesn't make sense!
Big thanks!
We live in a c1900 victorian terrace. The cellar entrance has at some point in the past been closed, and currently I know of no way to access the cellar. The cellar causes an awful amount of upwards draught into the living room, in the winter this makes it like an ice house downstairs, even though the living space is currently carpeted - this is only likely to get worse, please read on..
The objective is to remove the carpet and have bare floorboards, with the necessary sanding/waxing etc. The problems are:
- Can we insulate the floor from below? If so, what are the 'gotchas' to this, I've heard some people mention air flow and dampness (even rot!). I'm sure I've seen this on TV before where they put in the usual loft-style insulation then stapled some sort of breathable (foil I think) membrane below from joist to joist to keep it in place.
- If the insulation is possible, what is the best way of gaining access to the cellar. It has been said that we should pull up floorboards from an unused (covered) area of the room in order to get down there. I'm a little reserved about this because I know boards never go back down the same.. but equally I can't really see an alternative. From what I can tell the original entrance is now a brick (or concrete) floor.
- If the insulation is not possible what are the alternatives? I've read about filling gaps with sawdust and the like, but there seems to be no 'definitive' answer here - opinions ranging from "doing this will destroy your floor" to "it looks lovely". It seems to be quite a minefield. How can we insulate and still have the bare floorboards but without accessing the cellar ("having the cake and eating it" I suppose you might say!). I'm concerned just filling the gaps will not be 'good enough' in terms of keeping the cold out (and concerned about comments of air flor and rot, see above).
Any help, experiences, etc. that can be offered would be *hugely* appreciated. I have been reading extensively on this subject, including these forums, but either the information doesn't quite match my situation or there's so many conflicting opinions it really doesn't make sense!
Big thanks!
