Tubing Installation Condensed
We furnish an 80 page radiant floor heating installation manual and a customized tubing layout per your floor plans with every complete radiant floor heating package. Sample layouts are shown below.
Tubing Installed in a Slab
Installing radiant floor heating tubing in a slab is very simple and straightforward. The conductivity of concrete allows your PEX tubing to be spaced as far apart as 24 inches, although wider spacing could furnish enough heat, experience has shown that the output is too uneven. Our general design guidelines for radiant floor heating specify 12 inch spacing in most cases.
Some Guidelines to Follow:
- Run tubing parallel to the wall with the greatest heat loss
- Hold tubing back 12 ins. from all exterior walls
- Tie tubing every 3 feet or less, using plastic tie wraps or foam staples
- Do not tie tubing in end of loop
- Always use a vapor barrier under the slab
- If using insulation under the slab, put vapor barrier under the insulation
- If ground water comes within 3 feet of slab, insulate under slab
- Edge insulation is always required
- Insulation on outside of basement and footing walls is recommended
- Leave the tubing and wire in bottom of slab, do not pull it up
Tubing Attached to the Sub Floor
There are several methods of installing and attaching the tubing to the sub floor. Twenty plus years ago we installed our first radiant floor system by simply driving nails on the side of the floor joists and hanging the tubing on them. Over these years we have sold thousands of radiant systems installed using virtually every method including gypsum-based underlayment, tubing half clamps, hand and air staple, metal pans and grooved sub-floors. Here is a list of the different radiant floor heating installation methods and the advantages and disadvantages.
Lightweight concrete. This approach is popular because it makes tubing installation easy and creates some thermal mass for retaining and releasing heat. It is also expensive as it requires a specialized contractor to do the pour. When done correctly, it can be an effective installation method. On the other hand, we have seen situations where the gypsum-based underlayment has failed and would encourage anyone intending to go this route to do due diligence on the contractor and whether your flooring manufacturer's warranty is good over gypsum based products.
The standard air stapler is heavy, requires a compressor and is hard to get into tight places, also some staples can damage the tubing. The air-powered stapler offered below is only 4 lbs. and is designed for PEX radiant floor heating installation.
The metal pans spread the heat out evenly and have a high heat transfer rate; however, many people complain of too much noise and they are quite expensive. Our experience is that a reflective barrier with insulation works nearly as well at lower cost.
The plastic pans work well but are relatively expensive and add nothing to improve the system.
The grooved sub floor is increasing in popularity. It is fairly expensive, but can be used in place of a subfloor. These systems heat up and cool down much faster than concrete, gypcrete or staple-up applications and can be more prone to streaking.
The tube talons or half clamps > they are inexpensive, and you only need a hammer to install them, but they take the tubing away from the subfloor.
The hand operated stapler has proven to be the favorite choice of one time radiant floor heating installers, and is specifically designed for heating applications of PEX tubing.
Manually operated radiant tubing stapler and staples available for purchase with every package for wood floors.
THE PNEUMATIC CLIP GUN SYSTEM is a fast, easy method for installing PEX and other types of plastic pipe. It's as easy to load as the manual stapler, it shoots two galvanized nails through a polyethylene clip and 5/8 into the wood, securing the tubing in place. The stapler weighs only 4 lb., even with a full strip of 20 clips. This is the tool of choice for builders and contractors who install radiant floor heating. Neighbors who end up putting radiant heat in both their houses can split the cost. Yes, it does happen.
