How to insulate a loggia with your own hands

Recommendation points

• When parapet installation is required
• Selection of glazing and correct installation
• Correct installation of the insulated floor
• How to insulate and how to wall the walls

You can feel comfortable on the loggia in winter, store homemade items and even place a desk. It is enough just to properly insulate it. In the article we will tell you how to properly mount the inner lining, talk about suitable materials, stages of work and professional tricks.

When parapet installation is required

Very often, the design of loggias has one unpleasant feature: in terms of the parapet protrudes slightly beyond the line of the visor, which makes it impossible to correctly execute the upper junction of the plastic glazing. Even when the parapet is lined up exactly along the line of the visor, the upper frame fastening to the very edge of the concrete console is very, very problematic to perform.

The way out is quite simple: the parapet should be slightly increased from the inside in order to move the glazing line and normally insulate it. The required build-up thickness is determined by the plumb line thrown from the edge of the visor. From this point inwardly retreat by 30 mm and the thickness of the PVC window profile, plus another 20 mm for a more durable fastening of the window sill.

By far the best way to build up a parapet is to use aerated concrete blocks. This material copes well with the task of insulation and is quite simple to install. In the course of the masonry, the space between it and the existing parapet is abundantly filled with polyurethane foam.

Problems may arise when, instead of brickwork, the parapet is formed by a metal grill. In this case, it will be necessary to revet the outer surface with facade sheet materials that do not require finishing: professional sheet, siding and the like..

Selection of glazing and correct installation

All efforts to insulate the loggia will be in vain if the heat-saving class of the windows does not correspond to the specifics of the room. For glazing of the attached loggias, the same windows should be used as in the apartment; for unconnected ones, two-chamber double-glazed windows with low-emission glasses of different thicknesses will be optimal. It is allowed to use double-glazed windows with a thickness of at least 32 mm in a plastic frame with a thickness of 70 mm.

Several key points regarding installation:

1. Foam gluing of the joints between the glazing units and / or the swivel pipe is mandatory.
2. Fastening is carried out with frame anchors through the window profile.
3. Additional and connecting profiles are not used for glazing loggias.
4. The thickness of the foam seam in the thinnest place is 2 cm at the abutment to the enclosing walls, from 3 cm above and 35–45 mm below.
5. To resist strong wind loads, the frame is fastened to the aerated concrete blocks through a profile pipe, fixed through and through with steel pins.
6. The number of flaps that can be opened should be minimal.
7. The glazing must be displaced inward relative to the edge of the parapet by at least 50 mm.
8. The space hidden by cover strips, window sills and ebbs must be filled with polyurethane foam.

Separately, it should be said about the support blocks. They should be made only of polymeric materials, the durability of which is comparable to that of plastic frames.

Correct installation of the insulated floor

The floor level on the loggia should be 30 mm higher than the sill of the balcony panel. A section of the sill from the side of the room is displayed at the same level, thus, the door profile protrudes no more than 40 mm above the floor, which is very convenient when walking.

The floor has to be raised to a sufficiently large height and this can be done confidently only with the help of a dry screed or flooring on logs. In the first case, before pouring the granulate onto the floor, a layer of dense sufficient thickness (from 150 kg / m³a) heat insulator: stone wool or extruded PPP.

If the floor is arranged on logs, they should have a double crate: the first is nailed to the concrete floor with frame anchors, the second is mounted across and aligned on corner brackets or mounting wedges. The optimal option for subfloor flooring is chipboard, which has low shrinkage and linear expansion, for them the step of the lags is 40 cm.

The space between the logs in both rows is filled with insulation, the type of which is determined by the permissible layer thickness and other design conditions. For easier orientation, use a table with the key characteristics of different materials:

	Average density, kg / m3	Thermal conductivity, W / mK	Water absorption from volume	Service life	Price per m3	Recommended layer, mm
EPPS	60-100	0.035-0.048	0.4%	60-80 years old	6000 rbl.	70-100
Polyurethane foam	40–70	0.019-0.027	1.9-3%	50 years	9500 rbl.	60-80
Glass wool (ISOVER)	100-150	0.037-0.044	1.5-1.7%	40 years	RUB 25,000.	100-160
Basalt wool (Technonikol)	30–45	0.042-0.048	Less than 1%	30-35 years old	2000-2500 rubles.	60–90

Before installing the floor, all joints and gaps are sealed with polyurethane foam. After laying the floor, the expansion joint from the wall is also filled with polyurethane foam. This is not done for insulation: when walking on the floor, the coating bends a little, which is why a lot of dust or, worse, insulation fibers are blown out through the cracks.

How to insulate and how to wall the walls

Warming of the walls of the loggia and their cladding are carried out only after thorough filling of all cracks and technological joints with polyurethane foam. Thermal insulation must necessarily have a continuous circuit, therefore, in practice, several layers are always obtained, overlapping each other. The tightness of the loggia is very important, because in such a small room, even a slight draft will negate all the advantages of insulation. Naturally, the inner wall of the loggia does not need to be insulated.

The walls of the loggia should be insulated and lined with frame systems, in which materials with a low sensitivity to temperature and humidity changes are used. In many cases, the best finishing option is plastic panels fixed on a frame made of wooden slats or a galvanized profile for drywall 37/17 mm..

This thickness of the structure is optimal to cover the foam joints of 20–30 mm on each side of the joining of the frames to the walls. There is enough space in the cavities between the frame slats to accommodate low-thickness thermal insulation materials: sheet Thermaflex, foamed rubber or polyurethane. At the same time, the cladding layer remains thin enough so that the wall does not climb over the window frame too much.

Thermal insulation can also be carried out under the frame, leaving empty space between the posts. In this case, thin roll materials such as foamed rubber or polyethylene are used. The walls of the loggia can also be pre-lined with polyurethane foam plates or extruded PPP, followed by coating with roll polyethylene with aluminum film.

Frame cavities can remain empty, or they can be additionally insulated. In particular, it is possible to fill the voids with polyurethane foam as the frame is sheathed – this way the plastic panels will be protected from pushing through and will receive additional adhesive fastening.

The ceiling on the loggia is not insulated, but it must be framed and suspended. Its main task is to adjoin a flat frame and hide the foam seam with traces of installation.