new floor radiant heating material?

ddenny

..hello

     has anyone heard about pex al pex? not sure of spelling. I want to put some tubes in the floor and was thinking about regular pex tubing but the parts store wants to sell me this other stuff I never heard of. he said it's aluminum with some kind of covering over it and is suppsed to be easier to install. I want to put the tubing on a slab. then pour some gypsum based concrete on top which of course raise the floor up a few inches. has anyone used this product. does it have a vapor barrier. will it hold up in a concrete floor?                         thank you

Mark Eatherton

Not new...

Been around for over 10 years.

Is not as "forgiving" to the abusive installer as PEX is, but is somewhat easier to work. Does not have the MEMORY that regular PEX has. Has been called Viagra pipe (once you use it, you'll understand where this tag came from).



THere have been some delamination issues in the field, but those conditions were thought to be caused by excess chlorine in the water, excess temperature, and excess velocity.



If you will be attaching it to steel mesh, I would NOT use it, because wherever it gets stepped on, it will dent, hence PEX is a better alternative.

Make sure you put down some sort of insulation prior to the tubing, or you will be sending heat downward, at an expensive pace.

Good luck in your endeavors.



ME

mjcromp

Pex-Al-Pex

Pretty much the only application I use P-A-P is in Warmboard. To use barrier tubing in the floor. Other O2 barrier pexes get their barrier from a coating on the outside of the tubing and with Warmboard on the aluminum it can sometimes cause noise as tubing expands and contracts. But as stated before be gentle with it as it does not like to be manhandled.