Attaching Radiant Heating To Cement Floor

While hot water and air based radiant.

Attaching radiant heating to cement floor. The concrete helps create more even heat with less heat loss. You can step onto a warm and inviting floor even one built on a concrete slab by adding in floor heating. The most cost effective system for medium to larger homes is hydronic since the amount of power it would take to heat a whole home with electric would be substantial. This is about installing hydronic radiant floor heating in a slab floor system.

Unlike heat from a forced air system which quickly rises to the ceiling the heat from a radiant floor is distributed evenly throughout the room and is concentrated at floor level where people are. How does radiant heat work. Its success with carpeted floors depends on the length of the weave thick carpets or those with thick pads won t work well as heat generated by the system will stay trapped in the floor. The workers in the photograph at page top where our concrete slab.

Remember since you will only have 1 chance to pour the concrete slab you will only have 1 chance to put the pex tubing in it. While it was done as a new house was being built in my last house i poured a concrete floor on top of a wood framed floor system and could have put radiant heat in that as well. With a hydronic system you can attach aluminum plates beneath the floor to spread and store heat. The system works via pex pipe a small pump a water heater and a thermostat.

With concrete floor radiant heat your home will no longer have hot or cold spots just even quite draft free heat. This article explains how to avoid some fatal mistakes when installing radiant heat in a concrete floor slab by describing an incompetent radiant heat floor installation along with an explanation of why things went wrong and how to avoid these errors. There s two basic types of concrete floor heating hydronic and electric. This in floor heating system consists of one thin continuous cable heating element woven into a mat that you install under the tile.

These heated floors are a project best done when overhauling or changing the floor covering of an existing room or when adding a new room. Radiant heating system design or installation mistakes that must be avoided. Basic materials for radiant floor heat installation in a slab. Due to it s density and low conductivity concrete retains heat very well.

A concrete slab installation is the most common method for radiant floor heating. So even if there are no existing plans for the radiant floor heating or a snow melting system installing pex tubing in it may turn out to be a good. The process involves first putting down a layer of compressed sand or dirt and then a layer of vapor barrier and insulation. Retrofitting radiant heating over a concrete floor is the hardest to do but it is possible.