The owner of the apartment or country houses there is often a need for winterizing your balcony or loggia. The reasons for this can be different — from the desire to create a cozy place for evening gatherings before the unification of the balcony or loggia with room or kitchen. Regardless of the challenges that you face, for their implementation need to choose the right insulation.

In this case, the starting point may be the decision on the following question: will the insulated balcony in a separate room or combined with a room, increasing its area.

Rational approach: we select the option

Case one: a balcony as a separate space for occasional use. Such a room is easy enough to heat to an acceptable temperature, leaving open the balcony door the air from the room will quickly fill its small volume; or to use on the balcony the heating system “warm floor”.

The insulation of this balcony can be performed by either of two fundamentally different technologies of installation of insulation: in frame or as a solid layer.

Technology installation in the frame assumes a pre-assembled frame, usually wooden bars, in the cell which is then embedded in the insulation.

Technology installation of a continuous layer involves the fixing of insulation material to the insulated surface, wherein the insulation forms a solid inseparable layer without cold bridges. This solution is only possible with insulation plate having sufficient rigidity and durability.

Case two: the balcony becomes part of the dwelling.

The insulation of this balcony should be conducted only in mounting technology continuous layer. It is necessary to provide extra sources of heat such as a floor heating system, because the capacity of the primary heating appliance is not designed for the increased space and the increased area of the outer surfaces — the floor and ceiling of the balcony. Even if you have neighbors above and below a balcony insulated, your floor and ceiling need insulation, as the ends at the balcony slabs face the street.

As a result of insulation of balcony walls, floor and ceiling of the room temperature should not be reduced. To find the thickness of insulation layer, required for warming your balcony or loggia, you should use the online calculators hosted on the websites of manufacturers of insulating materials, or to request a consultation with a specialist.

What criteria should guide the choice of insulation for balconies and loggias?

Of course, in the first place is the thermal conductivity — the property of insulation, responsible for the amount of heat loss. Different materials, this figure varies — that is, the loss of heat through five-centimeter layer of mineral wool and polyurethane foam will vary. The lower the conductivity, the less heat loss.

In other words, to ensure the same quality of thermal insulation of the balcony you’ll need to use a different number for one material or another.

As we can see from the table above, the thermal conductivity of mineral wool is almost 2 times higher than the PIR, respectively, alternative to 9-cm layer of cotton wool may be PIR-plate with a thickness of only 5cm.

The second criterion in the choice of material is a useful balcony area after warming. This factor affects not only the necessary thickness of insulation, and technology installation. Plate PIR provide the level of insulation at minimal thickness and is designed for mounting technology continuous layer.

Ilya Danilov, an expert of the Association NAPPAN: “When installing the PIR-plates a solid layer, you do not need to spend money, time and effort on the frame for insulation, which also is a heat bridge between the street and the building.”

The third important criterion when selecting insulation it is possible to consider environmental safety. Warming of the balcony is produced from the inside, and then the insulating material from the premises will be separated only by a finishing layer — so you need confidence that over the period of operation of the heater will not produce harmful substances in the space of the apartment. This is especially important when combining the balcony with the bedroom or children’s room.

PIR-plates are made of penopolistirola — polymer material with a completed chemical reaction. From our usual polyurethane foam it features high thermal stability: it does not emit harmful substances into the air even when heated, which is especially important for balconies, which overlook the Sunny side of the house.

Another criterion when choosing the material is fire safety.

And for good reason. After all, the balconies and loggias are the evacuation routes in case of emergency, besides the criterion of fire resistance is important and when you installation of sockets and wiring under the finishing layer.

Alexey Gorokhov, Executive Director of the Association NAPPAN: “Penopolistirola is a heat resistant material and is characterized by high fire safety. Because of their composition penopolistirola does not support combustion, unlike other polymeric insulation does not melt and does not form burning drops of the melt. When interacting with the flame on the surface of the polyisocyanurate is formed of graphite layer that acts as a protective barrier for the inner layers of isolation”.

Durability. This criterion is especially relevant when a balcony attached to the room — after finishing the access of the insulating layer will be difficult. To exclude such “symptoms” as dampness in the corners, mildew on the walls, etc., it is recommended to use tough and durable slab insulation, which will retain its position in the construction of the wall during the whole service life.

Analysis of options for insulation of balconies and loggias gives the following results: the strength of the foam normal foam density is from 40кПа to 100kPa, extrusion of foam not less than 200kPa, the strength of the plates PIR — at least 120кПа.

It is also worth noting that, according to the recommendations of manufacturers of insulation materials with compressive strength of 100 kPa can be used for insulation, not only walls and ceilings but the floor.

The speed and ease of installation. These factors directly impact the size of the balcony or loggia — the closer the space, the more difficult to work on it. Therefore, preference should be given to those insulators which are easily cut with a utility knife, will not form a annoying fibrous dust (this is especially important for insulation of the ceiling), and, of course, take up less space — that is, have minimal conductivity.

It is worth noting that PIR-plates are available with special markings on the surface — the grid lines is 10×10cm, which greatly simplifies the work for cutting the material and smooth fastening elements.

“Announce the entire list, please!”

Now in the domestic market presents a large assortment of PIR-plates. Their varieties differ primarily veneer material technology coating on the front surfaces of the plate. The most common are cladding layers of foil, alumalite, paper and fiberglass. In the insulated design of these coatings fulfill a role.

Danilov Ilya, an expert of the Association of NAPPAN: “Plates with facings of aluminum foil and alumalite is probably the best insulation solution for balconies and loggias with a continuous layer. The fact that the foil is an excellent paroizoliruyuschimi material — therefore, using such plates, it is possible to obtain a thin, efficient and hermetic heat barrier, not arranging a separate vapor barrier layer,it is sufficient only to glue the joints of plates with foil tape. But PIR with paper veneer should be applied for insulation of balconies of intermittent use, and technology installation in the frame.”

Boards with foil facings are ideal for insulation of balconies and loggias decorative panels and moulded products from wood and other decorative materials, as well as the covering drywall. For those who want to have on the balcony are plastered textured surface for painting or gluing of the tiles — is the best fit slab with a lining of glass fiber.

PIR-plates also differ in types of profiling ends. Products with edges “quarter” and “thorn-groove” approach for reliable thermal insulation in a continuous layer without cold bridges. Plate with straight edges is the best option for insulation technology in the frame.

For insulation balconies or loggias are a convenient size of plates PIR 1200×600 mm.

High strength properties of the plates allow PIR to insulate not only walls and ceiling but also the floor. Thus, with the help of these plates can easily achieve the same level of flooring in the bathroom and attach balcony and not losing as insulation.

Ilya Humalin.
The material was prepared with the participation of experts of the Association “NAPPY” www.nappan.ru.