Best Way To Heat Concrete Floors

How to add floor heating over existing concrete.

Best way to heat concrete floors. For example a bathroom on a slab would feature a layer of cork or synthetic cork underlayment on top of the concrete subfloor followed by the electric heating element and topped with the flooring substrate. Slab heating mats and cables can be installed directly in the concrete when it is being poured. Keep cold air out warm air in. Learn why radiant heat in your concrete floor may or may not best for you.

Typically radiant heating systems warm floors to temperatures of 75 to 80 degrees f. Concrete floor heating has many advantages over other types of heating systems. I do think concrete floor heat is a great way to go. As warm water circulates through the tubing or as electricity warms the heating elements the concrete flooring turns into an efficient inconspicuous radiator.

In fact the problem could well be your floor especially in a room at ground level or worse yet in the basement. Luckily there are ways to combat this chilly predicament. For new construction homes there is yet another way to heat up a cold slab and it starts before the concrete has even hardened. Check out this article for a list of slab edge insulation solutions and episode 125 for my interview with henry edney of maxraft.

Concrete provides quick heat up times and retains heat well even storing the warmth produced by solar gain making a heated polished concrete floor a great option to improve the comfort and warmth of your home. Like sand concrete is an ideal carrier of radiant heat because of its inherent thermal mass. Still another method that can add several inches to the thickness of the floor is to attach foam insulating panes to the. The most common application however is an in floor heating system installed between the finished concrete slab and the flooring above.

While hot water and air based radiant. Due to their high thermal mass concrete floors are ideal to be heated by an underfloor heating system. By using an infrared thermal imaging camera an experienced professional can detect the differentiating thermal patterns of buried heating pipes which enables them to pinpoint the exact piping locations. Offering 20 watts per square foot the slab heat mats are ideal if you d like concrete to be the final flooring surface.

You can step onto a warm and inviting floor even one built on a concrete slab by adding in floor heating. Floors of ceramic stone or concrete are the worst culprits with hardwood a runner up. Up to 80 of heat loss in a floor slab occurs around the edges.