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While we’re still busy insulating our cellar ceiling/ ground floor, we thought it’s probably about time to share some of our other insulating and house warming efforts with you.
While insulating our floors should hopefully help keep our rooms nice and cosy and save on our energy bills, there’s not much point in installing a load of insulation under the floors if we leave huge gaps between the skirting and floorboards in the rooms above.
Luckily sealing the gap is a much quicker and much, much cleaner job than tearing down our cellar ceiling.
Whatever you do, don’t be tempted to fill the gap with caulk! (Trust us, we tried it)
Whilst the caulk would temporarily seal the gap and stop the air flow, it has pretty much no insulating properties. Also, if you have wooden floorboards, your floors move a bit and over time the caulk will tear.
If that’s not enough of a reason for you, the caulk gets really dirty – it is around the floor after all – and within a short space of time just looks messy.
The much quicker, cleaner, more effective and easier way is to fill the gap with draught excluding tape. It comes in different thicknesses and colours, and usually has one sticky side which helps it stay in place.
Get the tape that we used!
Filling the gap couldn’t be easier. All you have to do is squash the tape into the gap with a stripping knife. It’ll blend into the joint and be invisible and will just look like the shadow gap that was there before.
If you choose tape that’s at least as thick as the gap it’ll automatically expand to the required thickness and completely seal the gap.
Not only is it pretty much invisible, but (in contrast to caulk) it’s also completely maintenance-free. And it still gets better, according to the Energy Savings Trust it also saves around £20 on your annual heating bills, so the upgrade should pay for itself within about a year!
We already sealed the gaps around our living room floors last year and it made a huge difference to the whole feel of the room. No more draughts!
And while you’re insulating the gap between the floor and floorboards, why not think about giving your skirting boards a quick makeover with a coat of fresh new paint? You can read our full guide on how to paint skirting boards without having to tape off everything here.
Are you insulating your home this winter? Do you have any home improvement tips that save money? Did you realise that sealing the gap between your skirting board and floor could be so easy?
Elaine phillips says
Can I seal the gap between the skirting board and floor in a basement
Christine says
I don’t see why not, Elaine. It will depend on your floor but I’m not sure if it will make any difference as I assume your cellar floor is already not draughty.
Cx
Jim Suttie says
Where can i buy this tape ?
Christine says
You can buy it at any DIY store, Jim. It’s available in different thicknesses depending on how big the gaps are that you’re trying to fill. This is the draught excluding tape that we used (affiliate link).
Cx
yvonne says
we have original old hardwood flooring in our living room. the last owner said that the pest controll tore out all the installtion from under the house. said its where termites live. my question is.should we replace the instalation ? and now we have gaps between our wood floors shold we use the same tape as use in this on this page or something else?we r using carpet over the hardwood floors right now
Christine says
I’d be tempted to replace the insulation. I think you’d probably need some ridged insulation that any pests can’t nest in. If you are leaving the carpet in, that should cover any other gaps in and around the floor. If you have problems with termites, I’d definitely check with pest control and see what kind of insulation they recommend. You don’t want to go to all of that effort only to find that you end up having pests again!
Good luck!
Cx
LizKMtl says
I was just looking at doing this the other day – but thought the tape was a very pricey option for how much I’d be needing. The hardware store sold a foam insulator strip like this:
Have you seen/tried this? It’s cheaper than the tape so I’m tempted to go with it.
Christine says
The foam insulator strip looks ideal! Really all you want is something that you can squish into the gap which will expand to completely seal it.
Good luck!
Cx