Radiant heat placed in between floor joists from the crawlspace?

[LaydeeBug]

Can my long held dream of heated floors come true? I wanted them in my bathroom sooooo badly, and now I hear that the heaters (or heating pads) can be placed between the floor joists. As I always ask, does anyone have any experience with this?

[rusty quoin]

1. The radiant heating that is run along the joists is heated water in plastic tubes.

It requires a whole system.

If you mean electric, they are layed over the subfloor. I thought of installing it, and still have the option to do it in my dining room which is still subfloor.

A bathroom is a perfect use for electric, in fact I will be redoing 2 baths, and most certainly will use it there... warm feet in the winter...ahhhh.

As far as I know, Frank Lloyd Wright was the first to use such a system. He found out that if you heated objects that people are in contact with, like floors, there is less a need to heat open spaces.

In the early 2000s the guy I worked for along with his plumber, used radiant floor heating a lot. It was a hot water system, superior to forced air, like radiators of the past (forced air dries things out including you).

But I say go for electric floor radiant heat in your bath, if that's the system you are talking about.

[LaydeeBug]

2. Alas, my bathroom is already done, and I don't have radiant flooring in there

It is the size of a postage stamp, so that *might* change. One day. In the meantime, my "not yet a kitchen" has sub floor and I really want radiant flooring in there, but my contractor friend (I have not hired him, and probably won't as I like to keep my friends) said it would raise the floor a lot.

I am willing to do this trade.

[rusty quoin]

3. Okay. I didn't know that it would raise the floor a lot. I'm not willing to do that.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

4. IMO, the best way to do radiant and tile is to embed the wires/mat in self leveling concrete.

If you are going over wood subfloor, the self leveling concrete (SLC) has be, IIRC, 1/2 inch (less over concrete or cement board) and include mesh. It makes a great tile substrate so this can be in lieu of 1/2 inch cement board.

The increase in height doesn't have to be that bad.

I tried the "one step" method of embedding the wires in thinset as you tile but didn't have good luck. I prefer to work on a clean slate.

Here's one I did for a friend/customer. It was over plywood so we used mesh. The white spots are latex primer sprayed on the mash and mat.







Another customer. Freshly poured. It sets in about 45 minutes.