Insulation of a Class A house: foundation and floor on the ground

The construction of each house begins with the foundation. This is the foundation of the building, the strength of which also determines the quality of the entire house. At the same time, it is a barrier that is constantly surrounded by a cold environment - the earth. In older houses, up to 20 percent. heat is lost through foundations and floors on the ground, therefore, when building energy-efficient houses or Class A houses, special attention must be paid to the proper thermal insulation of such structures.

When designing a foundation for a Class A house, it is important to plan immediately to minimize heat loss through them. This can be achieved by evaluating the 3 most important points.:

The correct foundation design is when the foundation, and with it the entire building, touches the ground as little as possible. This is easiest to achieve by choosing a flat foundation structure, and where this is not possible, use structures that are easiest to insulate from all sides.

Properly selected insulation material. When the foundation is insulated, the insulating material is in contact with the ground, so it is constantly exposed to moisture and loads. Therefore, resistance to moisture and cold should be the most important characteristics when choosing insulation materials. The most suitable for this are extruded foam boards (XPS), which are extremely resistant to moisture, cold (freeze/thaw cycles) and durable, so they reliably last for 50 years or more.

Sufficient thickness of the insulating material. The higher the resistance of the foundation and floor, the less heat is lost. It is very difficult to renovate the foundation and floor on ground structures (it is necessary to dig the ground, break the floor, etc.), so it is recommended to immediately choose a thicker layer of material so that even after a few years the house meets its requirements.
The optimal choice for a Class A+ house is flat foundations, and if they cannot be installed, pillar foundations insulated on three sides with minimal thermal bridges.

Flat foundations
A flat foundation is a solid foundation concrete slab poured into a structure and formed from an insulating material. Thus, the concrete structures of the house do not have direct contact with the ground, thermal bridges are not formed, problems arising from frost levels, ground slippage and possible deformations of the foundation are eliminated. Check out Kwiff for fast-paced fun.