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Posted
5 hours ago, thunderlounge said:


The past 18 months I’ve been doing a ton of research on various things and ideas for when I build. Radiant floors was one of those, and how I came across warmboard.

Kinda neat. They make subfloors with the pipe grooves laid out for your floorplan. You can retrofit or new construction. 

Seems to have some advantages I would like versus the ones in a concrete foundation. Easier to fix an issue being one, another being better temperature response, as well as it running at a lower temperature. I also like not running a furnace and not having hvac ducting (mini-splits for A/C.)

You can have zones, smart thermostats, and those common things.

Plus radiant heat just feels better.

When it comes to flooring, most flooring is compatible, but not all. You have to look at the product and see. It also is not all products from a company.  A company’s entry level may not be, but a level or two higher may be fine. I had thought about tile, but that makes repairs a little harder over LVP. Plus if it gets wet it wont soak up water like hardwood, it won’t turn to mush like some laminate, and it won’t soak up water and create potential mold issues like carpet.

There is electric in-floor as well, but seems to me that it’s better suited for a single room, used occasionally. Plus electric isn’t getting cheaper. I’m remodeling my bathroom this fall, and putting in electric in-floor. Better option than the space heater she just has to have now. 

I'll be interested to hear what the expert says when he visits. I met a guy online who is a premiere installer for Arctic Hydronic Heating and his company is about an hour and a half away in Missoula. Arctic systems both heat and cool but their heat pump stops working at -22 degrees. The house has electric baseboard heaters currently, and he may recommend keeping them as a backup. Also, since we are gutting so much of the house, he may recommend ceiling or walls over floors due to some benefits when cooling - I just don't know. Also, I will want to install an ERV system since they are generally recommended and we have radon levels which are within limits but still pretty high.

For the basement apartment, I bet he recommends a minisplit down there rather than using radiant heat. As far as warmboards go, we won't be using it as a subfloor but they and some other manufacturers have systems that sit above an existing subfloor. So, we will end up going with one of those systems. I know we aren't going to pour gypcrete for a bunch of reasons.

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