Hi, I'm Tim Carter and it's a cold winter's day. Typically, you think about insulation on a day like this. On this new construction site in New Hampshire, I'm in the garage area. It appears that I am on a black tarp and wonder why the garage floor is covered with a tarp.

Actually, this is an insulated blanket and it is about an inch or so thick with a bubble type inside and it is double layered. The reason is the builder is trying to keep the fill material under the tarp from freezing. They are going to pour a concrete slab in the middle of winter and they don't want the ground frozen. In a few days when they are going to pour, they will take up the blanket and put down some rigid foam-insulation. Then they are going to install radiant heating tubing and pour the concrete on top of the tubes.

This will give them a heated garage that will be heated from the floor. But you use blankets like this before you pour to take and keep the frost out of the material. You don't want to pour concrete or anything on a frozen surface. If you do, when the material thaws, it will shrink and the concrete will crack.

These concrete blankets are also used after pouring the concrete to keep the heat inside the concrete as it dries. I will show that when they actually pour the garage floor.

Your Facebook friends would love to know how this column helped you solve your problem. Type a quick comment of what you discovered here at AsktheBuilder.com. Thanks!