Why is My Floor So Cold in the Winter?

Winters in Grand Forks, ND, are long and incredibly cold. When winter is piercing through the city outside and all you want to do is keep warm inside, having cold floors can put a damper on your mood. A cold floor is directly correlated to the insulation of the basement or crawl space below. Without proper insulation, the crawl space or basement will be a gateway for the cold air outside to reach your home and cool things down, including your floor. Taking control of the air flow in your basement or crawl space also will improve the energy consumption of your home.

Cold air is denser than hot air, so when the air from outside enters your uninsulated basement or crawl space, it pushes up the warm air. The colder crawl space air stays below ground while the hot air escapes, so there’s nothing warming your floor. You can test to see if your basement or crawl space is causing this problem by going to the second story of your home. If you notice that the second story is warmer than the first floor, then know that it’s because that’s where all the air has escaped to.

Because cold air is constantly flowing into the house, your HVAC system will have a harder time keeping things warm. It runs for longer periods of time and needs to be set to maximum settings so you don’t get chilly. This obviously will cause problems with the energy consumption around your home. To make sure that there’s enough warm air to heat up your floor, you need to insulate your basement or crawl space. Insulation traps the air inside the basement or crawl space so that cold air doesn’t touch the underside of your floorboards.