Getting Rid of Cold Floors in Winter

Bare feet on cold floors is not a comfortable combination on a winter’s day. It’s particularly annoying when you’ve got the HVAC thermostat set to a temperature that ought to keep the whole house cozy. Still, the floor resists warming up. Because wearing socks and shoes day and night inside your home is not exactly a casual lifestyle, here are some options to help warm chronically cold floors.

Keep the cold air out.

Some types of common flooring lose heat rapidly and are slow to warm. Once the floor is cooled by chilly outdoor air infiltrating the house through small leaks, it’s hard to heat it up again. Feel for drafts around doors and windows and replace worn weatherstripping. Use silicone caulking to fill cracks and gaps in walls and the floor. Also check for a gap between the bottom of the baseboard and the floor and fill it with caulking, too.

Insulate underneath.

A cold crawl space beneath a house often functions like a heat sink that pulls warmth out of the floor above. Insulating the subfloor helps stop heat transfer. Fiberglass insulation batts can be secured to the floor between the joists to hold heat in. An even better option is to have spray foam insulation applied to the entire underside of the subfloor.

Get a furnace check-up.

Heat rises to the ceiling, so the floor is often heat-deprived. Have a qualified HVAC service technician evaluate heating functions to make sure the system’s up to specs for optimum BTU output and adequate airflow to all parts of the house. Also, be sure to change the furnace air filter at least every other month and keep all vents in all rooms open and unobstructed.

Insulate new floors.

If you’re replacing existing flooring, ask about new materials that tend to hold heat more efficiently. Also, when new flooring is laid, a thin layer of insulated material—called an insulated underlayment—may be installed between the subfloor and the new flooring to help retain heat.

For professional advice and service to eliminate annoying cold floors, contact Rinaldi’s Energy Solutions.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Orlando, Florida and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).