I'm currently renovating the summer cottage (60-year-old house with thin walls) and have replaced the windows, added insulation to the exterior, and installed new facade boards. Everything is really nice and airtight now. But - when I began checking the floor insulation from underneath, I noticed two "flaws" or aging issues.
The house is on piers and has a traditional framework with a subfloor, insulation (blown-in loose fill), and then floorboards directly. The subfloor in the sections is rough wood planks, i.e., each section has +10 boards forming the protection for the insulation.
I discovered that in some areas under the house, gaps have formed in the rough planks, and some of the insulation has "leaked out," not filling the section, and in some spots I checked, the loose fill has simply "settled," not filling there either. So I suspect there's a good chance that a larger part of the house's floor insulation has outlived its usefulness and will counteract the investment in insulation of the exterior walls. I wouldn't be surprised if there is one or more mouse nests down there, as I found two old nests in the walls during the renovation.
Something like this, where green shows the insulation.
So I'm considering whether to take the plunge and renovate the floor insulation while I'm at it. It shouldn't be too expensive for ~50m2. Since there is no subfloor today, just floorboards directly on the joists, I thought about cutting the floor from above and clearing out the loose fill insulation. Then, either remove the rough planks or just lay a subfloor board, then new fresh insulation, followed by regular chipboard flooring, and finally new parquet flooring on top.
It should be relatively easy, doing this from above, and you can tackle one room at a time?
Has anyone done something similar?
Some thoughts/risks I've considered.
> If the wall elements are resting on the floor's construction, I can't renovate that last section, or can I?
> In the bathroom, there's a waterproofing mat, so perhaps I should have the carpenter fix this from underneath. Is that doable?
> Anything else to consider when you're down in the floors and making fixes.
The floor today is about 22mm, so it should be possible to seam against a chipboard if you need to preserve the outer edges.
