Please remind me why I wanted a radiant floor.

nibs

Just came in from troweling off a particularly cantankerous section of the floor slab, (kitchen) gonna have to get back on it in 1/2 hr at least once more tonight. May have to pull a midnight special, at my advanced age argh.

Zman

It will be soooooo nice when done!

HVACNUT

My radiant kitchen floor is my favorite room in winter. I did it myself in '06 and you'll be happy when its done. As long as it was designed and installed correctly.
The only drawback is my doggies water bowl evaporates.

GroundUp

I've had all the material to convert my whole house from scorched air to radiant on a pallet in my shop since March, but cannot for the life of me find the time or ambition to make it happen. Perhaps the first cold snap will light a proverbial fire under my arse, or perhaps that same cold snap will add to my already overwhelming schedule.... Stands to reason though, it's not often a mechanic drives a top of the line car- so to speak. Too busy fixing everyone else's junk to worry about your own

nibs

The mechanic always drives the worst car.
When I was building boats in the '70's planned on calling my next boat the 'Cobblers Child'.

FranklinD

@nibs is correct: I’ve been a mechanic for 15 years now and I drive a 99 Camry with 385,000 or so miles on it now (all original except front brakes and timing belt). I now drive it 6 miles per day as a commuter. It’s ready for retirement. I despise working on it (so I don’t)....The cobbler’s children go shoeless.

NYplumber

Radiant when done is awesome. We had a 50 degree night here and with the home being very old and poorly insulated I couldnt help but bypass the ODR to run the boiler for a few minutes and take the chill out of the home. The bathroom radiant walls were nice and toasty for the morning shower!

Solid_Fuel_Man

Once you've experienced well done radiant, you would be hard pressed to ever like anything else.....wood stoves are kinda like that too.....but wood fired radiant even better!

NYplumber

> @Solid_Fuel_Man said:
> Once you've experienced well done radiant, you would be hard pressed to ever like anything else.....wood stoves are kinda like that too.....but wood fired radiant even better!

yes, if you have a biomass boiler and radiant heat, you will be tinkering all day. Even my non technical clients go down to tinker!

GroundUp

I'm a wood fired radiant guy.... It's an unhealthy addiction

nibs

I wanted to go wood fired, but in 10 years will be in mid 80's & SWMBO struggling with lumps o wood in snow that she is too old to shovel is not gonna work, she will make me get up and get the wood myself.

Solid_Fuel_Man

All my wood (3 full cord) is brought inside in the fall, piled in the nice toasty boiler room. I burn one fire a day and the control system takes care of the tinkering. Mind you it's taken several years and more hours than I care to think about. But this is the end product.

GroundUp

Nice looking setup @Solid_Fuel_Man ! I gotta ask though, what's with the dual mixing valves on the radiant?

nibs

Solid, if I put nothing else in my boiler room, it would hold 3.7 cords, wall to wall ceiling high.

GroundUp

Mine is outside in a 20x40 lean on my shop, I can neatly stack 10 full cord in there along the sides and still have warm parking for my truck and trailer in there. Underground lines to the house serving an A/W HX and 30 plate for DHW as well as a 20 plate for snowmelt in my front sidewalk, insulated 1" copper through the shop wall to a unit heater and 40 plate in series (radiant floor), underground to another detached garage through a unit heater and 20 plate in series (radiant floor). About 6800 sq ft total plus DHW and 200 sq ft of sidewalk. I'm hoping to change some things around this fall yet and close the underground loops to minimize ground loss from constant circulation