Radiant problem!?

adambuild

We have a client that is looking to have us install radiant in the floor of his recently gutted master bathroom. The problem is that in order to cut cost he wanted us to leave the existing 4" thick, tile embedded floorand install radiant over it! I told him that we would have a problem with the existing 4" slab drawing too much of the heat away from the new tile above and that there was also no way to insulate underneath that monster mass of concrete! I also told him that even if we did somehow install tubing over the 4" slab, the new floor height would be way too high! Any thoughts!?

kevin

why..

is it people always look for short cuts? This sounds like a nightmare. Could you opt to put it in the walls instead? Maybe a towel warmer too? I would not install it over the existing tile, no way...kpc

adambuild

No walls, no way! The customer wants his toes warm! I made the "mistake" of showing him in his mind's eye what it would be like to go into the bathroom barefoot and have his toes all toasty!

kevin

How about...

some electric heat matting? It will take the edge off. Add the main heat source some other way...kpc

tombig

Is this in a basement? If you've got four inches to play with,and it's such a small room, Bust it out and get a decent thermal mass for your infloor installation. No Brainer.

Josh M.

Just do the heat loss calculation. Then give him both an option of towel warmer and radiant floor installed over the existing. Let him decide if he wants to pay the extra month to month for the toasty toes. Lets be honest the only two real options you have are install over existing or another heat emitter cause I know you aren't going to talk your homeowner into ripping up the cement. Homeowners can be so stupid when it comes to budget. They never think of the big picture.