Insulation of a balcony with a brick parapet
Insulating material will help to effectively insulate the balcony of their bricks.
The facades of new houses for the most part form a single architectural composition. Violating its integrity by piling up additional materials for insulation is unacceptable or is associated with multiple bureaucratic approval delays. The best way to insulate balconies with cold glazing is to finish the interior with insulating materials.
A balcony or loggia often has a parapet made of brick. Installation of aluminum windows with this design occurs directly on the top row of bricks. The insulation of such a room will be effective due to the fact that insulating material with low thermal conductivity can be laid to the parapet wall.
How to insulate a balcony with cold glazing?
Insulating cold glazing may not be beneficial, but it is very important to do it correctly; To insulate such a structure, you will need the following:
Close and insulate any seams that you can find between the window frame and the wall. After this, you will need to seal all the cracks in the walls, special attention should be paid to the corners of the structure. Make insulation of the floor, walls, ceiling.
Frame for laying insulation on floors and walls, warm floors
Insulation can be external or internal. If permission may be required for the exterior, since changes will be made to the external appearance of the building, then you can carry out the interior without collecting papers, since such insulation of cold glazing occurs without changing the facade. You can also insulate the structure from the inside on your own, without involving expensive specialists and without putting your life in danger when working at height.
Glass insulation
Most of the heat will escape through the glass.
If plastic double-glazed windows are installed, the window will not require additional insulation. To isolate the leaky connection between the glass and the frame, a special polyurethane sealant is applied to the joints to prevent air penetration.
The greatest heat loss will occur through the glazing.
Floor insulation
Penofol can be used as insulation.
An important component in obtaining a warm room is floor insulation. For better thermal insulation, you can use the following materials:
- Penofol.
- Electrical floor insulation.
- Wooden beam.
- Polystyrene foam or mineral wool.
- Polyurethane foam.
- Floor board.
Foiled foam foil is laid on the surface of the concrete floor. This material has excellent insulating properties. It will not allow condensation to accumulate in the thickness of the floor, providing access to oxygen to prevent the appearance of moisture and fungus. The next step is to install the electric heated floor.
Warm floors are one of the options for insulating a balcony
The thickness of the lag determines the size of the insulation layer. The larger its layer, the better the thermal insulation. When installing, it is necessary to take into account the height from the future floor to the parapet. In the standard version, it ranges from 95 to 105 cm. The safety of a person on the balcony is always in the foreground, so you need to choose the thickness of the joists, taking into account the height of the floor structure.
Wooden blocks are installed parallel to each other in one plane with a pitch of 30-40 cm. Mineral wool or foam plastic is laid between them. All cracks formed during the installation process can be sealed with polyurethane foam. In the winter season, a special polyurethane foam is used, which has hardening properties at low air temperatures.
A floorboard is laid on the laid joists for painting and varnishing. You can use rough wood and then lay some finishing material on it.
Do-it-yourself insulation of a French balcony
A modern apartment is a multifunctional room in which they strive to create the utmost comfort. The appearance of French windows gave owners the chance to visually expand the premises, “push apart” the walls and go far beyond its boundaries.
Window insulation
You need to start taking care of comfort and warmth in your own home even before installing a French balcony. Installing a multi-layer window structure that will prevent winter air from penetrating inside will help make your apartment warm. If you live in a locality with a moderately warm climate, it is enough to install energy-saving glass with triple glazing
In this case, you need to pay special attention to the profile design
It is important that it reliably protects against heat loss
Internal insulation of floor and ceiling
When the work on glazing the balcony is completed, you should move on to insulating the ceiling and floor. Before this, it is recommended to waterproof the entire area of the room. Please note that the insulation layer should not be excessively large. The thickness will be enough for you, which in combination with the finishing material will not exceed the height of the window profile.
Insulation of walls and ceilings
The following components can be used to insulate walls:
- Penofol.
- Wooden bars.
- High density foam.
- Polyurethane foam.
To see how to strengthen the balcony, watch the video:
Walls requiring insulation are sheathed with penofol. The lathing is usually made from a 50x50 mm bar. For convenience, the step between the bars can be made consistent with the width of the filler. The foam is placed between the bars and attached to the wall using plastic “fungi”. The gaps formed during installation are also sealed with polyurethane foam. You can use eurolining or imitation timber as cladding. Plastic panels are also suitable for wall cladding.
Necessary tools, materials and cost of insulating a balcony
To insulate your balcony you will need the following materials:
- Wooden slats;
- Self-tapping screws;
- Dowels with caps;
- Styrofoam;
- Polyurethane foam;
- Sheets of roofing felt or waterproofing material.
The material consumption must be calculated based on the area that needs to be insulated. Prices for insulation materials vary, but we advise you not to purchase cheap products, because their quality leaves much to be desired.
When insulating a balcony with your own hands, take into account the fact that some materials have a poor attitude to high humidity, which is why wet insulation can cause mold and mildew to appear. Therefore, when installing insulation, you need to take care of the protective layer of waterproofing. It is also worth considering the design in detail, choosing finishing materials, and roughly assessing the decoration of the balcony, based on the family budget.
Insulation of panoramic balconies
Panoramic balconies have an excellent appearance and have a number of advantages over balconies with partial glazing in terms of aesthetics. But insulating such a balcony with cold glazing will result in large financial costs. Insulation of the floor, ceiling and walls, except for the facade, can be done in the same way as in the case of parapet balconies, but a glazed wall will require a different method of insulation.
To learn how to insulate panoramic balconies, watch this video:
The frame of the cold glazing window system consists of an aluminum profile, which has excellent thermal conductivity.
Supplying heat to such a room at negative outside air temperatures will lead to the formation of ice on the glass, and heating will be insignificant due to serious heat losses.
As mentioned above, unauthorized changes to the façade of a residential apartment building may cause a conflict with local authorities and with the other residents of the building.
How to insulate a balcony with cold glazing?
Insulating cold glazing may not be beneficial, but it is very important to do it correctly; To insulate such a structure, you will need the following:
Close and insulate any seams that you can find between the window frame and the wall. After this, you will need to seal all the cracks in the walls, special attention should be paid to the corners of the structure. Make insulation of the floor, walls, ceiling.
Frame for laying insulation on floors and walls, warm floors
Insulation can be external or internal. If permission may be required for the exterior, since changes will be made to the external appearance of the building, then you can carry out the interior without collecting papers, since such insulation of cold glazing occurs without changing the facade. You can also insulate the structure from the inside on your own, without involving expensive specialists and without putting your life in danger when working at height.
Installation of an additional glazing contour
When installing an additional glazing contour, the usable space will not be reduced much.
Installing a second row of double-glazed windows will not damage the overall appearance of the building. The resulting air chamber will ensure heat retention on the balcony or loggia. The disadvantage of this method of insulation is the inconvenience of washing the glass inside the chamber. The useful space of the room will be reduced by the indentation and the thickness of the inner wall, which can be a significant disadvantage in conditions of limited space.
Let's get straight to work
Before insulating a loggia with aluminum glazing, you need to carry out some preparatory steps, without which the insulation may be useless.
- Clean the entire aluminum profile of unnecessary elements. Remains of putty, polyurethane foam or other construction debris - remove all this. In small quantities they will not greatly affect energy saving, but the inconvenience during installation will be obvious.
- Seal any unnecessary holes or gaps in the profiles. It often happens that when installing the frame, a screwdriver might come off or a grinding machine might slip. There were no defects of such a scale that you would have to throw it away or cut off a part, but you may suffer a little while insulating it. An ordinary sealant will help you solve this problem.
- Choose insulation. In this case, since the process will involve small objects, many experienced builders suggest using ordinary construction foam. I do not recommend resorting to such drastic methods because it can deform the frame, which will create unnecessary problems when installing the windows themselves. The most appropriate, in my opinion, is to use mineral wool. In this case, you can purchase a roll rather than plates, which will be cheaper, and fill all the cavities in the same way.
- Prepare your instrument. If you use polyurethane foam, all you need is a special gun into which the cylinder is inserted. If your finger fell on mineral wool, then a small spatula, a stationery knife and a tape measure will be enough.
If you don’t know how to pour foam correctly, you can watch how to do it in the video below:
So, we have decided that there are two material options with which we can insulate an aluminum balcony - foam and cotton wool. A few notes to keep in mind when dealing with the first one:
- do not overdo it, because a large amount of material can lead to deformation of the profile itself;
- Buy more construction foam than you need. You see, if there is not enough of it, then it will be an order of magnitude worse than the case when it remains. It should dry all at once, and not in parts after additional purchase. It’s better to stay, because it can always come in handy;
- Fill the profile evenly and penetrate into all crevices. This is the only way you will achieve maximum results.
If, when insulating an aluminum loggia, you use my choice, which appears in the form of mineral wool, then do not forget that correct calculations will help you save a lot. The main advantage is that you will not in any way affect the size, shape or stability of the aluminum frame itself. We calculated how much to cut, cut it, placed it, straightened it with a spatula - and voila! All is ready!
Replacing a profile
To insulate the frame of the structure, you can replace the existing aluminum profile with the same analogue, but with a special polyamide insert. This method is quite expensive, since you will have to completely replace the entire frame of the glazing wall.
Insulating a balcony, which was originally designed by the designer as a cold room, is a rather costly and time-consuming task. It is advisable to obtain competent advice from specialists in the field of construction before making a decision on insulation.
Balcony glazing
As soon as everything is prepared for the work, we insulate the balcony with plastic windows. Some owners leave an old wooden frame, which is blown out due to the cracks, and the presence of one glass in the frame will not insulate your balcony as it should. Even if the frame is still in good condition, it will not provide the same thermal insulation as plastic windows. Aluminum systems, like wooden frames, are a “cold” type of balcony glazing. Therefore, they will not be suitable if you decide to combine a balcony with a heated living space.
After glazing the balcony, it is necessary to close all the cracks in the area of the walls, floor and parapet through which cold air can penetrate. For these purposes, sealants and mastics such as Germabutyl, Germaflex, Emphymastic, Rubberflex are best suited.
