You can step onto a warm and inviting floor even one built on a concrete slab by adding in floor heating.
Heating concrete floors water.
With a floor sensor controlling the radiant zone independent of the room s air temperature the floor maintains whatever baseline temperature you desire and the other heat sources if used can make up the difference.
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.
Warm water systems run hot water through pipes to create heat whereas electric underfloor heating heats wiring beneath the floor to generate heat.
For concrete floor radiant heating systems the warm water tubing or electric heating elements can either be embedded within the slab on grade anywhere from the bottom of the slab to within 2 inches of the surface depending on the design and installation technique or fastened to the top of a concrete subfloor and then covered with an overlay.
Tubing the water will circulate in tubing running beneath the floor in the concrete under wood floors or on a sub floor of wood precast concrete or slab on grade concrete.
While hot water and air based radiant.
Qualified system installer the company who designs the radiant floor heating system may also install the system.
How to add floor heating over existing concrete.
There are two types of radiant floor heating electric and water based systems.
All floor heating systems warm the floor with either electricity or hot water.
These heating systems are most often installed under ceramic tile in bathrooms but keep in mind that you can add heat under any type of flooring material see floor coverings and heated floors below.
Electric systems are simple and affordable.
Quite simply concrete floor radiant heat is a system of pex tubes that carry hot water throughout a concrete floor or slab.
Both provide heating in a room from the floor up for consistent efficient warmth.
So when installing a floor sensor thermistor never embed the thermistor itself into the concrete.