Thermal insulation of the steam room is a must in any bath, regardless of the material of its manufacture. It is best to devote time to this business at the construction stage, although this can also be done in a ready-made bath. How to insulate a steam room in a bath with your own hands - you will learn from our article. Content:
- Features of reducing heat loss
- Heat insulating materials
- Ceiling insulation
- Thermal insulation of walls
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Floor insulation
- Wooden floor
- Concrete floor
The steam room is the most important room of the bath. It should not be cold, and one can hardly dispute such a statement. Every zealous owner of the bath tries to minimize any heat losses in its steam room, since unnecessary heating costs, problems with heating the room, keeping it warm and the discomfort of bath procedures usually please no one. For reliable thermal insulation of the steam room, it is necessary to go through several steps in succession to insulate its walls, floor and ceiling.
Features of reducing heat loss in the steam room
To avoid unnecessary costs for kindling the stove and keeping the heat in the steam room, you need to take into account a few simple rules for planning a bath:
- The area of the building is determined depending on the number of visitors simultaneously present in it and the number of its rooms - a steam room, a locker room and others. The size of the steam room is usually 4-6 m2.
- The location of the dressing room is planned closer to the entrance door of the bathhouse. This will keep cold air from entering the steam room.
- To preserve heat, the entrance from the steam room to the adjacent room can be designed in the form of a vestibule.
- The doorway for the steam room is made with a high threshold and a width of no more than 0.7 m.
- The sauna stove is located closer to the exit.
- To reduce heat losses through the window, the latter is made of a two-chamber double-glazed unit and is located at a height of 1 m from the floor of the double compartment.
Thermal insulation materials for steam room insulation
Natural raw materials and artificial products are used as heat-insulating and sealing materials for the steam room.
Natural raw materials include: tow, which is used to fill cracks, sphagnum, which acts as a seal between the joints, construction frame moss - wall insulation. These materials are environmentally friendly and do a good job of protecting premises from heat loss. However, they are susceptible to rapid decay and are a treat for insects. For this reason, natural insulation is recommended to be treated with antiseptics, and their use is undesirable for a steam room.
Expanded clay and expanded polystyrene plates, basalt wool and ordinary foam plastic serve as artificial materials for insulation. All of them are distinguished by moisture resistance, biological safety, long-term operation and a high degree of thermal insulation. Expanded clay slabs are used to insulate the floor of steam rooms, expanded polystyrene - for their attic floors, and basalt wool - for walls and ceilings.
Foil insulation is currently used to insulate and waterproof the walls and ceiling of the steam room. It is a roll of basalt wool with a layer of aluminum foil glued to it. When using this material, the process of insulating structures is greatly simplified - the foil protects the insulation from moisture and helps to reflect heat from the enclosing structures into the room.
Thermal insulation of the ceiling of the steam room in the bath
To insulate the ceiling in the steam room, we will use a modern method, which involves the use of foil-clad material as a vapor barrier layer.
The work consists of five stages:
- Insulation is attached to the ceiling beams using a stapler, facing with a layer of aluminum foil inside the room, which at the same time serves as a heat-reflecting screen. This will reduce the cost of heating and keeping the steam room warm by 2-3 times. The joints of the overlapping insulator panels are glued with aluminum tape. Other vapor barrier materials are also used for baths, but they are not as effective.
- Fastening of the ceiling lathing supporting the insulation is made with screws across the ceiling beams. The lathing is required for the installation of the external ceiling sheathing. On the inner side of the ceiling of the room, an air heat-reflecting gap is left between the future cladding and the sheets of foil insulation.
- The selected insulation is laid from the side of the attic between the ceiling beams. It should be tight, without the slightest gaps.
- On top of the insulation, a polyethylene film is laid and fixed to protect it from moisture and dust from the street. To avoid mechanical damage to the multilayer thermal insulation in the attic, a rough plank floor is laid along the beams.
- At the last stage of work, the ceiling of the steam room is sheathed along the crate with wooden clapboard. The material for it can be hardwood - linden, aspen, etc. What material to choose is up to you.
When insulating a steam room in a frame bath, such thermal insulation of the ceiling is necessary, but for a log cabin it is optional. There are enough 6 cm thick boards fixed to the ceiling beams and a 15 cm layer of mineral wool.
Thermal insulation of the walls of the steam room in the bath
Before the internal insulation of the walls in the steam room, it is necessary to seal all joints and gaps in them with the help of a sealant. After the composition has dried, the insulation can be started. Its process is similar to ceiling insulation, but has some nuances. Wall insulation is carried out horizontally along the perimeter of the paired room, moving from the top to the floor. Moreover, the strip of foil overlaps the slope left when the ceiling is insulated. The insulated wall of the steam room should have three layers of protection: waterproofing, thermal insulation and a vapor barrier membrane.
The order of work is as follows:
- To exclude the possibility of vapor condensate formation on the walls, the enclosing structures of the steam room are covered with a waterproofing film.
- The thermal insulation layer of mineral wool is placed in a lathing made of timber, which is stuffed onto the wall along the waterproofing and an intermediate layer of clean paper.
- The vapor barrier layer protects the insulation from exposure to humid air. For this purpose, a foil membrane is used, which is attached over the insulation to the crate with a stapler. The overlapping joints of her canvases are glued with metal tape.
- At the last stage, over the membrane, a hardwood lining is attached to the wooden frame of the wall.
Unlike thermal insulation of a steam room in a brick bath, a wooden building will require less heat-insulating materials, since wood itself has similar properties.
Important! Before the outer wall cladding, thin slats need to be stuffed onto the crate to create an air gap, which, together with the foil membrane, will create a heat-reflecting effect.
Thermal insulation of the steam room floor in the bath
A concrete floor is stronger and more durable than a wooden floor, as it is not afraid of moisture. It is very easy to care for the tiles laid on the screed. But tile is a cold material. Wooden floors for a steam room are much more suitable. To reduce its heat loss, both types of floors require insulation.
Thermal insulation of a wooden floor in a steam room
Structurally, a wooden floor is different from a concrete floor, but their thermal insulation has the same principle. The whole system looks like this: foundation, floor beams, joists laid on beams, a layer of vapor barrier material, a subfloor, insulation, a waterproofing layer, a finished floor.
After installing the lag and laying the vapor barrier material, the space between the floor beams is filled with insulation. They can be sand, slag, expanded clay, fiberglass or mineral wool mats and foam. Waterproofing and a finishing floor are laid on the insulation.
Thermal insulation of the concrete floor in the steam room
The scheme of the insulated concrete floor in the steam room is as follows: foundation, concrete floor, waterproofing layer, insulation, concrete screed, ceramic tiles or wooden floor.
You can see that this floor is similar to a kind of "sandwich", consisting of a pair of layers of concrete and insulation, laid between them. In the same way, the floor of the bathhouse, erected on a columnar foundation, is insulated. The difference here is that the monolithic base is replaced with a reinforced concrete slab laid on a frame made of a metal channel.
The work on floor insulation in the steam room consists of several stages:
- Laying the base of the lower floor layer is made of a concrete mixture having a crushed stone fraction of 20-35 mm. The thickness of the concrete pad is 120-150 mm.
- Waterproofing is installed after the concrete has cured. Roofing material, roofing felt and bituminous mastics can serve as materials for it. Before applying the latter, the base is painted with a special primer. Waterproofing is laid on the concrete surface after it has been treated with two or three layers of bituminous material.
- For the installation of insulation, mineral wool, perlite, boiler slag with a layer of 250-300 mm, polystyrene, expanded clay with a layer of 100-150 mm, etc. are used.
- The second floor layer is laid on a heat-insulating material. In the concrete of this layer, a finer fraction of crushed stone is used.
The finished floor can be covered with a wooden platform. After the end of the bath procedures, it is removed, washed and dried. How to insulate a steam room in a bath - watch the video:
As you can see, it is easy to insulate the steam room yourself. Include your patience and hard work, and the result will be sure!
