cold basement/cold floors

Dan M

As I remoldeled my home I replaced the old gravity piping with 1" copper pipe and insulated the pipes well. The one zone hot water ( weil GV5) system heats the radiators very well and I have alot more head room in the basement. The basement is dramatically cooler. The old pipes were exposed apparently contributing to heating the basement. The basement is storage and a exercise room so I dont really mind it being cooler.The downside is that the basement temperature is effecting the first floor temps. The Hardwood floors (that are in every room of the 1st floor) are cold and seem to contribute to cooling the rooms (or at least making them feel cool). What are some ways to deal with this ? Should I eventually add heat to the basement or would insulating the basement ceiling help? Should I remove the pipe insulation ?. With hardwood floors do I need to heat the basement to help the first floor. Sounds like a great application for radient, but I already have large cast iron radiator system

Thanks

dan

Robert O'Connor_7

cold floor

radiant is the best but be careful the old floor may not be up to it. sometimes, depending on the moisture content of the wood, it separates and leaves obvious spaces between the boards. why not install some heat in the basement or insulate the basement ceiling, or get the moisture content of the wood checked & if OK radiant. By the way, i have both. I reused my existing one pipe steam rads, coverted them to forced hot water rads w/ TRV's & stapled up the tubing underneath. the best thing i ever did to this 100 yr. old house. Now my 2yr. old walks around barefoot when it's -2 outside. The t stat is in my b-rm. that does not have radiant (2nd floor) the rads are on a monoflo loop. The rads on the main floor are suplementle.

Cliff Brady

First floor warming/basement ceiling radiant

is my first choice, after insulating the basement walls. you should see some improvement after insulating the basement, in the basement anyway. It may help reduce the stacking effect of heat rising to the upper floor.

I am thinking of doing the first floor warming/basement ceiling radiant but I am not sure of the best method for accomplishing both these tasks in one install. Any suggestions?

Joe Furfaro

cold basements/cold floors

Robert,

I am in pretty much the same positon. Cold first floor, hot water rads throughout. Can you tell me if you used plates on your staple up?. What type of tubing? I was also considering getting some radiant installed but am not sure if I have to go with plates. This would mean a bit of work as the ceiling needs to be prepared. I will go ahead with it though if it will make that big a difference. I have read many posts on this site regarding plates versus just staple-up and still am undecided. What about just using the staple-up (without plates) for floor warming and keeping the rads going. Appreciate your opinion.
Joe.