Heated Concrete Floor Pipe

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.

Heated concrete floor pipe.

The workers in the photograph at page top where our concrete slab. Heating concrete floors hydronically isn t a new technology. 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 decision. As the floor becomes warm the room is heated evenly and efficiently.

Either through pipes carrying hot water embedded in or directly below the floor or via electric mats in or below the floor. Pex tubing is installed beneath the floor and heats the home from the ground up. Radiant heat is growing in popularity and is now the preferred heating system in new homes. Like veins it transports warm fluid and the heat output throughout your floors turning them into comfortable warm surfaces.

Thousands of tract homes built at levittown on long island and in the san francisco bay area during the 1950s also used a system that circulated. Due to it s density and low conductivity concrete retains heat very well. Tubing is an essential part of every hydronic radiant heating system. In the 1930s architect frank lloyd wright piped hot water through the concrete floors of many of his structures.

Instead of blowing hot air through a vent or pumping hot water to a baseboard radiator along the wall radiant heat warms up the entire floor. Radiant heat provides more comfort throughout the home than standard baseboard heat. With tubing a circuit length of 300 is standard but circuits anywhere from 250 up to 350 are within the range recommended by the radiant panel association. The heat is made possible in two ways.

Basic materials for radiant floor heat installation in a slab. Again the concrete codes define the limitations of pipe spacing pipe diameter and placement depth it ll be a rare radiant designer that owns a copy of the concrete codes yet the concrete codes will take precedent over the heating design due to structural safety concerns. There s two basic types of concrete floor heating hydronic and electric. Radiant heating system design or installation mistakes that must be avoided.

Once you have determined the actual combined length of pipe you will need the next step is to determine the number of loops or circuits of pipe. 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.