Old flooring removed, pretty clean and flat overall. Had to bust out and re-pour a 4x4x46" section of concrete in the doorway to the living room (an addition to the original house) since it was a good quarter inch too high. Went to tile class, I'm taking the teacher's advise and skipping the cork. Got smart when it came time to load up the tile- had them forklift it on a pallet into the old Sprinter. After going thru 3 rounds of samples we finally decided on a 18x18 tile in what I'd call a "bold" finish for my modest house. At $1.50 per s/f I went ahead and bought enough to do the bathroom floor. Taking pics as I go, will post the series when done. Thanks for everyone's advice!
I've been told it can be ridiculously expensive to heat a room with electric through the floor. You generally have to leave it on all the time. Just what I've been told. Looks like you have everything in order. Good luck
It's not the power bill that kills you, it's the actual floor heat. Had someone want a quote on putting electric floor heat in their entire basement. Materials alone were damn near $10k.
A custom mat from Nuheat will run ~$1000 for a master bath. Plus measure. Plus install. Plus thermostat. Plus a dedicated circuit.
This was for *just* the raw heating wire and a stat and relays. Was going to pull 40A 240v IIRC. I don't think they even got a quote on pouring the floor over it, when I told them what materials alone would cost they decided throw rugs and slippers were a more wise investment.
I've seen quite a few concrete floor heating systems, all of them have been some type of liquid through plastic lines incapsulated in the concrete. At least in this area.
You need better plumpers. The hydronic systems put in up here work slicker 'n greased snot on a slide. Landscape & tree guy I did work for had an outdoor wood boiler feeding the hydronic systems in both his house and the shop. Terribly inefficient with the 400' run uphill to the house, but free fuel gives you some wiggle room on how efficient the system has to run.
I've done a few DIY for myself and friends. Preparation of subfloor is key. Chalk lines for layout. layout tiles dry for mockup of pattern. Take your time on cuts. I call those the money cuts makes job look nice. Like R Acree said youtube is a great source of info. Goodluck and have fun but don't drink too many beers while laying tile and using power tools.
It easier to use a laser. You never cover your lines then. Under cut all your jambs. also measure your tiles. Make sure they are all 17 7/8" or whatever. if they are off by a 1/16" and you are doing 1/8" joints your joints are going to go away or expand so plan for it.
Concrete is a heat sink. takes a while to get up to temp and if you go too warm, it will take a while to drop.
~40'x60' pole building with ~16' ceilings. "In floor" electric heat, but the heating grid is 10" below the 4" concrete floor......... There are (10) 15a 230v single phase circuits to it. His barn was about 35 degrees when i was over there last week beacause he doesnt turn it on.
Apparently the guy that built it(the previous owner), had been to the Connecsus Energy(the electrical utility) shop, and thats what they had, so he figured it must have been a good way to go. I asked him if he set the stat at 60, would it keep the building that warm without running nonstop. He said he didnt think so. The first winter they were in the house, his bill was about $300 to heat the shop. It's been off ever since.
I'm not trying to heat the whole house, just don't want to step on cold tile in the morning (hard enough for me to get out of bed already!) I was planning on just heating the main walk path in the kitchen (maybe 30 s/f) but found a smoking deal on an 80 s/f kit.
The last two installs I've done were "heated" installs Wish I had installed heat on earlier installs I've done. Dont try to heat with it, just use it to knock the chill off in cooler months at a really low setting and its not expensive. I used a dimmer control to regulate heat. I recommend cork over a slab. Works good as a isolation membrane so tiles aren't as likely to crack over time if floor moves some. It Insulates too so the heat doesnt go as much into slab.
