Warming of the floor on the balcony

Now a very popular way to increase the space of the apartment is to expand the area at the expense of the balcony. But how to warm it, so that it would become a full-fledged additional room? On the balcony it is strictly forbidden to remove pipes of autonomous heating, so it is necessary to insulate it in other, more accessible ways.

The loss of heat from your balcony is affected by such factors as:

• The direction of the balcony (North, South, West, East) ;
• The material from which the house is built;
• Options for glazing adjacent balconies;
• The degree of heating of the house, etc.

The answer to the question: "What materials and how thoroughly to insulate the balcony?" - can have several options depending on the desired result. Or rather, from what you see your balcony after the insulation works. Warming of the balcony can be partial or complete.

The warming of the balcony floor and its decoration are an important factor determining the heat preservation of the structure. The quality of the materials for insulation and installation depends directly on the climate in the middle of the room, because the cold penetrating into poorly embedded cracks, or coming from a concrete slab significantly reduces the temperature of the air in the room.

Warming of the floor on the balcony - options

Of course, for good thermal insulation it is necessary to warm the balcony around the perimeter, but we will talk about this later, and in this article we will try to give the most exhaustive answer to the question: "How to insulate the floor on the balcony?".

First you need to decide what kind of floor you want to have - a usual wooden, covered with linoleum or "warm electric floor". If your choice is inclined to the side of the wooden floor, which has become familiar from childhood, and you have a great desire to perform its installation yourself, further information will be very useful for you. And if you still prefer the second option of floor insulation, it's best to ask for help from professional builders who will lay down the floor in compliance with all the necessary rules. However, the "warm electric floor" will cost you an order of magnitude more expensive both during installation and in subsequent operation, because it will be a source of additional electricity consumption.

How the floor is insulated on the balcony

In order to perform the insulation of the floor on the balcony, first of all, you need to design a wooden frame. For this purpose, a board (wooden beams) with a width of at least twenty centimeters is used. Along the entire perimeter of the balcony is mounted a structure of boards, which are placed on the edge. The frame is attached to the floor using dowels with nails, as well as metal corners. The boards are fastened together by wood screws.

As a heater is used mainly foam plastic with a thickness of 10 cm. After installing the frame on the foam plastic, the glue is applied and then it is put into the finished sections. To achieve a thickness of twenty centimeters of insulation layer, the foam falls into two spheres. After laying the first layer, glue is applied to its surface and after that a second ball of foam is laid out. Joints between the beam and insulation foam are blown, joint seams are sealed.

When the thermal insulation is complete, go to the next step. On the top of the heater is laid gypsum board and is attached to the frame with the help of self-tapping screws. Then it is already possible to lay the floor covering, most suitable for this type of premises, for example: laminate, parquet, linoleum, parquet board, etc. The main thing that it was warm and comfortable, as well as easy to care for. That's not very much something and it is difficult to insulate the floor on the balcony, which you can do with your own hands.