Smarter Energy UK works under the Government backed ECO4 scheme, making it more than easy to claim your free grant towards energy efficient Underfloor Insulation.

Insulating your ground floor is a great way to keep your property warm. Generally speaking, you only need to insulate the ground floor. If you’re on an upper floor, you don’t usually need to insulate your floor space.

However, you should consider insulating any floors that are above unheated spaces such as garages, as you could be losing a lot of heat through those.

See our guide to draught-proofing, or read on for more about floor insulation.

What type of floor do I have?

Many homes – especially newer ones – will have a ground floor made of solid concrete. This can be insulated when it needs to be replaced, or can have rigid insulation laid on top.

Older homes are most likely to have suspended timber floors. If you have air bricks or ventilation bricks on the outside wall(s) of your house that are below floor level, you probably have a suspended timber floor.

Do NOT block up air bricks in your walls. They are needed to help ventilate the space under your floor and stop your floorboards rotting.

If you have a basement or cellar beneath your house that you can get into safely, take a look down there to see what type of floor you have. If the floor is a suspended wooden floor, you will probably be able to see wooden joists and the undersides of the floorboards.

If you don’t have access to the space underneath your house, you will need to lift a corner of the carpet and underlay to have a look.

Timber floors can be insulated by lifting the floorboards and laying mineral wool insulation supported by netting between the joists. Insulating under the floorboards on the ground floor could save you about £75 a year in an average property, or up to £130 if you live in a detached house.

A typical suspended floor installation could cost you between £1,300 and £2,700 depending on the circumstances. Solid floor insulation could cost considerably more.

Here's how much you could save on your energy bill (£/year) as well as how many kilograms of CO2 emissions you could save each year with floor insulation: