Retrofit radiant heat (Warmboard)

[Triplegreen500]

Very cool stuff.

My garage(mahal) is built as a bank barn design. Facing the house, I have 3 single-bay doors, each one is 2 cars deep. Above that, I have an unfinished 2 bedroom apartment - subfloor, bare studs, enough electric for lighting and workbench outlets, no ceiling, no insulation. Currently I use the "living room" area as my motorcycle shop - workbench, cabinets, pneumatic motorcycle lift, hydraulic press, drill press, etc - the "kitchen" is bike storage, one bedroom is bike parts, one bedroom is car parts, the bathroom is car parts and shop compressor. Behind that space, on its own slab, is my 40x40 car workshop which is insulated but not climate controlled.

This warmboard would make a very slick way to not only heat the apartment when the time comes, but I can imagine it would also help insulate against the garage-door and vehicle noise from down below. I'll have to look into it!

 

[747mopar]

Hopefully this weekend is good to me because this project following a tile job in the basement has my knees begging for mercy! The Warmboard is all down minus the foyer which has a decent bit of tile to be pulled up... then scrape the floor clean. Project temporarily stalled at the stairs, I forgot that some of them extend over the basement wall and support a small portion of the kitchen floor so you guessed it... cutting the bottoms off in place so I could slide everything under them!

 

[747mopar]

Ready for flooring!

Foyer.

Living room.

Here's the router templates for anywhere you need to modify the routing, nothing fancy but they cover ever possibility quite well.

The PEX was a breeze, you just walk the PEX in with your foot with someone hammering it down in with a rubber mallet behind you... It fits tight!

 

[Don selleck]

this is that house i was talking about miles of that stuff there putting real hardwood over it will be interesting nailing it down.

 

[hunt2elk]

this is that house i was talking about miles of that stuff there putting real hardwood over it will be interesting nailing it down. View attachment 1069415 View attachment 1069416 View attachment 1069417

How do you go about nailing a solid wood floor down over that stuff?

 

[Don selleck]

don't hit the pex. they plan on pressurising with air so if they do they'll know.

 

[hunt2elk]

don't hit the pex. they plan on pressurising with air so if they do they'll know.

I think I would be using the stuff that free floats and just snaps together.....

 

[HawkRod]

don't hit the pex. they plan on pressurising with air so if they do they'll know.

Wow, unless the floor installers can see the lines that sounds about impossible!

 

[Toxic Orange 493]

this is that house i was talking about miles of that stuff there putting real hardwood over it will be interesting nailing it down. ]

Is this being done on top of a concrete slab also? Do you will put a subfloor down overtop of this before the hardwood? Just curious what the hardwood gets nailed to.

 

[747mopar]

this is that house i was talking about miles of that stuff there putting real hardwood over it will be interesting nailing it down. View attachment 1069415 View attachment 1069416 View attachment 1069417

I'm doing the same only stapling.Their instructions call for installing the hardwood directly over the Warmboard opposite direction as the PEX so your looking right at the PEX as you work, you'd have to be extremely careless to hit a line. Also the green coating on the Warmboard is to help with adhesives, if it must be laid inline with the PEX gluing is another option if your concerned about hitting a line.

 

[747mopar]

How do you go about nailing a solid wood floor down over that stuff?

The aluminum is soft, I've been driving deck screws through it like it's nothing. Nails and staples pierce it easily.

 

[747mopar]

don't hit the pex. they plan on pressurising with air so if they do they'll know.

Yes, that's my next step. Manifold is already hooked up just need to install a few fittings.

 

[747mopar]

Wow, unless the floor installers can see the lines that sounds about impossible!

I'll post the flooring going down, you'll look at it and say... Hell anybody can do that lol.

 

[747mopar]

Is this being done on top of a concrete slab also? Do you will put a subfloor down overtop of this before the hardwood? Just curious what the hardwood gets nailed to.

Go to page 1, there's pictures. Treated lumber strips on 16" centers Tapconed to the concrete with 1 1/2" foam covering the whole slab then the Warmboard. Engineered Hardwood goes directly over the Warmboard and it's done.

I'll have to go back and look up the exact number again but they've got millions of feet of this Warmboard installed all over the globe with every imaginable type up covering with no problems. I chose engineered hardwood over hardwood because it's more stable and at 1/2" thick it's a very poor insulator meaning less resistance for the heat to get to where it's supposed to.

I'll also be doing a few areas in tile as well. They show many options, Hardybacker board, Ditra membrane, mesh, etc.

 

[oldbee]

Almost go time! Received my delivery today, hoping to start on it this weekend. On a side note..... My 1500 RAM hauled the 1,500 lbs like it was nothing, man do I love this truck!

After them sending me a sample it lived up to expectations except the shipping company! Nothing that really affects the functionality of it but damn.... some of the damage is borderline retarted!View attachment 1057196 View attachment 1057197 View attachment 1057199

Da barn looks great in that view! You parked the p/u on the wife's grass(!) how'd she like that? Lol

 

[747mopar]

Da barn looks great in that view! You parked the p/u on the wife's grass(!) how'd she like that? Lol

Honestly I bitch more about the grass then she does, pisses me off when someone trashes my yard leaving me with mowing dirt and rocks!

 

[Toxic Orange 493]

Go to page 1, there's pictures. Treated lumber strips on 16" centers Tapconed to the concrete with 1 1/2" foam covering the whole slab then the Warmboard. Engineered Hardwood goes directly over the Warmboard and it's done.

Got it. I should have looked at the Warmboard more before I asked the question. I tought if you were nailing hardwood down, you had to go through 16" centers under the Warmboard. I did not realize the Warmboard is OSB with the layer of aluminum on it.

 

[Don selleck]

its an 1" 1/8" thick sub floor what the builder told me panel was. you just to be smarter than the wood floor your nailing too. it's not that hard. pay attention.

 

[747mopar]

Update, way slower than I had figured! Maybe it's the brief pause before pulling the trigger to take a second look at the plumbing.. man would that suck! Anyways you can see how easy it is to avoid hitting the PEX.

Here was the only hiccup, the tung landed right on one of loops that ran the opposite direction. Fortunately the flooring has fake square walnut plugs so I just made a few extra and screwed it down . If it wasn't for the plug option this board would have just been glued down.

Should wrap up the hardwood tomorrow and move on to hooking this mess up for some heat

 

[747mopar]

Water is flowing and man is this nice! Set the water temp to 110 degrees then kicked back and enjoyed, so much better in here! Still need to wrap up a few things but I can at least say it works really well without any snags.