[Greenbuilding] building floor on top of rigid foam... (basement/garage retrofit)

[Benjamin Pratt]

http://www.finehomebuilding.com/how-to/qa/finishing-a-basement-floor.aspx

On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 9:12 PM, ErgoDesk <ergodesk at gmail.com> wrote:

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> George
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> On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 12:53 PM, sat jiwan ikle-khalsa <
> satjiwan_khalsa at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>>  anyone have experience or thoughts on this?  (thought it might apply to
>> retrofitting basements without slab insulation as well - provided sufficient
>> head height.)
>>
>> a client wants to energy efficiently convert an attached garage made into
>> a living space.
>> and at the same time raise the floor up to be level with the adjacent
>> room. there's no insulation under the slab. so what's a good floor assembly
>> to get height and insulation. and in this case no need for bearing a lot of
>> load.
>>
>> we're aiming for about R20 floor insulation (rough passiv haus goal for
>> our region - Mid Atlantic USA).  we're thinking to put 2 layers or two inch
>> rigid foam on top of the existing slab then build a floor with 2x framing
>> members sufficient to bring the height up so 3/4" plywood and carpet on top
>> will meet the other room's height.
>>
>> i know XPS is rated for under slab applications.  would the somewhat more
>> point(linear) load of 2x material be a problem resting on the rigid foam?
>> (note there's no walls planned on top of this floor and no other bearing
>> weight than the floor and furniture.
>>
>> would Roxul rigid foam work? is it specified for load applications?
>>
>>
>> alternatively:
>>
>> a. lay down vapor barrier on slab, build appropriate height flooring and
>> before applying plywood, fill joist bays with some kind of batt
>> (roxul/denim) or loose fill (cellulose) material. there's plenty of room to
>> get R20, but will loose thermal break with wood right on slab.
>>
>> b. (crazy??)  build up more layers of foam insulation (6-8" total) - then
>> lay plywood on top.  (a floating floor).  this seems a little loose to me,
>> especially since you'd want to leave some gaps in plywood joints and edges
>> of room to accommodate expansion.  (would using two (thinner?) layers of
>> plywood, laid opposite directions and screwed to each other secure it
>> enough??)
>>
>> c. any other brilliant strategies?
>>
>> -satjiwan
>>
>>
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-- 


b e n j a m i n p r a t t

professor art+design
the university of wisconsin stout
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