Kim Paynter
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New Member
Posts:3
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| 05/19/2009 11:15 PM |
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It is our dream to build our new home with infloor heating. We are planing a 2 level home on pilings or strip footings. the main floor is 2500 sq ft. and has a 1500 sq foor loft that over looks the main floor. a roughly calculated heat load for the main floor is 75,000 BTUH (Did this on that WarmlyYours web site that someone mentioned here.)
I have spent hours looking over this section of the web site and must say there certainly are a number of well informed people using it and freely sharing very usefull information. Through reading much of your advise I have pretty much decided that I will be looking for this dense insulation about R-40 to put into my Engineered I-Beam floor joists there around 12" deep. And I also beleive that these thick heat plates that have the clips on them and hold the pipe on the bottom side are the way to go. I am thinking that 8" spaceing is required with 1/2" pipe to deliver enough heat for my cold Canadian winters. I will have 3/4" sub floor and on that I want to run hardwood in some areas and tile in others. The tiled areas should not pose a problem.
Howevery I am wondinging about these other systems that have the pipes on the top of the sub floor and have spaces or grooves that you run the pipe in and if that will be better I have not been able to find much information on that. I think that may be the prefered method for radiant heat under a hardwood floor just because you can see where the pipes run and won't hit them with a nail.
The big concern for me is nailing the hardwood to the sub floor. Some diagrams I have seen sugest mounting the tubing to the side of the I-Beam 2" away from the floor to avoid putting nails into it. could anyone coment on these issues is adding aditional sub floor material an option to provide more space for nails?
Other issues that are of concern to me is that I want to eventualy have GEO for a heat sorce but have decided to start off with NG as that is the cheapest way for me to jump into this project so I want to make certain that I have adaquate heat distribution to run at the low temperatures that GEO requires (Another usefull thing I learned from you folks.)
Thanks for you help on this mater.
P.S. I am a totaly DIY kinda guy so I will be doing as much as I can myself.
Kim |
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BadgerBoilerMN
Registered Users
Basic Member
Posts:311
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| 05/20/2009 6:56 AM |
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| Heat load analysis and professional design help. |
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MA
www.badgerboilerservice.com |
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jonr
Registered Users
Basic Member
Posts:335
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| 05/20/2009 9:59 AM |
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Have you considered putting radiant tubes in 1.5" of concrete on top of the subfloor?
Having your hydronic heat travel through an air space and then 1.5" of wood isn't going to be very efficient.
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NRT.Rob
Registered Users
Advanced Member
Posts:733
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| 05/20/2009 10:04 AM |
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If you want to do geo, the lowest possible water temperatures are what you want.
that's overfloor. Thinslab, Warmboard, or other high performance method: nothing with aluminum foil as a substitute for real conduction, and nothing that puts unnecessary layers of wood between aluminum and finish floor. |
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-=Northeast Radiant Technology=-
NRTradiant.com |
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Blueridge company
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Posts:211
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| 05/20/2009 10:21 AM |
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You are talking about a staple up system.
You are concerned about spearing the unseen pipes w/ floor nails.
You are at the beginning of the design phase.
you one day want to move to geothermal heat pump.
I would suggest you consider placing the radiant on top of the sub floor with in the building envelope.
Reason;
Lower delivered water temperature requirements than staple up designs = better fuel efficiency for condensing boiler and will support future geo system temps.
You can see the pipe when nailing the flooring. I would consider a high quality floating floor as alternative to traditional nail down.
Install is a little easier than drilling a bazillion and two 1 3/8 holes, weaving and stapling pipe/plates upside down.
You are freed up to use something like RHT floor panel system with less expensive heat plates. It is a 3/4 inch surface mounted system, you can make 300 foot 1/2 pex runs with out problems. There are other similar systems out there as well.
In the tile areas you can now use a thin dry pack mortar base, wonder board or other tile substrate to attach the tiles to. No heat plates.
At the end of the day you will be ahead and well placed for your future heating options.
Dan
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Dan
BlueRidgeCompany.com |
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greeninsulation
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New Member
Posts:9
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| 05/20/2009 12:00 PM |
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| considered using 1 inch Crete Heat , put tubes into it and pour gypcrete over it? |
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Blueridge company
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Basic Member
Posts:211
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| 05/20/2009 1:02 PM |
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1 1/2 Topping pour of cement or gype crete is probably the best if your joist structure can handle an additional 17 lbs sq ft. Easy install, thermal mass low temp friendly. You will insulate from under side still. Staple pipe directly to plat form. Or use plastic 6 mill slip then staple (as some others prefer.....).
Dan |
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Dan
BlueRidgeCompany.com |
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Kim Paynter
Registered Users
New Member
Posts:3
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| 05/20/2009 6:44 PM |
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Great info people!! THANKS. this is extremly usefull information to have and right at the appropriat time. I was just over to see the I-Beam supplier today and get them working on my plans I will have to ask him about supporting the extra weight. I emagin the materials cost would be fairly similar concidering I am doing it all from the ground up. And I will be doing the labor.
THanks again for these tips.
Kim
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Kim Paynter
Registered Users
New Member
Posts:3
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| 08/02/2009 11:02 AM |
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Sorry for the long delay I have been off working and made several design changes. Found out that I could go with a basement after all and have spoken with the I-beam supplier and I am good to carry an additional 20lb/sq ft. on the main and second floor.
I'm figuring on 2" of insulation under the slab and putting my PEX into the slab for the basement, on the main and second floor were looking at some areas of tile and others with hardwood floor. Putting tile on 1-1/2" of concrete sounds pretty straight forward when I hear the term Gypcrete I am a little confused can anyone advise me just as to what Gypcrete is? Is it some kind of concrete I mix on my own? And somewhere on this site I was reading that having the concrete under the floor was going to make it less forgiving and I am wondering if Gypcrete is pretty much the same thing or is it a flexable system?
Kim
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