How to properly insulate a bathhouse from the inside: what key mistakes should be avoided

Detailed instructions for insulating a bathhouse from the inside: insulating walls, floors and ceilings. To insulate a bathhouse with your own hands, you don’t need to have any special skills; you only need a standard set of tools and our instructions!

The vast majority of country house owners cannot imagine their property without a real Russian bathhouse or sauna. But in order for it to function properly, and really bring only strength and health to the owners, it is very important to insulate it well; insulation methods are considered at the stage of drawing up the bathhouse design, but this can also be done with a completed building

How to insulate a bathhouse from the inside

To know how to properly insulate a bathhouse from the inside, you need to study the technology of this process and choose the right materials.

Materials for work

Before you start considering insulation technology, you need to figure out what materials need to be prepared for the job.

1. Thermal insulation material is the most important component in the process of insulating the walls, ceiling and floor of a bathhouse. Today there are a large number of insulation materials, but not all of them are suitable for bath conditions. Which ones are most adapted to high temperatures and humidity?

Insulation of a bathhouse from the inside: materials

Different rooms in the bathhouse have different requirements; we will focus on the steam room and wash room, the features of which are high temperature and high humidity. Also, the insulation is selected depending on the material of the bath walls.

But, regardless of the material of the walls and the purpose of the room, the insulation must be:

• Non-toxic so as not to cause poisoning when exposed to high temperature;
• Not hygroscopic, so as not to absorb moisture;
• Resistant to high temperatures and steam;
• Non-flammable;
• Maintaining its shape even after several years of extreme use;
• Resistant to fungi and mold;
• Sold at a reasonable price.

Where to order or buy

Insulation services are provided by companies whose main specialization is the construction of turnkey bathhouses. Our specialists perform high-quality work, which guarantees safe use.

Performers with skills in the construction industry can perform thermal insulation themselves. To implement the project yourself, you will need materials, first of all, insulation. The companies collected in the corresponding section of our website specialize in the sale of thermal insulation materials.

Bath insulation

How to line a bathhouse with clapboard inexpensively and save on finishing

Few people want to waste money. A thrifty owner will first calculate how much it will cost him to decorate a bathhouse with clapboards, draw up an estimate, and weigh the pros and cons of alternative options. And only after that he will make a final decision.

Tips on how to reduce the cost of finishing a bathhouse with clapboard

use different types of wood. For example, in the dressing room and washing room, give preference to cheaper lining made of coniferous wood. You can also combine hardwood and coniferous lining in the steam room. For example, in places where there will be contact between the body and the wood (wall near a shelf, sun lounger, heater), use hardwood paneling from hardwood. In other places, use coniferous;

in the washing room, use alternative options, for example, plastic lining or tiles;

vary not only the species, but also the types of wood. For example, buy a high-grade lining for the steam room, and a lower grade for the dressing room. In the dressing room, operating conditions are more humane, and the presence of knots and differences in color and tones will give the room a certain flavor;

combined clapboard finishing (combination of panels of different lengths). The commercial length of the lining ranges from 1.5 to 3 m. The longer the lamellas, the more expensive they are. You can save a lot if you combine lining of different lengths when decorating a bath;

insulation. Of course, you will have to bear the initial costs of insulating the bathhouse. But, during operation, you can appreciate the benefits of insulation, when the cost of heating the bathhouse will be reduced;

cost of work with lining. Professionals price their work dearly, and those who set a low price cannot guarantee decent quality, and it is not yet known how much the rework (reconstruction) will cost. Although, this is all subjective. Therefore, the easiest and most reliable way is to install the lining in the bathhouse yourself. And this step-by-step instruction for covering with wooden lining will be a good help for beginners in construction.

Insulation of the bathhouse ceiling from the inside

The bathhouse is insulated from the inside in the following order: ceiling - walls - floor. The main part of the heat in the bathhouse is lost through the ceiling, so

The thickness of the ceiling insulation is twice the thickness of the wall insulation and is at least 10 cm.

This is how an authoritative member of FORUMHOUSE with the nickname KochevniK recommends insulating the ceiling.

Nomad

We hang at least 10 cm of insulation under the black ceiling. I really don’t recommend basalt wool, glass wool and polystyrene foam in the steam room. The insulation can be hung with lacing. Then foil, gap along the slats and lining.

Regardless of the material of the walls of the bathhouse, the ceiling is insulated in the same way.

When insulating ceilings, foil is mandatory.

Features of the thermal insulation process

Insulation for walls in private housing, as in the case of any other object, is best laid on the outside. If thermal insulation is installed from the inside, the walls will remain cold, and due to the shift in dew point, condensation will form on the internal surfaces. This will lead to the constant presence of moisture, which is especially dangerous for a wooden house.

In a situation where the main frame of the building is made of brick or other material, for example, foam blocks, it is the thermal insulation that will suffer to a greater extent, especially when it comes to mineral wool insulation. But even under such conditions, it is possible to build the safest possible structure that will trap heat in the house.

Insulation of a frame bath from the inside

To insulate a frame bath, rolled mineral insulation is most often used.

The thickness of the insulation depends on the type of operation of the bathhouse: if you plan to heat it only in the summer, a layer of 5 cm is enough; if you plan to heat the bathhouse all year round, the insulation layer should be 10-15 cm (depending on the climate zone).

To insulate the walls of a frame bath from the inside:

• Insulation is placed in the interbeam space of the structure;
• The next layer is vapor barrier (foil);
• Ventilation gap;
• Sheathing.

The photographs below show how KochevniK insulated his frame bathhouse. Insulation – basalt wool.

Insulating a bathhouse from the inside with your own hands: step-by-step instructions.

Foil acts as a vapor barrier, so it is important that there are no even the slightest holes or damage in it, and that all joints are well taped with high-quality tape. The tape is always sold together with foil, and its quality must be checked in the store (glue the tape to the foil and try to tear it off).

Finishing work on the roof

The attic can be used for various purposes. You can store bath equipment and unnecessary things on it, or you can equip it as an attic. In all cases, it can serve as an additional insulating layer that will protect the structure from the influence of heat and cold. Therefore, it is necessary to spend some time to ensure good thermal insulation of the roof.

To insulate it, you can use the following materials:

• Styrofoam;
• foamed polyurethane;
• basalt or glass wool.

It is mandatory to install a membrane film to drain condensate outside. You can sheathe the inner surface with plywood, boards or waterproof plasterboard. The choice depends on the purpose of the attic.

Thermal insulation of a bathhouse is a painstaking but necessary process. High-quality work will ensure comfortable rest for people and a long service life of the structure.

Insulating a bathhouse from the inside with your own hands: log house

Insulating a chopped and well-caulked bathhouse from the inside would be a tragic mistake. This is not only pointless and destructive for the walls, it contradicts the very idea of ​​a chopped bathhouse.

Log houses for baths are made for two reasons:

1. To get a classic Russian steam bath, which takes a long time to heat and maintains the required level of heat and humidity for a long time. It is the tree that accumulates heat and moisture and gradually “gives it away”. In this case, the inside of the bathhouse cannot be lined; You will also have to come to terms with the high consumption of firewood.
2. For the image. No bathhouse looks as cool in appearance as a chopped one. But I often don’t want to waste time and firewood; I want the bathhouse to be heated in an hour, so insulation, vapor barrier and clapboard cladding are done. The log house works only as an external frame; the meaning of the material is lost. In this case, it is cheaper and more correct to build a frame bathhouse.

It happens that a person gets a ready-made bathhouse from a log house, and for various reasons it can be cold. Such a bathhouse can be insulated, but only from the outside.

The pie looks like this:

• insulation;
• wind protection;
• vertical sheathing to create a ventilation gap;
• outer skin.

And you can put foil on the inside and line it with clapboard, not forgetting about the ventilation gap.

Here's what KochevniK recommends:

• We put foil on the beam and fasten it with a construction stapler;
• We seal ALL joints with foil tape;
• We fill the vertical slats with a thickness of 1-2 cm;
• We fill the lining horizontally, leaving gaps at the top and bottom for air circulation.

In a chopped bathhouse, only the floor and ceiling are insulated!

If the ceiling of a chopped bathhouse is made of thick boards, it is not necessary to use insulation, but then the following is poured onto the ceiling in a cold attic:

• ash;
• sand;
• expanded clay (it is preferable that the granules be of different sizes);
• clay coating.

Insulation from the inside of a brick bath

Brick is not the most suitable material for building a bathhouse, but if there is a brick factory somewhere nearby, then brick bathhouses begin to grow like mushrooms. Due to the high thermal conductivity of brick, such a bathhouse requires insulation without fail. Insulation is carried out only from the inside, and to make the bathhouse look cool from the outside, decorative jointing is done.

Typically, the pie of an insulated wall of a brick bath looks like this:

• brickwork;
• waterproofing,
• insulation;
• vapor barrier;
• sheathing

Waterproofing between the brickwork and the insulation is optional: if the walls are built correctly and waterproofed from the foundation, they will not become damp. If there is no confidence in the walls, then it is better to do waterproofing.

The insulation on the brick walls of the bathhouse is attached to the frame.

S4sha Member FORUMHOUSE

We build a frame on the wall from 100×40 timber with insulation width increments, fill it with insulation, lay a vapor barrier, sew on 20mm slats and cover it with clapboard.

Our user S4sha’s bathhouse is made of half a brick, but it steams just fine even at -30. Its walls are insulated like this:

• mineral wool;
• vapor barrier (in the steam room - foil);
• ventilation gap;
• lining.

Insulation thickness – 50 mm.

Video description

All of the above points have already been taken into account in standard bathhouse designs. What they are, see in the following video:

Hire a specialist or do it yourself

How to insulate a steam room in a bathhouse: a comparison of options for hiring an experienced professional and working independently.

The main advantages of building a bathhouse and insulating a steam room with your own hands:

1. Saving money for paid labor, or rather for its absence. After all, all the work is done by the owner himself.
2. Total control, from the purchase of materials to installation, again due to the fact that everything is done independently without the involvement of third parties and organizations.

The main disadvantages of DIY construction:

1. Time. Without working skills and not knowing design standards, it will take a lot of time to study this issue.
2. Speed. The work that a specialist can do in a matter of hours, an inexperienced person will do for several days, so that the quality is at a high level.
3. Inflated prices when purchasing materials. As a rule, when purchasing materials in bulk, you can save up to 50% of money. This is what organizations working on a turnkey basis take advantage of, purchasing material for several objects at once.

Mineral wool is used to insulate steam room walls, lining is used as a facing material Source banyaportal.ru

Beauty is in the little things

As a rule, making a steam room in a bathhouse beautiful is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. The interior decoration of the walls, ceiling, floor, arrangement of shelves and lighting elements are primarily responsible for presentability in the steam room.

To finish the walls, ceiling and floor, lining of different types of wood is used. You can also combine wood finishes with tiles and stonework.

An example of finishing a steam room No. 1 Source brodude.ru

Insulation of a bathhouse made of blocks from the inside

For the construction of a bathhouse, durable and moisture-resistant blocks of expanded clay concrete are preferred. The insulation of such a bathhouse is thought out at the stage of its construction. The most important thing here is to remove the icy mass of concrete from the heating circuit. There is a technology promoted by our user ZYBY, which allows us to solve this problem by constructing a frame wall from boards with an indentation from the walls of the bathhouse. It is suitable for insulating all baths with stone walls.

To ventilate and dry the space between the frame and the walls, several vents are made in the walls of the bathhouse, at the top and at the bottom outside. The vents are closed while people are steaming in the bathhouse; the rest of the time they are open for drying.

Insulation cake for steam rooms and washing rooms using this technology:

• concrete wall with vents;
• insulation on the frame-wall (with an indentation from the concrete wall);
• frame-wall;
• foil;
• finishing with 50th unedged board (aspen, linden or cedar) to get solid wood in the steam room.

With this approach, there is no need to heat the ice walls. And the insulation will dry out between steaming sessions.

But many owners of a block bathhouse insulate it from the inside traditionally:

• concrete wall;
• insulation (attached to the frame);
• foil;
• ventilation gap;
• lining.

Insulation of a bathhouse made of expanded clay concrete blocks from the inside.

Such a bathhouse needs insulation from the outside as well.

Insulation of window openings and doors

Scheme for insulating a door in a bathhouse.
You can do without windows in a bathhouse. But they are necessary not only for admiring the scenery while relaxing, but also for ventilation. An ordinary window with one glass will not work for a rest room. A good double-glazed window can provide almost absolute thermal insulation. The main danger is the junction of windows and walls. You need to spend more tow or moss on them. They need to be laid in several layers, pressed down with platbands.

As for entrance doors, their selection and installation pose problems associated with the constant shrinkage of the building. Therefore, entrance doors are installed with a sliding joint on the sides. This allows the walls to continually settle without putting pressure on the door structure. It is recommended to purchase steel doors with basalt wool slabs laid inside. The iron structure does not react to moisture. She will never be caught in a doorway. It is very durable and has a long service life. In addition, the steel product will reliably protect the room from uninvited guests.

Bathroom floor insulation

Precious bath heat also escapes through the floor, so it also needs to be insulated. To insulate the floor in a bathhouse, it is recommended to use expanded clay as the lightest and most environmentally friendly material.

Expanded clay is poured between layers of concrete floor as follows:

• pour the first layer of concrete;
• wait until it hardens completely;
• expanded clay is poured (layer thickness - 10 cm);
• install reinforced grating.
• pour a layer of concrete;
• make a cement-sand screed.

Installation Tips

When the bathhouse is built and the thermal insulation material is selected, you can begin thermal insulation work. Do-it-yourself insulation of a building is a complex, but very real process. If you are confident in your abilities, you can refuse the services of professional builders.

Whatever the bathhouse is - wooden, brick or made of blocks, the insulation process will be the same. Before you begin thermal insulation of a room, you need to think about vapor barrier. This is an important point, since even when choosing moisture-resistant insulation, there is a high risk of its premature deterioration due to the accumulation and penetration of condensate through the protective layers.

To prevent moisture penetration, it is recommended to use aluminum foil

It is important that the vapor barrier layer is monolithic. A “single” surface can be created by gluing the foil with metallized tape