Main Floor Hydronic Options - ICF Home
Last Post 29 Mar 2008 12:58 PM by jmagill. 5 Replies.
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bwheeler1User is Offline
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27 Mar 2008 10:37 PM
We are planning an ICF home for construction this summer. The house is 1600 sq ft on the main floor with the same size walk-out basement. Since we will have an insulated slab floor in the basement, we felt that hydronic in-floor heating was the way to go. Also, we have most of our windows in the south for passive solar heating and we intend to add solar water heating at some point.

But, how to do hydronic on the main floor has not been obvious. For example, Gypcrete is not available in this area and we have learned that Warmboard runs about $8.00/sq ft just for the subfloor delivered to the site. Plus, each panel is almost 100 lbs.

Does anyone know of floor systems that would work well for the main floor with ICF walls? For example, has anyone used Hambro, Insul-Deck, LiteDeck, Core Slab or other systems with hydronic in-floor heating?

Since we are in Canada, some systems will be easier to get than others. Plus, we have to be able to explain the system to our ICF installer.

Comments and advice would be appreciated.

Brian.


NRT.RobUser is Offline
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27 Mar 2008 11:31 PM
I've had some clients use insul-deck. it brings up a lot of issues with drilling holes and such later on.

it all starts with a heat load. with ICF, it can go either way depending on your window coverage. If it's light, you have lots of options to keep solar options open later. With higher loads, better performance becomes more and more important.
Rockport Mechanical<br>RockportMechanical.com
bwheeler1User is Offline
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27 Mar 2008 11:40 PM
With the Warmboard option, our heating system design for both floors (from one firm) called for a 35 Gal Polaris water heater - if that helps. However, I didn't see their heat load calculations.

Is the Warmboard cost high enough to warrant going to other systems? I can see needing to preplan strategic floor penetrations if we went to a concrete-based system. I was also thinking that the concrete would work in our favor with respect to passive solar heating.
bwheeler1User is Offline
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29 Mar 2008 01:42 AM
One of the heating system suppliers suggested installing 3/4" X 12" plywood strips on the subfloor with a 1" space in between for 1/2" pex tubing. Also, they can supply preformed aluminum fins to install with the pex to distribute the heat. Then, once the plywood strips were installed, we would run the pex in the slots and add the aluminum fins as we go. After the pex was in place, we could install our flooring according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Has anyone done this or seen it done this way?
NRT.RobUser is Offline
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29 Mar 2008 10:28 AM
we generally recommend 9" o.c. using a 5-3/4" plate it's a lower performance option, but can be quite adequate for a lot of people. I also STRONGLY recommend a PEX-AL-PEX tubing to limit expansion issues.
Rockport Mechanical<br>RockportMechanical.com
jmagillUser is Offline
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29 Mar 2008 12:58 PM
You could do what we did.

Beef up the floor joists and pour a 1.5 -2" concrete floor on the plywood deck. We installed pex and stained the concrete for a finished floor. Our home is 1200 sq feet and has two zones( living space and bedrooms).

It is very cost effective and practical. Easy to clean as well.
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