3 Comforting Benefits of Having a Deep Floor Joist Spacing

Are you looking at upgrading your thermal comfort in summer and winter? You don’t have to look far and wide. The solution you need may be right underneath your floorboards!

Installing insulation under your house can give a massive lift in your home’s thermal efficiency. An insulated floor protects your home from unwanted heat gain in summer, stops heat loss in the colder months, and prevents cold air infiltration from underneath your home.

If you have a deeper floor joist spacing, you’re at a greater advantage of further boosting your thermal comfort to superb levels! Deep floor joists have a height that exceeds four times its width.

Here are three benefits of having deep joists in terms of increasing your home comfort through insulation:

Ample crawl space

Underfloor clearance is an essential component when it comes to the successful installation of your underfloor insulation. Our installers need at least 40cm of crawl space (a little bit under knee height) to be able to access your joists for underfloor insulation installation. Deep joists provide more headroom for our installers to comfortably install your insulation, resulting in a quick and hassle-free installment job.

Zero space for rodents

Rodents are the greatest enemy of insulation. They love hanging around bulk underfloor and ceiling insulation. Removing rodents can get difficult once they’ve established a nest or have carried away chunks of your insulation.

But here’s the good news: Our polyester insulation is heat-bonded. This means its fibres are fused together with heat so there are no tasty glues to attract rodents and nothing interesting to eat or nest it.  Rodents are super wary of the long fibres in polyester as they feel they will become trapped in those fibres. Let’s face it – there are plenty of other tasty meals for rodents around without getting trapped in polyester!

Polyester rolls installed effectively, make a strong barrier to rodent infestation.  Deep joist spacing allows for more space to push the polyester batts closer against the underfloor. This closes off potential runways or possible breeding spaces for rodents underneath your floors.

More room for ‘super’ insulation

The standard joist depth to fit our Polyester Underfloor Insulation is 90mm and 430mm in terms of width (distance between the next joist). This is sufficient to provide a snug fit for a single polyester roll that is manufactured at 450mm wide and a thickness of 120mm.   There is enough ‘tuck’ at either side of the roll to enable it to be stapled in effectively with a little bit of wiggle room if the spacing of joists is not 100% consistent.

A house with deep joist spacing of more than 150mm may be suitable for double insulation. If your budget allows, you can invest in greater thermal efficiency by installing two rolls of R 2.5 Polyester Underfloor Insulation per joist.

Of course, the rest of your home would need to be highly energy efficient to ensure this additional effort and expense was worthwhile.  There is little point in having a very high level of underfloor insulation if the rest of the building is leaky and poorly insulated.

This insulation is very easy to install. Homeowners can either choose to install it on their own or have our team install it for you.

Insulate, draught proof your entire home for greater benefits

Important note: While underfloor insulation will make a difference in your comfort and your energy bills, note that this is only one component in the entire thermal efficiency equation.

Thermal efficiency is powered by an ‘ecosystem’ of insulation and draught proofing so we recommend you retrofit every area in your home that’s central to your heating and cooling (i.e. doors, windows, walls, ceiling, and vents). Depending on your budget, you may choose to retrofit your home in increments or all at once.