Installing insulation below the floor slab has been a growing trend on the Continent, with PassivHaus design leading the way. Now, innovative building designers working under an increasingly stringent carbon emissions timeline are turning to the approach here in the UK – and a British-made insulation product has been specially-designed to support them.

FLOORMATETM 300-A is manufactured from STYROFOAMTM-A, the blue extruded polystyrene foam insulation from Dow Building Solutions. It has all the qualities the industry has come to expect from STYROFOAM – high design load, low water absorption, ease of installation and of course excellent insulating properties.

The product is manufactured in the UK using technology that takes CO2 from industry and uses it as a blowing agent in order to create blue extruded polystyrene foam with a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of less than five.

“Because it resists moisture FLOORMATE 300-A is ideal for below-slab insulation, which is the right design choice when aiming for an ‘envelope’ of continuous insulation that minimises heat loss,” said Stephen Johnson, Technical Sales Manager for Dow Building Solutions. “It’s durable enough to be laid beneath floors which can help avoid thermal bridges at floor and wall junctions.

“Surpassing requirements by installing extra insulation beneath a floor during construction makes the most of precious internal space and provides a one-off opportunity that could help compensate for design and construction changes made during a building’s lifetime,” he continued. “By thinking ahead, developers may avoid having to add further insulation in the future in order to meet increasingly stringent thermal efficiency criteria, changes in building use or the needs of different inhabitants.”

FLOORMATE 300-A is available in a range of thicknesses: 50mm, 75mm, 100mm, 125mm and 150mm, and has a design load of 130 kN/m2. Besides new builds, the product can also be used in housing renovations, where existing ground floors can be overlaid with insulation and a new flooring surface applied.

Dow Building Solutions offers floor insulation products for buildings ranging from residential right the way through to highly loaded cold stores and even very highly loaded floors such as aircraft hangars.

Email: FKLMAIL@dow.com