By James Allen
Jacqueline of New Orleans:
I live in an old, elevated raised
home in New Orleans. During the
winter my floors are quite cold. I
block the outsides of my house to keep
the wind from going under it but the
fact remains the floors are still
quite cold. I am comtemplating
putting some sort of insulation
underneath the flooring in the hopes
it will warm them during the winter.
But I am worried about condensation
building up.
Someone advised that I can use the new styrofoam that is used for wall insulation. If I crawl under my house, can I attach this styrofoam to the underside of the floors and will it work? My living room floor is hardwood, the rest of the house has linoleum. I appreciate your help since I am not in a position to hire a contractor.
Styrofoam or similar board insulation
has 3x or more the R value of
fiberglas, I believe. You should
refer to a insulation contractor for
costs and efficacy for either. Use
the Web to locate a general membership
organization for insulators and/or
insulating contractors. These types of
groups are repositories of information
for the trades they represent, and
much info is often freely shared with
the public.
Foamboard is easy to work with -- it's light
and has none of the irritating
qualities of some types of
insulations. You should have no real
difficulties working with it. A tight
fit is important. Also, fire
retardant quality may be an issue.
You can also check with your local
municipal building department to see
if they can advise you or point you to
relevant resources.
