cold floor question - options ?


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Old 11-16-06, 07:30 PM
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Smile cold floor question - options ?

My question is regarding a cold floor in our great room (20'x25'). We put in hardwood floors 2 years back, the floor is cold to walk on, especially in winter. The floor is above a sub-basement (crawl space) - gravel floor on top of poly, the concrete walls (4 ft) around the perimeter of the room are insulated and so are the joists cavities (perimeter). There are a couple of vents in the crawlspace for heat/AC which run from forced air furnace. The space is dry but cool. Floor joists are open.
What is the best way to warm up the floors - appreciate you giving us the 'good->better->best' options that we can then decide on.
 
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Old 11-16-06, 09:03 PM
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It sort of depends on where you are located. There's always the bedroom slippers option. Barring that, If your geographic location is cold enough, insulating the voids between the floor joists may warm the floor some, but may also cause frozen pipes due to heat not getting to them that currently is. I knew a couple in Colorado who had a heater vent installed in the crawl space the same as the rest of the rooms with the idea being it would warm that area and keep the pipes from freezing and the floor a little warmer. Do you have a second floor? If so, are the floors upstairs cold as well? If so, heating the crawl space won't help. It's been my experience that hard surface floors tend to be a bit cold and, unless warming systems are installed ahead of time, tend to stay that way. Area rugs help a lot. A fairly expensive solution would be to retro fit an hydronic heat system under the sub floor in the areas you want warmer. This would warm them up, but may cause issues with the flooring material shrinking as the heat dries out the wood and gaps between the boards may open up. Since the idea is to warm the floor, not heat the house, you could limit how warm the system got to try to avoid this potential, but it may only delay it.
 
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Old 11-16-06, 09:31 PM
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Wink

There are a couple of vents in the crawlspace for heat/AC which run from forced air furnace.
Are they open like the should be. do you have a return from there also . You do need one so the air will change down there Any heat you let out down there will warm the floor and work as a heat sink for the room there.
 
 

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