Radiant floors
Radiant floors, laid out before the concrete.
Warm water runs through tubing in or under the floor, so heat rises evenly from the surface instead of blowing across the room.
A good fit when
Stone, tile or wood floors that feel cold in winter
Large rooms and tall glass where air heat rises away
A slab or subfloor not yet poured or laid
Living areas where you don't want registers
What it includes
What goes into a radiant floor.
Everything below is drawn before work starts and checked again at start-up.
Room-by-room heat-loss calculation
How much heat each room loses on the coldest night, from the plans and the glass.
Tubing layout drawn to the floor
Spacing and loop lengths follow the slab, the subfloor and the floor finish.
Manifolds, located and labeled
In a place you can reach, with every loop named to match the drawing.
Pressure test before cover
The tubing is held under pressure while the concrete is poured, and the reading is written down.
Boiler, heat pump or both
Water mixed to a low temperature, with pumps and valves sized for the loops.
Controls
Zone thermostats, slab sensors and an outdoor sensor, set up so the floor leads the weather.
Balancing at start-up
Each loop is adjusted until the rooms warm evenly.
Questions about this work
Can radiant floors heat the whole house?
Often they carry most of the heating. Air still does the jobs water can't: ventilation, filtering, and cooling where you want it. We say plainly in the drawings what each system is doing, so no room depends on something it can't deliver.
Why are radiant floors slow to respond?
A slab holds a lot of heat, which is why the floor feels even. It also means you don't turn it up for an evening. We set the controls to read the slab and the outdoor temperature, so the floor adjusts ahead of the weather and not after it.
Can you add radiant heat to an existing house?
Yes, most easily when a floor is coming up anyway. Under a slab or beneath a subfloor are both possible. Over a finished floor is rarer and adds height, so we look at the doors and stairs before we suggest it.
Does altitude change the equipment?
It does. Gas burners are adjusted for thin air, some fan and pump equipment is selected differently, and combustion is measured with an analyzer at start-up rather than assumed. At roughly 8,000 feet, a system sized for sea level is the wrong system.
Tell us about the house.
A few lines about the site and the schedule are enough to start.