Insulation under a concrete slab

Retraceh

Member
BASE UK Member
Wondered if anybody had any experience of insulating a concrete slab. I am looking at putting some insulation under a concrete slab which will have telehandler and tractor & muck spreader driving on it. Will polystyrene or standard Kingspan type insulation do it or will it have to be the more heavy duty stuff? i.e. 300/500/700kpa. Looking at 50mm of insulation under 200mm mesh reinforced slab. TIA
 

Pond digger

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Location
East Yorkshire
Wondered if anybody had any experience of insulating a concrete slab. I am looking at putting some insulation under a concrete slab which will have telehandler and tractor & muck spreader driving on it. Will polystyrene or standard Kingspan type insulation do it or will it have to be the more heavy duty stuff? i.e. 300/500/700kpa. Looking at 50mm of insulation under 200mm mesh reinforced slab. TIA
What is the purpose of the building? I’m not convinced about the worth, given that heat rises. My brother in law is a builder, and he was saying that the original theory was to insulate only the perimeter, where heat could be lost to outside; but it was a bit of a faff and turned out to be just as easy to do the full floor. However, on a large ag shed, perimeter insulation might be worth considering.
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
Builders have done a bit of perimeter insulation on part of my house, we wanted to go down 3' but because the extension is built on rock (shale), only went down 1', which I think is better than none. Use xps (extruded boards), as they are water proof.
 

Retraceh

Member
BASE UK Member
It is going go be a heated concrete slab with underfloor heating pipes in it hence the need for insulation under the slab.
 

Adeptandy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
PE15
I'd be more concerned about the mesh and the underfloor heating as it will have a different expansion/contraction variant to the concrete which could cause weak points. :scratchhead:
 

Nearly

Member
Location
North of York
We dug up a floor in a 1960's pig shed and it had clay air bricks under the concrete. Like Spanish bricks.

bricks-s04j18.jpg

Not sure of effectiveness.
 

Forever Fendt

Member
Location
Derbyshire
What is the purpose of the building? I’m not convinced about the worth, given that heat rises. My brother in law is a builder, and he was saying that the original theory was to insulate only the perimeter, where heat could be lost to outside; but it was a bit of a faff and turned out to be just as easy to do the full floor. However, on a large ag shed, perimeter insulation might be worth considering.
We have built ind units and insulated the edge of the slab and 1m around the perimeter depending on the SBEM calcs for the building its self to meet building regs
 

phillipe

Member
Good luck ,how thick the concrete,getting the floor to stop moving when driving over it will be a challenge,maybe look at using a multi foil type so less chance of cracking ,the insulation and i pressume 100 mm or more of it compresses over time ,due to its poor quality.i read somewhere that somebody made a very dense hard insulation ,expensive but mont as expensive as a cracked crap floor
 

Retraceh

Member
BASE UK Member
From the data sheets that seems the same as kingspan Styrozone. I would prefer not use any insulation but have been told the performance of the heated floor will be severely compromised. I had look into the foil stuff but that that is about 50mm thick and I presume requires air layers for it to work. I will look further into it.
 

Phil P

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North West
If it's underfloor heating you mean conduction :p

Radiation will happen with convection once the heat gets to the top of the slab.

I think in my college days we were told 20-30% of heat is lost through the floor. There will be less thermal bridging though in an Open space
Forgot about conduction :facepalm: but but yes heat would conduct through the concrete, I was referring to the heat already in in the building though :whistle: that’s my excuse :ROFLMAO:
 

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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