Installing Radiant Floor Heating Over Existing Concrete

It was poured over the ground without any barriers put down first.

Installing radiant floor heating over existing concrete.

Radiant heating works well with ceramic tile and vinyl but not with wood floors. You can step onto a warm and inviting floor even one built on a concrete slab by adding in floor heating. Some look like wire fencing that you roll out over the floor. 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 major requirement is being able to add another layer to the top of the floor. Quite simply concrete floor radiant heat is a system of pex tubes that carry hot water throughout a concrete floor or slab. There are several manufacturers of electric radiant floor heating systems that can be placed directly on top of an existing concrete slab. I have an existing 6 thick concrete workshop floor that measures 30 x30 square.

Installing pex tubing in a concrete slab is one of the easiest ways to install radiant heat. Radiant heat can be an electrical heating element embedded into a very thin concrete overlay then tiled carpeted or have wood flooring installed over it. Installing underfloor electric radiant heat. How to add floor heating over existing concrete.

Radiant heat warms a floor s surface through electric mats or water tubing installed on the surface of a concrete floor and encased in an additional thin layer of concrete or thinset. What is the best way to go about installing the in floor. The thermofin u heat transfer plates are easier to install if the fins are down against the subfloor and plywood sleepers on the fins. While hot water and air based radiant.

Heating up the mass of concrete is not necessarily a good thing when you want the entire surface floor to be warmed. I have 3 of space to use. Retrofitting radiant heating over a concrete floor is the hardest to do but it is possible. I don t particularly like them however because they re not very energy efficient.