Slab are not designed for comfort and R-value?
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Slabs are terrible to walk on–at work we have concrete floors. My legs and feet hurt after a few hours.
Yet I can walk my dog for an hour on ground and my house is on a joist floor and its all good. So on my addition–a slab is better than a crawl space of 36″. I have seen where you can put treated sleepers in and fill between with sheet foam–but wouldn’t that make it stiff by eliminating flex? has their been any work done on measuring floor give when you walk on it? Is their a way to replicate a wood floor on the slab that can be rated?
My Idea was to do slab with sleepers that would have a gap between top of sheet foam and subfloor.
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Above is located west of Chicago
Thanks in advance
mark b
I've lived with an insulated slab for years in Maine and have had no troubles or complaints from my family. The truth is that we're rarely on our feet for many hours at home. When we are, I wear very well padded and flexible sneakers. Wood floors with underlayment and 16" on center do not flex measurably to a 150-200 pound load that is not jumping up and down. I'll hope some of the engineers chime in on what I consider this myth on concrete floors.
Scout,
It's certainly possible to design a slab for R-value. Here is a link to an article with more information: Insulating a slab on grade.
In terms of comfort, debate is pointless. People have preferences. If you like wood flooring, then install wood flooring. It's your house.
Installing wood flooring above a slab is done routinely, as long as we're talking about an above-grade slab rather than a below-grade slab. Any experienced installer of hardwood flooring will be able to give you good advice.